upon their landed
estates, surrounded by those evidences of solid comfort which give
attractiveness to such life. The income of the squire was sufficient
to afford a moderate abundance for himself and his family, and between
him and the commons there was not a wide difference in this respect.
Among all classes of the people there was a spirit of liberality,
open and free; the practicality of the age was not inaccordant with
generous hospitality. To every man who asked it, there were free
fare and free lodging, and he might be sure of a bountiful board of
wholesome food. Bread, beef, and beer for dinner, and a mat of rushes
in an unoccupied corner of the hall, with a billet of wood for
a headrest, did not constitute luxurious entertainment, but were
regarded as elements of real comfort. Nor was the generous hospitality
proffered to strangers often abused; the statutes of the times kept
suspicious characters under such close notice, and were so repressive
of predatory and vicious instincts, that there was little occasion
for alarm such as is felt by the modern housewife in country districts
along much-travelled roads. The hour of rising, both summer and
winter, was four o'clock; breakfast was served at five, after which
the laborers went to their work and the gentlemen to their business.
Life lacked much of modern refinement, although it made up for this
lack in wholesomeness and heartiness. The large number of beggars in
the reign of Henry VIII. was due in part to the suppression of the
monasteries and the drying up of those springs of charity, and the
open-handed hospitality which had encouraged begging while relieving
distress. Upon the assumption that there was no excuse for an
able-bodied vagrant, the penalties imposed upon "sturdy beggars"
were severe. Such, in brief, was the state of English society at the
beginning of the modern era.

The influence of the Church was on the wane before the rupture with
the papacy was brought about by Henry VIII., and the laity were
beginning to assume the positions, liberties, and privileges which had
appertained to the clergy as the one scholarly and dominant class
of the kingdom. Under the new conditions of liberty in which we find
woman, there was no room for the continuance of even the forms of
chivalry. Idealized woman no longer existed; she had become practical.
Having sought a position of public activity, she had been recognized
as possessing the private rights of an indivi