at his demeanour and doings at court; for oft in his talk he thou'd the King and the rest of his council, which they took in good part. 66 Richard III, the Earl of Kildare, head of the FitzGeralds, filled this " office. Like the Irish ... "By your generally, he gave his sup Yorkist side, and espoused the cause of the pretender Simnel. In 'Well," said the King, "when will you choose your counsellor?" Said the Bishop," Never, if it be put to his choice. "Thou liest brallaghe, bald Bishop," said the Earl; With that the King and the lords laughed, and made game port to the thereat, and asked the Earl if he said true. hand," said he to the King, and took the King by the hand, "there is not in London a better mutton master or butcher than yonder shorn priest is. I know him well enough," said the Earl. "Well," said the King, we shall talk of these matters another time." "I am content,” said the Earl," for I have 3 tales to tell thee of him, and I dare say it will make you all laugh that is here. If you tarry a while I shall tell you a good tale of this vicious prelate." The King and the Lords could not hold the laughter, but the Earl never changed countenance, but told this tale as though he were among his fellows in his country. 66 1492, after summons, he the charges of disloyalty and lawlessness. His principal accuser was the Bishop of Meath, whom tacked vio,,lently in a church. he had at "If you think This is not quite accudare was confined in while Henry rate. Kil the Tower, "Well," said the King, "it is best for you to choose well your counsellor, and be well advised whom you will choose, for I perceive that your counsellor, shall have enough to do in your cause, for anything that I perceive you can do." "Shall I choose now?" said the Earl. good," said the King. "Well, I can see no better man than you, and by Saint Bride! I will choose none other." "Well," said the King; "by Saint Bride! it was well requisite for you to choose so, for I thought your tale could not well excuse your doings unless you had well chosen." think that I am a fool?” said the Earl; "No!" said he, am a man in deed both in the field and in the town." The King laughed, and made sport, and said, "A wiser man might have chosen worse." "Well," said the Bishop, "he is as you see, for all Ireland cannot rule yonder gentle"No?" said the King, "then he is meet to rule all convinced man." strove to "Do you govern I Ireland directly through his own English agents. Finally, in king became 1496, the that Kildare alone could keep order among his kinsmen, the powerful and lawless Geraldines. the Earl was Ireland, seeing all Ireland cannot rule him;" and so made the Earl Deputy of Ireland during his life, and so sent him to his country with great gifts, and so the Earl came to Ireland. Accordingly, Book of Howth (Calendar of the Carew Mss., 1515-1574, 179, 180, London, 1871). taken from the Tower and made Lord Deputy, which office he held into 62. Sheep Walks in the Reign of Henry the next reign. By SIR THOMAS 1535), statesman and scholar, and perhaps the best-known and best his time. See Nos. 45 and 47. The following extract is from the Utopia, the most famous VIII "What is that?" "But yet this is not onlye the necessary cause of stealMORE (1478 ing. There is an other which as I suppose is proper and peculiare to yow Englishe men alone." quod the Cardenall. "Forsoth" (quod I), "your shepe, that were wont to be so myke and tame, and so smal eaters, loved man of now, as I heare saie, be become so greate deuowerers, and so wylde, that they eate vp and swallow down the very men them selfes. They consume, destroy, and deuoure hole fieldes, howses, and cities. For looke in what partes of the realme doth growe the fynyst, and therfore dearist woll, there noble men and gentlemen, yea, and certeyn Abbottes, holy men god wote, not contenting them selfes with the yearely reuennues and profyttes that were wont to grow to theyr forefathers and predecessours of their landes, nor beynge content that they liue in rest and pleasure, nothyng profytyng, ye, muche noyinge the weale publique, leaue no grounde for tyllage; they enclose all in pastures; they throw downe houses; they plucke downe townes; and leaue nothing was probably stondynge but only the churche, to make of it a shepehowse. And, as thoughe yow loste no small quantity of grounde by forestes, chases, laundes, and parkes; those good holy men turne all dwellinge places and glebe lande into desolation and wildernes. of More's writings, and the work in which he treated of the great problems of the modern world. For the conception of the book More indebted to the Letters of Amerigo Vespucci. It consists of two parts. a historical review of existing con- in a sketch of established Nowhere. his great Latin, publishing it in work in 1516. In 1551 an Eng lish translation by Ralph was issued. ""Therfore, that one couetous and vnsatiable cormaraunte Part I gives and verye plage of his natyue contrey may compasse abowte and inclose many