4 J. HOPKINSON-— ANNIYEESAET ADDRESS : 



fingers. Carpets were but seldom used except for covering tables, 

 tbe floors being strewn witb rushes. Dress was no less remarkable 

 for its splendour than for its variety, for, in tbe absence of a national 

 costume, various incongruous fashions of foreign countries were 

 adopted ; and the dress of the men was sometimes even richer and 

 more costly than that of the women. 



The age of Elizabeth was pre-eminently one for country sports 

 and festivities : while Sunday, after the morning service which all 

 were obliged by law to attend, was the habitual day for merry- 

 making, there were several days in the year specially set apart for 

 pageants and festivities in which all classes heartily joined ; a 

 happy state of things which was destined soon to be for ever swept 

 away by the strict and morose yoke of puritanism. 



Freedom from fear of persecution and of foreign aggression, and 

 a rapid growth of prosperity and of consciousness of indi^^dual 

 power and national greatness, with increased leisure and comfort, 

 put a spur to learning and the desire for knowledge, — knowledge 

 not only for its own sake but also as an aid to the acquisition of 

 wealth, power, and freedom ; and a spirit of enterprise sprung 

 up such as had never before been experienced in England. 

 Marlowe, who wrote about this time, thus expresses his ideas 

 of the aspirations of an Englishman on being endowed with 

 power to command spirits to obey his will : — 

 "I'll have them fly to India for gold, 



Ransack the ocean for orient pearl, 



And search all corners of the new-fonnd world 



For pleasant fruits and princely delicates. 



I'll have them read me strange philosophy. 



And tell the secrets of all foreign kings. 



I'll huy soldiers with the coin they bring, 



And chase the Prince of Parma from the laud. 



And reign sole King of all the Provinces ; 



Tea, stranger engines for the brunt of war 



Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp bridge 



I"ll make my ser^dle spirits to invent." 

 Precision in the results of experimental research was then first 

 made possible by the construction of accurate mathematical 

 instruments by Gunter and Molyneux. Watches were first made 

 in England, letters were first sent by post, and the first English 

 newspaper was printed. It was ascertained that the magnetic 

 needle did not everywhere point due north, and we find John 

 Rudston, an astronomer, enquiring whether " the variation can be 

 in any place of the world 180 degrees, or the north point of the 

 needle stand directly to the south." So carelessly did men observe 



