"saw what large diet was used in many of these "so homely cottages; insomuch that one of no "small reputation amongst them said after this 66 manner: These English,' quoth he,' have their "houses made of sticks and dirt, but they fare "commonly so well as the king.' (Harrison's Description of England, prefixed to Holinshed, p. 187.) are We have already seen that glazed windows always mentioned by our early poets with an air of affectation which evinces their rarity; so that we are not surprized at being told that the yeomen and farmers were perfectly contented with windows of lattice. Rooms provided with chimnies are also noticed as a luxury by the author of Pierce Ploughman: but it is difficult to read with gravity the sagacious observations of Harrison on the ill consequences attending the enjoyment of warmth without the risk of suffocation. "Now," says he, "have 66 we many chimnies, and yet our tenderlings com"plain of rheums, catarrhs, and poses (colds in "the head). Then had we none but reredosses,↑ * Anderson (History of Commerce, Vol. I. p. 9e, edit. 1764) says, that they were first introduced into England' in 1180. + This word is sometimes used to express some part of a chimney, and sometimes as a substitute for one. It seems "and our heads did never ache. For as the smoke "in those days was supposed to be a sufficient 66 hardening for the timber of the house, so it was "reputed a far better medicine to keep the good "man and his family from the quacke (ague?) or pose; wherewith, as then, very few were oft ac"quainted." (Description of England, p. 212.) After witnessing the indignation which this author has vented against the " tenderlings" of his time, the reader may possibly learn with some surprize, that, from the latter end of the thirteenth to near the sixteenth century, persons of all ranks, and of both sexes, were universally in the habit of sleeping quite naked. This custom is often alluded to by Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, and all our ancient writers. In the Squire of Low Degree there is a curious instance: -"she rose, that lady dear, "To take her leave of that squyère "All so naked as she was born, "She stood her chamber-door beforn." [Vers. 671.] In the "Aresta Amorum," (Ar. III.) a lady, who had stipulated to throw a nosegay to her lover on a to mean a plate of iron, or perhaps a coating of brick, to enable the wall to resist the flame. particular night in each week, complains of the difficulty she found in escaping to the window, "où par fois etoit toute nue par l'espace de deux "grosses heures." This strange practice prevailed at a time when the day-dress of both sexes was much warmer than at present; being generally bordered, and often lined, with furs; insomuch, that numberless warrens were established in the neighbourhood of London for the purpose of supplying its inhabitants with rabbets' skins. Perhaps it was this warmth of clothing that enabled our ancestors, in defiance of a northern climate, to serenade their mistresses with as much perseverance as if they had lived under the torrid zone. Chaucer thought he had given us the date of his Dream with sufficient exactness, when he described it as happening "About such hour as lovers weep [Vers. 55.] In France, as appears from the work already quoted, the lovers were sometimes bound to conduct "les tabourins et les bas menestriers" to the doors of their mistresses between midnight and daybreak, on every festival throughout the year; though the principal season for such gallantry was the beginning of May, when the windows were ornamented with pots of marjoram, and may-poles hung with garlands carried through the streets, and raised before every door in succession. This was called, reveiller les pots de mariolaine, and planter le mai. The same season appears to have been chosen by English lovers for the purpose of crying after their ladies grace. In houses of which the walls were made of clay, and the floors of the same materials, and where the stabling was under the same roof with the dwelling rooms, the furniture was not likely to be costly. Of this the author just quoted received from some ancient neighbours the following description: "Our fathers (yea and we ourselves also) "have lien full oft upon straw pallets, on rough "mats, covered only with a sheet, under coverlets "maid of dagswain, or hopharlots (I use their 66 own terms), and a good round log under their "heads, instead of a bolster or pillow. If it were 66 SO that our fathers, or the good man of the house, "had, within seven years after his marriage, pur"chased a mattress or flock bed, and thereto a "sack of chaff to rest his head upon, he thought "himself to be as well lodged as the lord of the *dag. Sax. (from whence daggle or draggle) any thing pendent, a shred. The term therefore seems to mean any patched materials, like those worn by the poorest country people. "town; that, peradventure, lay seldom in a bed of "down or whole feathers."-"As for servants, if "they had any sheet above them, it was well; for "seldom had they any under their bodies, to keep "them from the pricking straws that ran oft through "the canvas of the pallet, and rased their hardened "hides." (p. 188.) The progress of improvement in building was from clay to lath and plaster, which was formed into pannels between the principal timbers; to floors or pargets (as Harrison calls them, i. e. parquets) coated with plaster of Paris; and to ceilings overlaid with mortar and washed with lime or plaster" of delectable whiteness." Country houses were generally covered with shingles; but in towns the danger of fires obliged the inhabitants to adopt the use of tile or slate. These latter buildings were very solid, and consisted of many stories projecting over each other, so that the windows on opposite sides of the street nearly met. "The "walls of our houses on the inner sides (says Harri"son),-be either hanged with tapestry, arras-work, "or painted cloths, wherein either divers histories, "or herbs, beasts, knots, and such like, are stained, "or else they are seeled with oak of our own, or "wainscot brought hither out of the east countries." (p. 187.) This relates, of course, to the houses of the |
