CHAPTER X 



1540-1600 



LIVE STOCK. FLAX. SAFFRON. THE POTATO. 

 THE ASSESSMENT OF WAGES 



THE cattle and sheep of this period have generally been 

 described as poor animals, and no doubt they would seem 

 small to us. To Jacob Rathgib, a traveller, writing in 1592, 

 they seemed worthy of praise : ' England has beautiful oxen 

 and cows, with very large horns, low and heavy and for the 

 most part black ; there is abundance of sheep and wethers, 

 which graze by themselves winter and summer without 

 shepherds.' The heaviest wethers, according to him, weighed 

 60 Ib. and had at the most 6 Ib. of wool, a much heavier 

 fleece than is generally ascribed to them ; others had 4 or 

 5 Ib. Horses were abundant, and, though low and small, 

 were very fleet ; the riding horses being geldings and generally 

 excellent. Immense numbers of swine were in the country, 

 ' larger than in any other.' Six years later another traveller, 

 Hentzner, noticed that the soil abounded with cattle, and the 

 inhabitants were more inclined to feeding than ploughing. 

 He saw, too, a Berkshire harvest-home : ' As we were returning 

 to our inn (at Windsor) we happened to meet some country 

 people celebrating their harvest-home, their last load of corn 

 they crown with flowers, having besides an image richly 

 dressed by which perhaps they would signify Ceres ; this they 

 keep moving about, while men and women, men and maid- 

 servants, riding through the streets in the cart, shout as loud 

 as they can till they arrive at the barn.' Harrison l tells us, 

 no doubt with patriotic bias, that ' our oxen are such as the 

 like are not to be found in any country of Europe both for 

 greatness of body and sweetness of flesh, their horns a yard 

 1 Description of Britain, Hi. 2. 



