ription of England_, p.
282.

The Spanish nobles who came into England with Philip were astonished at the
diet which they found among the poor.

"These English," said one of them, "have their houses made of sticks and
dirt, but they fare commonly so well as the king."--Ibid. p. 313.

[13] _State Papers_, Hen. VIII. vol. ii. p. 10.

[14] HALL, p. 646.

[15] 25 Ed. III. cap. I.

[16] _Statutes of the Realm_, vol. i. p. 199.

[17] 3 Ed. IV. cap. 2.

[18] 10 Hen. VI. cap. 2.

[19] STOW'S _Chronicle._

[20] _Statutes of Philip and Mary._

[21] From 1565 to 1575 there was a rapid and violent rise in the prices of
all kinds of grain. Wheat stood at four and five times its earlier rates;
and in 1576, when Harrison wrote, was entirely beyond the reach of the
labouring classes. "The poor in some shires," he says, "are enforced to
content themselves with rye or barley, yea, and in time of dearth many with
bread made either of peas, beans, or oats, or of all together and some
acorns among, of which scourge the poorest do soonest taste, sith they are
least able to provide themselves of better. I will not say that this
extremity is oft so well seen in time of plenty as of dearth, but if I
should I could easily bring my trial. For, albeit that there be much more
ground eared now almost in every place than hath been of late years, yet
such a price of corn continues in each town and market, that the artificer
and poor labouring man is not able to reach to it, but is driven to content
himself with beans, peas, oats, tares, and lentils."--HARRISON, p. 283. The
condition of the labourer was at this period deteriorating rapidly. The
causes will be described in the progress of this history.

[22] _Chronicle_, p.568.

[23] 33 Hen. VIII. cap. II. The change in the prices of such articles
commenced in the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., and continued till
the close of the century. A discussion upon the subject, written in 1581 by
Mr. Edward Stafford, and containing the clearest detailed account of the
alteration, is printed in the _Harleian Miscellany_, vol. ix. p.139, etc.

[24] Leland, _Itin._, vol. vi. p.17. In large households beef used to be
salted in great quantities for winter consumption. The art of fatting
cattle in the stall was imperfectly understood, and the loss of substance
in the destruction of fibre by salt was less than in the falling off of
flesh on the failure of fresh grass. The Northumberland Househol