The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1 by Thomas Babington Macaulay (diy ebook reader .txt) π
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the beginning of the cold
weather; and, during several months, even the gentry tasted
scarcely any fresh animal food, except game and river fish, which
were consequently much more important articles in housekeeping
than at present. It appears from the Northumberland Household
Book that, in the reign of Henry the Seventh, fresh meat was
never eaten even by the gentlemen attendant on a great Earl,
except during the short interval between Midsummer and
Michaelmas. But in the course of two centuries an improvement had
taken place; and under Charles the Second it was not till the
beginning of November that families laid in their stock of salt
provisions, then called Martinmas beef.68
The sheep and the ox of that time were diminutive when compared
with the sheep and oxen which are now driven to our markets.69
Our native horses, though serviceable, were held in small esteem,
and fetched low prices. They were valued, one with another, by
the ablest of those who computed the national wealth, at not more
than fifty shillings each. Foreign breeds were greatly preferred.
Spanish jennets were regarded as the finest chargers, and were
imported for purposes of pageantry and war. The coaches of the
aristocracy were drawn by grey Flemish mares, which trotted, as
it was thought, with a peculiar grace, and endured better than
any cattle reared in our island the work of dragging a ponderous
equipage over the rugged pavement of London. Neither the modern
dray horse nor the modern race horse was then known. At a much
later period the ancestors of the gigantic quadrupeds, which all
foreigners now class among the chief wonders of London, were
brought from the marshes of Walcheren; the ancestors of Childers
and Eclipse from the sands of Arabia. Already, however, there was
among our nobility and gentry a passion for the amusements of the
turf. The importance of improving our studs by an infusion of new
blood was strongly felt; and with this view a considerable number
of barbs had lately been brought into the country. Two men whose
authority on such subjects was held in great esteem, the Duke of
Newcastle and Sir John Fenwick, pronounced that the meanest hack
ever imported from Tangier would produce a diner progeny than
could be expected from the best sire of our native breed. They
would not readily have believed that a time would come when the
princes and nobles of neighbouring lands would be as eager to
obtain horses from England as ever the English had been to obtain
horses from Barbary.70
The increase of vegetable and animal produce, though great, seems
small when compared with the increase of our mineral wealth. In
1685 the tin of Cornwall, which had, more than two thousand years
before, attracted the Tyrian sails beyond the pillars of
Hercules, was still one of the most valuable subterranean
productions of the island. The quantity annually extracted from
the earth was found to be, some years later, sixteen hundred
tons, probably about a third of what it now is.71 But the veins
of copper which lie in the same region were, in the time of
Charles the Second, altogether neglected, nor did any landowner
take them into the account in estimating the value of his
property. Cornwall and Wales at present yield annually near
fifteen thousand tons of copper, worth near a million and a half
sterling; that is to say, worth about twice as much as the annual
produce of all English mines of all descriptions in the
seventeenth century.72 The first bed of rock salt had been
discovered in Cheshire not long after the Restoration, but does
not appear to have been worked till much later. The salt which
was obtained by a rude process from brine pits was held in no
high estimation. The pans in which the manufacture was carried on
exhaled a sulphurous stench; and, when the evaporation was
complete, the substance which was left was scarcely fit to be
used with food. Physicians attributed the scorbutic and pulmonary
complaints which were common among the English to this
unwholesome condiment. It was therefore seldom used by the upper
and middle classes; and there was a regular and considerable
importation from France. At present our springs and mines not
only supply our own immense demand, but send annually more than
seven hundred millions of pounds of excellent salt to foreign
countries.73
Far more important has been the improvement of our iron works.
