for a reformation in this behold, so will I here conclude my
discourse on the estate of our churches.

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH.

[1577, Book III., Chapter 1; 1587, Book II., Chapter 6.]

The situation of our region, lying near unto the north, doth cause the
heat of our stomachs to be of somewhat greater force: therefore our bodies
do crave a little more ample nourishment than the inhabitants of the
hotter regions are accustomed withal, whose digestive force is not
altogether so vehement, because their internal heat is not so strong as
ours, which is kept in by the coldness of the air that from time to time
(especially in winter) doth environ our bodies.

It is no marvel therefore that our tables are oftentimes more plentifully
garnished than those of other nations, and this trade hath continued with
us even since the very beginning. For, before the Romans found out and
knew the way unto our country, our predecessors fed largely upon flesh and
milk, whereof there was great abundance in this isle,[130] because they
applied their chief studies unto pasturage and feeding. After this manner
also did our Welsh Britons order themselves in their diet so long as they
lived of themselves, but after they became to be united and made equal
with the English they framed their appetites to live after our manner, so
that at this day there is very little difference between us in our diets.

In Scotland likewise they have given themselves (of late years to speak
of) unto very ample and large diet, wherein as for some respect nature
doth make them equal with us, so otherwise they far exceed us in over much
and distemperate gormandise, and so ingross their bodies that divers of
them do oft become unapt to any other purpose than to spend their times in
large tabling and belly cheer. Against this pampering of their carcasses
doth Hector Boethius in his description of the country very sharply
inveigh in the first chapter of that treatise. Henry Wardlaw also,[131]
bishop of St. Andrews, noting their vehement alteration from competent
frugality into excessive gluttony to be brought out of England with James
the First (who had been long time prisoner there under the fourth and
fifth Henries, and at his return carried divers English gentlemen into his
country with him, whom he very honourably preferred there), doth
vehemently exclaim against the same in open Parliament holden at Perth,
1433,[132] before the