zo O X. Class I. 



the chieftain, whofe power and fafety depended on 

 the promptnefs of his vafTals to execute his com- 

 mands, found it his intereft to encourage thofe 

 employments that favoured that difpofition •, that 

 vaflal, who made it his glory to fly at the firft call 

 to the flandard of his chieftain, was fure to prefer 

 that employ, which might be tranfafled by his 

 family with equal fuccefs during his abfence. Til- 

 lage would require an attendance incompatible with 

 the fervices he owed the baron, while the former 

 occupation not only gave leifure for thofe duties, 

 but furnifhed the hofpitable board of his lord 

 with ample provifion, of which the vaflal was 

 equal partaker. The' reliques of the larder of the 

 elder Spencer are evident proofs of the plenty of cat- 

 tle in his days -, for after his winter provifions 

 may have been fuppofed to have been moftly con- 

 fumed, there were found, fo late as the month of 

 May^ in fait, the carcafes of not fewer than 80 

 beeves, 600 bacons, and 600 muttons *. The ac- 

 counts of the feveral great feafls in after times, af- 

 ford amazing inflances of the quantity of cattle 

 that were confumed in them. This was owing 

 partly to the continued attachment of the people 

 to grazing -f ^ partly to the preference that the En- 

 glijJd at all times gave to animal food. The quan- 



* Htimeh hiftory of England ii. 153. 



f Polyd. Virgil Hijl . AngL vol. i. 5. who wrote in the time 

 oi Henry the VIII. fays Angli plures pecuarii quam aratores, 



tity 



