clude my
discourse on the estate of our churches.

CHAPTER VI

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, 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, 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, before the
three estates, and so bringeth his purpose to pass in the end, by
f