thousand acres of grounde to gether within one pale or hedge, the husbandmen be thrust owte of their owne; orels other by coueyne or fraude, or by vyolent oppression, they be put besydes it, or by wronges and iniuries they be so weried that they be compelled to sell all. By one meanes therfore or by other, other by howke or crooke, they must nedes departe awaye, pore, sylie, wretched soules; men, women, husbandes, wyues, fatherles chyldren, widdowes, wofull mothers with their yonge babes, and their hole housholde smal in substaunce, and much in nombre, as husbandrie requireth many handes. Awaye they trudge, I say, out of their knowen and accustomed howses, fyndyng no places to rest in. All their housholde stuffe, which is verye lytle worth, though it myght well abyde the sale, yet Robynson beyng sodeynelye thrust out, they be constrayned to sell it for a thyng of nought. And when they haue, wanderynge about, sone spent that, what can they els do but steale, and then iustelye, God wote, behanged, or els go about a beggyng? And yet then also they be cast in prison as vagaboundes, because they go about and worke not; whom no man will set a worke, though they neuer so willingly offer them selfes therto. For one shepherde or heard man is ynough to eate vp that grounde with cattel, to the occupying whereof about husbandrye many handes were requysyte. ""And this is also the cause that victualles be nowe in many places dearer. Yea, besydes this the pryce of wolle is so rysen that poore folkes, whiche were wont to worke it and make cloth of it, be nowe able to bye none at all. And by thys meanes verye manye be fayne to forsake worke, and to gyue them selfes to ydelnes. For after that so muche grounde was inclosed for pasture, an infinite multitude of shepe died of the rotte, suche vengaunce God toke of their inordinate and vnsaciable couetuousnes, sendyng amonge the shepe that pestiferous morreyn, which much more Sir Thomas More, Utopia (Robynson's translation, edited by The sixteenth 63. A Law against the Keeping of Sheep century was marked by great and widespread suffering among the people. Contemporary writings of every sort (1534) Forasmuch as divers and sundry persons of the King's subjects of this realm, to whom God of his goodness hath disposed great plenty and abundance of moveable substance, now of late within a few years have daily studied, practised, and invented ways and means how they might accumulate and gather together into few hands, as well great multitude of farms as great plenty of cattle, and in especial sheep, putting such lands as they can get to pasture, and not to tillage, (2) whereby they have not only pulled down churches and towns, and inhanced the old rates of the rents of the possessions of this realm, or else brought it to such excessive fines that no poor man is able to meddle with it, but also have raised and enhanced the prices of all manner of corn, cattle, wool, pigs, geese, hens, chickens, eggs, and such other, almost double above the prices which have been accustomed; (3) by reason whereof a marvellous multitude and number of the people of this realm be not able to provide meat, drink and clothes necessary for themselves, their wives and children, but be so discouraged with misery and poverty, that they fall daily to theft, robbery and other inconveniences, or pitifully die for hunger and cold; (4) and as it is thought by the King's most humble and loving subjects, that one of the greatest occasions that moveth and provoketh those greedy and covetous people so to accumulate and keep in their hands such great portions and parts of the grounds and lands of this realm from the occupying of the poor husbandmen, and so to use it in pasture, and not tillage, is only the great profit that cometh of sheep, which now be come to a few persons hands of this realm, in respect of the whole number of the King's subjects, that some have four and twenty thousand, some twenty thousand, some ten thousand, some six thousand, some five thousand, and some more, and some less; (5) by the which a good sheep for victual, that was accustomed to be sold for two shillings four-pence, or three shillings at the most, is now sold for six shillings, or five shillings, or four shillings at the least; (6) and a stone of clothing wool, that in some shires of this realm was accustomed to be sold for eighteen-pence or twenty-pence, is bear strong testimony to this. Parlia statutes, ser mentary mons, popuall tell the same story. Tudor England was still an agricultural country, and the bulk of the popu lar ballads, lation was for money-getting spirit was strong, and landtheir profit in wool growing, and as a result com lords saw mons were enclosed, and land was turned from tillage to pasturage. Numerous statutes testify to the interest of the government, apparently but laws had little effect. Parliament was still legislating on the subject at the close of and a con the century, temporary epigram speaks of the way in which sheep "swal |