ther to our boy and little girls; and cherish your mother
in return for the singular kindness she has showed us.'

One feature of life at this time which materially affected the lives
of women, was the length of families and the accompanying infant
mortality. It was common enough in all classes down to the middle of
the last century; and it is still only too common among the poor. On
the walls of churches, more especially in towns, one frequently sees
tablets with long lists of children who seem to have been born only
to die: and yet the parents went on their way unthinking, and content
if from their annual harvest an occasional son or daughter grew up to
bless them. Examples of this may be collected on every side. Cole
(1467-1519), for instance, was the eldest of twenty-two sons and
daughters; and by 1499 he was the only child left to his parents. His
father, who was twice Lord Mayor of London, lived till 1510; the
mother of this great brood survived them all, and, so far as Erasmus
knew, was still living in 1521.

Another case which may be cited is that of Anthony Koberger, the
celebrated Nuremberg printer, 1440-1513: and it is the more
interesting, since owing to his care for genealogy, we have accurate
records of his two marriages and his twenty-five children. The first
marriage produced eight, born between 1470 and 1483; of these, three
daughters lived to grow up and marry, but of the remaining
five--including three sons, all named Anthony, a fact which tells its
own tale--none reached a greater age than twelve years. In September
1491 the first wife died; and in August 1492--without observing the
full year's 'doole'--Anthony married again, the second wife being
herself the sixteenth child of her parents. At first there was only
disappointment; in 31/2 years four children were born and died, two of
these being twins. But better times followed: of the remaining
thirteen only three died as infants. Anthony the fifth and John the
third, and three sons named after the three kings, Caspar, Melchior
and Balthasar, were more fortunate. When 21 years had brought 17
children, the sequence ended abruptly with the death of Anthony the
father; leaving, out of the 25 he had received, only 13 children to
speak with his enemies in the gate.

A family Bible now in the Bodleian[31] enumerates 16 children born to
the same parents in 24 years, 1550-74. One girl was married before she
was 16; one son at 20 died of exposure on his w