defend and warn you to my power. So help me God and all his saints.'[1]
Again, in the distribution of the produce of land, men dealt fairly and justly with each other; and in the material condition of the bulk of the people there is a fair evidence that the system worked efficiently and well. It worked well for the support of a sturdy high-hearted race, sound in body and fierce in spirit, and furnished with thews and sinews which, under the stimulus of those 'great shins of beef,'[2] their common diet, were the wonder of the age. 'What comyn folke in all this world,' says a state paper in 1515,[3] 'may compare with the comyns of England in riches, freedom, liberty, welfare, and all prosperity? What comyn folke is so mighty, so strong in the felde, as the comyns of England?' The relative numbers of the French and English armies which fought at Cressy and Agincourt
- ↑ Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. (edit. 1817), pp. 227–8.
- ↑ 'The artificers and husbandmen make most account of such meat as they may soonest come by and have it quickliest ready. Their food consisteth principally in beef, and such meat as the butcher selleth, that is to say, mutton, veal, lamb, pork, whereof the one findeth great store in the markets adjoining; besides souse, brawn, bacon, fruit, pies of fruit, fowls of sundry sorts, as the other wanteth it not at home by his own provision, which is at the best hand and commonly least charge. In feasting, this latter sort—I mean the husbandmen do exceed after their manner, especially at bridals and such odd meetings, where it is incredible to tell what meat is consumed and spent.'—Harrison's Description of England, p. 282.The Spanish nobles who came into England with Philip were astonished at the diet which they found among the poor.'These English,' said one of them, 'have their houses made of sticks and dirt, but they fare commonly so well as the king.'—Ibid. p. 313.
- ↑ State Papers, Hen. VIII. vol. ii. p. 10.
