Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/185

Rh manufactures sprang up in England, and for the first time we find such things as pins, needles, shoe buckles, tacks, paper, fans, and wigs being made in this country. This is no place to speak fully of the great woollen industry that grew apace in the Eastern Counties, of the increase in dyeing and spinning, or the fame of English wool. The results are directly visible in the lives of the people. Shopkeepers, merchants, farmers, manufacturers, all grew rich and prosperous, and an increase of comfort and luxury in ordinary life was the natural outcome of the new energy. Yet wise men shook their heads over the growth of luxury, even as they do to-day. That it would "eat out the hardihood of the people" was their growing anxiety, for in the increase of comfort they saw the signs of England's decay. "We see the change," cries one, "for when our houses were builded of willow, then had we oken men; but now that our houses are come to be made of oke, our men are not onlie become willow, but a great many altogether of straw, which is a sore alteration. Now have we manie chimneys and yet our tenderlings complaine of rheums, catarrhs, and poses. Then had we