ed only of
sixteen spoons, and a few goblets and ale pots. Sir Adrian Foskewe's
opulence appears to have been greater; he had a service of silver plate,
and his parlour was furnished with hangings. This was in 1539; it is not
to be imagined that a knight of the shire a hundred years before would
have rivalled even this scanty provision of moveables. Strutt's View of
Manners, vol. iii. p. 63. These details, trifling as they may appear,
are absolutely necessary in order to give an idea with some precision of
a state of national wealth so totally different from the present.

[683] Cuperent tam egregie Scotorum reges quam mediocres Nurembergae
cives habitare. AEn. Sylv. apud Schmidt, Hist. des Allem. t. v. p. 510.

[684] t. iii. p. 127.

[685] Crescentius in Commodum Ruralium. (Lovaniae, absque anno.) This old
edition contains many coarse wooden cuts, possibly taken from the
illuminations which Paulmy found in his manuscript.

[686] Harrison's account of England, prefixed to Hollingshed's
Chronicles. Chimneys were not used in the farm-houses of Cheshire till
within forty years of the publication of King's Vale-royal (1656); the
fire was in the midst of the house, against a hob of clay, and the oxen
lived under the same roof. Whitaker's Craven, p. 334.

[687] The Saracenic architecture was once conceived to have been the
parent of the Gothic. But the pointed arch does not occur, I believe, in
any Moorish buildings; while the great mosque of Cordova, built in the
eighth century, resembles, except by its superior beauty and
magnificence, one of our oldest cathedrals; the nave of Gloucester, for
example, or Durham. Even the vaulting is similar, and seems to indicate
some imitation, though perhaps of a common model. Compare Archaeologia,
vol. xvii. plate 1 and 2, with Murphy's Arabian Antiquities, plate 5.
The pillars indeed at Cordova are of the Corinthian order, perfectly
executed, if we may trust the engraving, and the work, I presume, of
Christian architects; while those of our Anglo-Norman cathedrals are
generally an imitation of the Tuscan shaft, the builders not venturing
to trust their roofs to a more slender support, though Corinthian
foliage is common in the capitals, especially those of smaller
ornamental columns. In fact, the Roman architecture is universally
acknowledged to have produced what we call the Saxon or Norman; but it
is remarkable that it should have been adopted, with no variation but
that of the si