Such works had long existed in our island, but had not prospered,
and had been regarded with no favourable eye by the government
and by the public. It was not then the practice to employ coal
for smelting the ore; and the rapid consumption of wood excited
the alarm of politicians. As early as the reign of Elizabeth,
there had been loud complaints that whole forests were cut down
for the purpose of feeding the furnaces; and the Parliament had
interfered to prohibit the manufacturers from burning timber. The
manufacture consequently languished. At the close of the reign of
Charles the Second, great part of the iron which was used in this
country was imported from abroad; and the whole quantity cast
here annually seems not to have exceeded ten thousand tons. At
present the trade is thought to be in a depressed state if less
than a million of tons are produced in a year.74
One mineral, perhaps more important than iron itself, remains to
be mentioned. Coal, though very little used in any species of
manufacture, was already the ordinary fuel in some districts
which were fortunate enough to possess large beds, and in the
capital, which could easily be supplied by water carriage, It
seems reasonable to believe that at least one half of the
quantity then extracted from the pits was consumed in London. The
consumption of London seemed to the writers of that age enormous,
and was often mentioned by them as a proof of the greatness of
the imperial city. They scarcely hoped to be believed when they
affirmed that two hundred and eighty thousand chaldrons that is
to say, about three hundred and fifty thousand tons, were, in the
last year of the reign of Charles the Second, brought to the
Thames. At present three millions and a half of tons are required
yearly by the metropolis; and the whole annual produce cannot, on
the most moderate computation, be estimated at less than thirty
millions of tons.75
While these great changes have been in progress, the rent of land
has, as might be expected, been almost constantly rising. In some
districts it has multiplied more than tenfold. In some it has not
more than doubled. It has probably, on the average, quadrupled.
Of the rent, a large proportion was divided among the country
gentlemen, a class of persons whose position and character it is
most important that we. should clearly understand; for by their
influence and by their passions the fate of the nation was, at
several important conjunctures, determined.
We should be much mistaken if we pictured to ourselves the
squires of the seventeenth century as men bearing a close
resemblance to their descendants, the county members and chairmen
of quarter sessions with whom we are familiar. The modern country
gentleman generally receives a liberal education, passes from a
distinguished school to a distinguished college, and has ample
opportunity to become an excellent scholar. He has generally seen
something of foreign countries. A considerable part of his life
has generally been passed in the capital; and the refinements of
the capital follow him into the country. There is perhaps no
class of dwellings so pleasing as the rural seats of the English
gentry. In the parks and pleasure grounds, nature, dressed yet
not disguised by art, wears her most alluring form. In the
buildings, good sense and good taste combine to produce a happy
union of the comfortable and the graceful. The pictures, the
musical instruments, the library, would in any other country be
considered as proving the owner to be an eminently polished and
accomplished man. A country gentleman who witnessed the
Revolution was probably in receipt of about a fourth part of the
rent which his acres now yield to his posterity. He was,
therefore, as compared with his posterity, a poor man, and was
generally under the necessity of residing, with little
interruption, on his estate. To travel on the Continent, to
maintain an establishment in London, or even to visit London
frequently, were pleasures in which only the great proprietors
could indulge. It may be confidently affirmed that of the squires
whose names were then in the Commissions of Peace and Lieutenancy
not one in twenty went to town once in five years, or had ever in
his life wandered so far as Paris. Many lords of manors had
received an education differing little from that of their menial
servants. The heir of an estate often passed his boyhood and
youth at the seat of his family with no better tutors than grooms
and gamekeepers, and scarce attained learning enough to sign his
name to a Mittimus. If he went to school and to college, he
generally returned before he was twenty to the seclusion of the
old hall, and there, unless his mind were very happily
constituted by nature, soon forgot his academical pursuits in
rural business and pleasures. His chief serious employment was
the care of his property. He examined samples of grain, handled
pigs, and, on market days, made bargains over a tankard with
drovers and hop merchants. His chief pleasures were commonly
derived from field sports and from an unrefined sensuality. His
language and pronunciation were such as we should now expect to
hear only from the most ignorant clowns. His oaths, coarse jests,
and scurrilous terms of abuse, were uttered with the broadest
accent of his province. It was easy to discern, from the first
words which he spoke, whether he came from Somersetshire or
Yorkshire. He troubled himself little about decorating his abode,
and, if he attempted decoration, seldom produced anything but
deformity. The litter of a farmyard gathered under the windows of
his bedchamber, and the cabbages and gooseberry bushes grew close
to his hall door. His table was loaded with coarse plenty; and
guests were cordially welcomed to it. But, as the habit of
drinking to excess was general in the class to which he belonged,
and as his fortune did not enable him to intoxicate large
assemblies daily with claret or canary, strong beer was the
ordinary beverage. The quantity of beer consumed in those days
was indeed enormous. For beer then was to the middle and lower
classes, not only all that beer is, but all that wine, tea, and
ardent spirits now are. It was only at great houses, or on great
occasions, that foreign drink was placed on the board. The ladies
of
weather; and, during several months, even the gentry tasted
scarcely any fresh animal food, except game and river fish, which
were consequently much more important articles in housekeeping
than at present. It appears from the Northumberland Household
Book that, in the reign of Henry the Seventh, fresh meat was
never eaten even by the gentlemen attendant on a great Earl,
except during the short interval between Midsummer and
Michaelmas. But in the course of two centuries an improvement had
taken place; and under Charles the Second it was not till the
beginning of November that families laid in their stock of salt
provisions, then called Martinmas beef.68
The sheep and the ox of that time were diminutive when compared
with the sheep and oxen which are now driven to our markets.69
Our native horses, though serviceable, were held in small esteem,
and fetched low prices. They were valued, one with another, by
the ablest of those who computed the national wealth, at not more
than fifty shillings each. Foreign breeds were greatly preferred.
