One
of the Spaniards who came over in the suite of Philip remarked the large
diet in these homely cottages: "These English," quoth he, "have their
houses made of sticks and dirt, but they fare commonly so well as the
king." "Whereby it appeareth," comments Harrison, "that he liked better
of our good fare in such coarse cabins, than of their own thin diet in
their prince-like habitations and palaces." The timber houses were
covered with tiles; the other sort with straw or reeds. The fairest
houses were ceiled within with mortar and covered with plaster, the
whiteness and evenness of which excited Harrison's admiration. The walls
were hung with tapestry, arras-work, or painted cloth, whereon were
divers histories, or herbs, or birds, or else ceiled with oak. Stoves had
just begun to be used, and only in some houses of the gentry, "who build
them not to work and feed in, as in Germany and elsewhere, but now and
then to sweat in, as occasion and need shall require." Glass in windows,
which was then good and cheap, and made even in England, had generally
taken the place of the lattices and of the horn, and of the beryl which
noblemen formerly used in windows. Gentlemen were beginning to build
their houses of brick and stone, in stately and magnificent fashion. The
furniture of the houses had also grown in a manner "passing delicacy,"
and not of the nobility and gentry only, but of the lowest sort.
Pages:
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30