[52] It is remarkable, that the first house at which Coffee was first sold in England, the Angel, Oxford, and the first house at which Tea was sold in England, Garraway's, in Change Alley, London, were both taken down in the same year--1866. [53] _Things not Generally Known._ Second Series. [54] Harrison's _Description of England_, c. vi.; Holinshed's _Chron._ ii. 171. [55] Abridged from a paper by Mr. Albert Way, F.S.A.; _Archæological Journal_, vol. ii. pp. 332-339. [56] Dogget, the actor, who bequeathed the Coat and Badge, to be rowed for annually on the Thames, was noted for dancing the Cheshire Round, as he is represented in his portrait. IV. Peasant Life.[57] Few inquiries of social interest better show the progress of the English people than glances at their condition at various periods of their history. Here we may trace the rise of the people from rude forms of civilization, through its various grades, to the blessings of industry and independence, which have so materially contributed to the character of our National Life. Commencing with the substratum of these social changes, we are reminded of the truth of Goldsmith's oft-quoted lines: "Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroy'd, can never be supplied." In early times freemen formed a mere section of the people, and the bulk of the English population were in a servile condition. Some of the bondmen were captives, or the children of captives; others had been reduced to servitude by distress, by debts, or crimes; but they were not all of them absolute slaves, for even amongst the convicts there were some who were not slaves, but serfs. Now, in acquiring the use of land, a slave made the first step towards freedom. In this manner a _thrall-bred_ man became _boor-bred_, and although still a bondman--he might hope, by good conduct or by the lord's bounty, to rise to the higher condition of a geneatman, or free farmer, and even to become a freeman, and a freeholder,--to become the absolute owner of his little croft. In Anglo-Saxon times, the political station of a freeman was determined by his _were_--it was his worth or value; and the _wergyld_ was the fine paid in compensation of his life. The abolition or disuse of this fine was an encouragement of liberty, since it removed the strongest mark of distinction between freemen and non-freemen. The free or unfree condition of a man descended to his posterity. At the close of the thirteenth century, many peasants in England were still affected by the crimes or the misfortunes of their remote ancestors. By that time there was an end of absolute slavery, and the bondsmen were all serfs, or the children of serfs. OPERATIVE TENANTS.