Spanish jennets were regarded as the finest chargers, and were
imported for purposes of pageantry and war. The coaches of the
aristocracy were drawn by grey Flemish mares, which trotted, as
it was thought, with a peculiar grace, and endured better than
any cattle reared in our island the work of dragging a ponderous
equipage over the rugged pavement of London. Neither the modern
dray horse nor the modern race horse was then known. At a much
later period the ancestors of the gigantic quadrupeds, which all
foreigners now class among the chief wonders of London, were
brought from the marshes of Walcheren; the ancestors of Childers
and Eclipse from the sands of Arabia. Already, however, there was
among our nobility and gentry a passion for the amusements of the
turf. The importance of improving our studs by an infusion of new
blood was strongly felt; and with this view a considerable number
of barbs had lately been brought into the country. Two men whose
authority on such subjects was held in great esteem, the Duke of
Newcastle and Sir John Fenwick, pronounced that the meanest hack
ever imported from Tangier would produce a diner progeny than
could be expected from the best sire of our native breed. They
would not readily have believed that a time would come when the
princes and nobles of neighbouring lands would be as eager to
obtain horses from England as ever the English had been to obtain
horses from Barbary.70
The increase of vegetable and animal produce, though great, seems
small when compared with the increase of our mineral wealth. In
1685 the tin of Cornwall, which had, more than two thousand years
before, attracted the Tyrian sails beyond the pillars of
Hercules, was still one of the most valuable subterranean
productions of the island. The quantity annually extracted from
the earth was found to be, some years later, sixteen hundred
tons, probably about a third of what it now is.71 But the veins
of copper which lie in the same region were, in the time of
Charles the Second, altogether neglected, nor did any landowner
take them into the account in estimating the value of his
property. Cornwall and Wales at present yield annually near
fifteen thousand tons of copper, worth near a million and a half
sterling; that is to say, worth about twice as much as the annual
produce of all English mines of all descriptions in the
seventeenth century.72 The first bed of rock salt had been
discovered in Cheshire not long after the Restoration, but does
not appear to have been worked till much later. The salt which
was obtained by a rude process from brine pits was held in no
high estimation. The pans in which the manufacture was carried on
exhaled a sulphurous stench; and, when the evaporation was
complete, the substance which was left was scarcely fit to be
used with food. Physicians attributed the scorbutic and pulmonary
complaints which were common among the English to this
unwholesome condiment. It was therefore seldom used by the upper
and middle classes; and there was a regular and considerable
importation from France. At present our springs and mines not
only supply our own immense demand, but send annually more than
seven hundred millions of pounds of excellent salt to foreign
countries.73
Far more important has been the improvement of our iron works.
