82 THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH 



the relative scarcity of produce, which was caused by the increased 

 consumption consequent on revived prosperity, by a higher standard 

 of living, and by a growing population. The necessary spur of 

 profit was thus applied to farming energies. Leaseholders for a 

 long term or for lives, and copyholders at fixed quit-rents had their 

 golden opportunity, and many of them used it to become wealthy. 

 Of the general prosperity of the landowning and land-renting 

 portion of the rural community, there is sufficient evidence. Every 

 man, says Harrison, 1 turned builder, " pulled downe the old house 

 and set up a new after his owne devise." In ten years more oak 

 was used for building than had been used in the previous hundred. 

 Country manor-houses were built not of timber, but of brick or 

 stone, and they were furnished with " great provision of tapistrie, 

 Turkic work, pewter, brasse, fine linen and . . . costlie cupbords 

 of plate." Ordinary diet had become less simple. " White-meats," 

 milk, butter, eggs, and cheese, were despised by the wealthy, who 

 preferred butcher's-meat, fish, and a " diversitie of wild and tame 

 foules." The usual fare of the country gentleman was abundant, 

 if not profuse. The dinner which Justice Shallow ordered for 

 Falstaff might be quoted as an illustration. But more direct 

 evidence may be produced. Harrison says that the everyday 

 dinner of a country gentleman was " foure, five, or six dishes, when 

 they have but small resort." Gervase Markham in his English 

 Housewife gives directions for a " great feast," and for "a more 

 humbJe feast, or an ordinary proportion which any good man may 

 keep in his family, for the entertainment of his true and worthy 

 friend." The " humble feast " includes " sixteen dishes of meat 

 that are of substance and not emptie, or for shew." To these 

 " sixteen full dishes," he adds " sallets, fricases, quelque choses, and 

 devised paste, as many dishes more, which make the full service 

 no lesse then two-and-thirtie dishes." In dress, also, the country 

 gentry were growing more expensive, imitating the " diversities 

 of jagges and changes of colours " of the Frenchman. Already, too, 

 as Bishop Hall has described in his Satires, they were in the habit 

 of deserting their country-houses for the gaiety of towns, and the 

 " unthankful swallow " " built her circled nest " in 



" The towered chimnies which should be 

 The windpipes of good hospitalitie." 



Of the yeomen, who included not only farming owners, but 

 1 Harrison, Description of England (1577), bk. ii. cc. vi. xii. xxii. 



