The habits of all classes were open, free, and liberal.  There are two expressions corresponding one to the other, which we frequently meet with in old writings, and which are used as a kind of index, marking whether the condition of things was or was not what it ought to be.  We read of “merry England;”—­when England was not merry, things were not going well with it.  We hear of “the glory of hospitality,” England’s pre-eminent boast,-by the rules of which all tables, from the table of the twenty-shilling freeholder to the table in the baron’s hall and abbey refectory, were open at the dinner hour to all comers, without stint or reserve, or question asked:[50] to every man, according to his degree, who chose to ask for it there was free fee and free lodging; bread, beef, and beer for his dinner; for his lodging, perhaps, only a mat of rushes in a spare corner of the hall, with a billet of wood for a pillow,[51] but freely offered and freely taken, the guest probably faring much as his host fared, neither worse nor better.  There was little fear of an abuse of such licence, for suspicious characters had no leave to wander at pleasure; and for any man found at large and unable to give a sufficient account of himself, there were the ever-ready parish stocks or town gaol.  The “glory of hospitality” lasted far down into Elizabeth’s time; and then, as Camden says, “came in great bravery of building, to the marvellous beautifying of the realm, but to the decay” of what he valued more.

In such frank style the people lived, hating three things with all their hearts:  idleness, want, and cowardice; and for the rest carrying their hearts high, and having their hands full.  The[52] hour of rising, winter and summer, was four o’clock, with breakfast at five, after which the labourers went to work and the gentlemen to business, of which they had no little.  In the country every unknown face was challenged and examined—­if the account given was insufficient, he was brought before the justice; if the village shopkeeper sold bad wares, if the village cobbler made “unhonest” shoes, if servants and masters quarrelled, all was to be looked to by the justice; there was no fear lest time should hang heavy with him.  At twelve he dined; after dinner he went hunting, or to his farm or to what he pleased.[53] It was a life unrefined, perhaps, but coloured with a broad, rosy, English health.

Of the education of noblemen and gentlemen we have contradictory accounts, as might be expected.  The universities were well filled, by the sons of yeomen chiefly.  The cost of supporting them at the colleges was little, and wealthy men took a pride in helping forward any boys of promise.[54] It seems clear also, as the Reformation drew nearer, while the clergy were sinking lower and lower, a marked change for the better became perceptible in a portion at least of the laity.  The more old-fashioned of the higher ranks were slow in moving; for as late as the reign of Edward VI.[55] there were peers of