Such works had long existed in our island, but had not prospered,
and had been regarded with no favourable eye by the government
and by the public. It was not then the practice to employ coal
for smelting the ore; and the rapid consumption of wood excited
the alarm of politicians. As early as the reign of Elizabeth,
there had been loud complaints that whole forests were cut down
for the purpose of feeding the furnaces; and the Parliament had
interfered to prohibit the manufacturers from burning timber. The
manufacture consequently languished. At the close of the reign of
Charles the Second, great part of the iron which was used in this
country was imported from abroad; and the whole quantity cast
here annually seems not to have exceeded ten thousand tons. At
present the trade is thought to be in a depressed state if less
than a million of tons are produced in a year.74
One mineral, perhaps more important than iron itself, remains to
be mentioned. Coal, though very little used in any species of
manufacture, was already the ordinary fuel in some districts
which were fortunate enough to possess large beds, and in the
capital, which could easily be supplied by water carriage, It
seems reasonable to believe that at least one half of the
quantity then extracted from the pits was consumed in London. The
consumption of London seemed to the writers of that age enormous,
and was often mentioned by them as a proof of the greatness of
the imperial city. They scarcely hoped to be believed when they
affirmed that two hundred and eighty thousand chaldrons that is
to say, about three hundred and fifty thousand tons, were, in the
last year of the reign of Charles the Second, brought to the
Thames. At present three millions and a half of tons are required
yearly by the metropolis; and the whole annual produce cannot, on
the most moderate computation, be estimated at less than thirty
millions of tons.75
While these great changes have been in progress, the rent of land
has, as might be expected, been almost constantly rising. In some
districts it has multiplied more than tenfold. In some it has not
more than doubled. It has probably, on the average, quadrupled.
Of the rent, a large proportion was divided among the country
gentlemen, a class of persons whose position and character it is
most important that we. should clearly understand; for by their
influence and by their passions the fate of the nation was, at
several important conjunctures, determined.
We should be much mistaken if we pictured to ourselves the
squires of the seventeenth century as men bearing a close
resemblance to their descendants, the county members and chairmen
of quarter sessions with whom we are familiar. The modern country
gentleman generally receives a liberal education, passes from a
distinguished school to a distinguished college, and has ample
opportunity to become an excellent scholar. He has generally seen
something of foreign countries. A considerable part of his life
has generally been passed in the capital; and the refinements of
the capital follow him into the country. There is perhaps no
class of dwellings so pleasing as the rural seats of the English
gentry. In the parks and pleasure grounds, nature, dressed yet
not disguised by art, wears her most alluring form. In the
buildings, good sense and good taste combine to produce a happy
union of the comfortable and the graceful. The pictures, the
musical instruments, the library, would in any other country be
considered as proving the owner to be an eminently polished and
accomplished man. A country gentleman who witnessed the
Revolution was probably in receipt of about a fourth part of the
rent which his acres now yield to his posterity. He was,
therefore, as compared with his posterity, a poor man, and was
generally under the necessity of residing, with little
interruption, on his estate. To travel on the Continent, to
maintain an establishment in London, or even to visit London
frequently, were pleasures in which only the great proprietors
could indulge. It may be confidently affirmed that of the squires
whose names were then in the Commissions of Peace and Lieutenancy
not one in twenty went to town once in five years, or had ever in
his life wandered so far as Paris. Many lords of manors had
received an education differing little from that of their menial
servants. The heir of an estate often passed his boyhood and
youth at the seat of his family with no better tutors than grooms
and gamekeepers, and scarce attained learning enough to sign his
name to a Mittimus. If he went to school and to college, he
generally returned before he was twenty to the seclusion of the
old hall, and there, unless his mind were very happily
constituted by nature, soon forgot his academical pursuits in
rural business and pleasures. His chief serious employment was
the care of his property. He examined samples of grain, handled
pigs, and, on market days, made bargains over a tankard with
drovers and hop merchants. His chief pleasures were commonly
derived from field sports and from an unrefined sensuality. His
language and pronunciation were such as we should now expect to
hear only from the most ignorant clowns. His oaths, coarse jests,
and scurrilous terms of abuse, were uttered with the broadest
accent of his province. It was easy to discern, from the first
words which he spoke, whether he came from Somersetshire or
Yorkshire. He troubled himself little about decorating his abode,
and, if he attempted decoration, seldom produced anything but
deformity. The litter of a farmyard gathered under the windows of
his bedchamber, and the cabbages and gooseberry bushes grew close
to his hall door. His table was loaded with coarse plenty; and
guests were cordially welcomed to it. But, as the habit of
drinking to excess was general in the class to which he belonged,
and as his fortune did not enable him to intoxicate large
assemblies daily with claret or canary, strong beer was the
ordinary beverage. The quantity of beer consumed in those days
was indeed enormous. For beer then was to the middle and lower
classes, not only all that beer is, but all that wine, tea, and
ardent spirits now are. It was only at great houses, or on great
occasions, that foreign drink was placed on the board. The ladies
of
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