OBSERVATIONS ON A LIBEL. 401 



within the realm. Another evident proof thereof 

 may be, that the good yields of corn which have 

 been, together with some toleration of vent, hath of 

 late time invited and enticed men to break up more 

 ground, and to convert it to tillage, than all the 

 penal laws for that purpose made and enacted could 

 ever by compulsion effect. A third proof may be, 

 that the prices of grain and victual were never of 

 late years more reasonable. Now for arguments of 

 the great wealth in all other respects, let the points 

 following be considered. 



There was never the like number of fair and 

 stately houses as have been built and set up from 

 the ground since her majesty s reign ; insomuch, 

 that there have been reckoned in one shire that is 

 not great, to the number of thirty-three, which 

 have been all new built within that time ; and 

 whereof the meanest was never built for two thou 

 sand pounds. 



There were never the like pleasures of goodly 

 gardens and orchards, walks, pools, and parks, as do 

 adorn almost every mansion-house. 



There was never the like number of beautiful 

 and costly tombs and monuments which are erected 

 in sundry churches, in honourable memory of the 

 dead. 



There was never the like quantity of plate, jewels, 

 sumptuous moveables, and stuff, as is now within 

 the realm. 



There was never the like quantity of waste and 



VOL. v. D D 



