Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/178

 170 GIELHOOD OP QUEEN ELIZABETH. mutton or beef, with bread. Vegetables were few in number, and only of the coarser kinds, such as cabbages and turnips. The potato was unknown, to say nothing of the more delicate vegetables, of which the poorest family now has a share. It is really surprising to" read of the way in which people in good circumstances were then accommodated. The Princess Elizabeth, when she was eighteen years of age, may have had sheets upon her bed, bat probably she had no garment similar to the modern nightgown. Her bed was probably stuffed with coarse wool, and if she had a pillow at all, it was filled with bran, or chaff. Prosperous farmers in that age slept upon straw beds, and had " a good round log under their head for a pillow." As for servants, they lay upon the straw without any intermediate fabric to protect what an old writer styles their " hardened hydes." The Princess Elizabeth may have had one or two silver spoons for her own use, though most of her household had spoons only of pewter or wood. And yet at that time people wrote of the prevalence of luxury, and of the consequent degeneracy of the race, just as we do in these days. The historian Hume quotes a curious passage from an author of Queen Elizabeth's day : " In times past men were contented to dwell in houses builded of sallow, willow, etc. ; so that the use of the oak was in a manner dedicated wholly unto churches, religious houses, princes' palaces, navigation, etc. ; but now willow, etc. are rejected, and nothing but oak anywhere regarded. And yet see the change ; for when our houses were builded of willow, then had we oaken men ; but now that our houses are come to be made of oak, our men are not only become willow, but a great many altogether of straw, which is a sore alteration. Now we have many chimneys ; and yet our tenderlines complain of rheum, catarrh, and poses" (colds).