irable order and absence of ill-doing
in the Queen's court. Her "Progresses" he approv'd of.

He treats "Of Armour and Munition;" but, says Harrison, "what hath the
longe blacke gowne to doo with glistering armour?" Still, he echoes the
universal lament of Ascham, the Statutes, etc., etc., over the decay of
Long-Bow shooting in England:--

"Certes the Frenchmen and Rutters deriding our new archerie in
respect of their corslets, will not let in open skirmish, if anie
leisure serue, to turne vp their tailes and crie: 'Shoote English,'
and all bicause our strong shooting is decaied and laid in bed. But
if some of our Englishmen now liued that serued king Edward the third
in his warres with France, the breech of such a varlet should haue
beene nailed to his bum with one arrow, and an other fethered in his
bowels, before he should haue turned about to see who shot the
first."

He then says that all the young fellows above eighteen or twenty wear a
dagger; noblemen wear swords or rapiers too, while "desperate cutters"
carry two daggers or two rapiers, "wherewith in euerie dronken fraie they
are knowen to work much mischief." And as trampers carry long staves, the
honest traveller is obliged to carry pistols, "to ride with a case of dags
at his saddlebow, or with some pretie short snapper," while parsons have
only a dagger or hanger, if they carry anything at all. The tapsters and
ostlers at inns are in league with the highway robbers,[48] who rob
chiefly at Christmas time, to get money to spend at dice and cards, till
they "be trussed vp in a Tiburne tippet."

Passing over the chapter on the "Navy," Queen Elizabeth's delight in it,
and the fast sailing of our ships, we come on a characteristic and
interesting chapter "Of Faires and Markets." This subject is within
Harrison's home-life, as a buyer; and it's on the buyer's side, which
includes the poor man's, that he argues. Magistrates don't see the
proclamation price and goodness of bread kept to; bodgers are allowd to
buy up corn and raise the price of it; to carry it home unsold, or to a
distant market, if they want more money than the buyer likes to give; nay,
they've leave to export it for the benefit of enemies and Papists abroad,
so as to make more profit. Again, pestiferous purveyors buy up eggs,
chickens, bacon, etc.; buttermen travel about and buy up butter at
farmers' houses, and have raisd its price from 18d. to 40d