] The decay of the people is the destruction of a kingdom: neither is
any man born to possess the earth alone.--H.

[201] The fact is well known. See instances in W. de Worde's "Kerving,"
second edition, in _Babees Book_.--F.

[202] See the curious tract on this in Mr. John Cowper's _Four
Supplications_, Early English Text Society, extra series.--F.

[203] The chapter ends with the forest laws of Canute. Born Londoner
though he be, Harrison dwells lovingly upon the least point connected with
his country home. His Saffron Walden is ever a fruitful source of
discourse, Saffron being a prolific theme in other places of the work, and
Walden here made to "point the moral and adorn the tale."--W.

[204] For her household in 1600-1601 see _Household Ordinances_, p.
281.--F.

[205] I suppose that Sir Thomas More, and Henry VIII., and Lady Jane
Grey's parents began "the higher education of women" in England by having
their daughters properly taught. On "Education in Early England" see my
Forewords (tho' sadly imperfect) to the _Babees Book_ (Early English Text
Society).--F.

[206] Compare Chaucer's _Prologue: The Squire_. On the evils of
serving-men see Sir T. More's _Utopia_, and my _Ballads from MSS._, i.--F.

[207] The chapter concludes with the special penal regulations for
disturbers in the court precincts.--W.

[208] See Ascham's _Toxophilus_. When our folk and government come to
their senses every English boy and man'll be taught rifle-shooting; ranges
will be provided by compulsory powers; and every male over sixteen be made
sure of his man in any invading force. If then any foreign force wants to
come, let it, and find its grave.--F.

[209] "Our peaceable days" were on the eve of the greatest struggle for
life ever known to England, but never before or since could she put a
million men armed to the teeth into the field, and have still a reserve to
fall back on. People who dream that the Spaniards would have fared better
on land than sea are grievously out in their reckoning.--W.

[210] See the amusing extract from William Bulleyn in my _Babees Book_,
pp. 240-243.--F.

[211] Here follows an account of Roman and Carthaginian galleys which "did
not only match, but far exceed" in capacity our ships and galleys of
1587.--W.

[212] See my _Ballads from MSS._, i. 120, on this and Henry VIII.'s navy.
There's an engraving of this _Great Henry_, or _Henry Grace_ (burnt August
27, 1553), in the British Museum.--F.