“But expensive furniture was most prevalent. ‘Not only,’ says Holinshed, ‘is it not rare to see abundance of arras, rich hangings of tapestry, silver vessels, and such other plate as would furnish several cupboards, to the sum oftentimes of a thousand or two thousand pounds at the least; but the rest of the house was proportionably furnished. In the abodes of knights, gentlemen, merchants, and some other wealthy citizens, it is not unusual to behold a great profusion of tapestry, Turkish work, pewter, brass, fine linen, and costly cupboards of plate, worth five or six hundred or a thousand pounds.’ But the tide of luxury invaded even the lower orders. ‘The inferior artificers, and main farmers, who, by virtue of their old, not of their new leases, (says the chronicler,) learned to garnish also their cupboards with plate, their joined beds with tapestry and silk hangings, and their tables with carpets and fine linen. There are old men yet dwelling in the village where I remain,’ says Holinshed, ‘which have noted three things to be marvellously altered in England, within their sound remembrance; and other three things too, too much increased. One is the multitude of chimneys lately erected: whereas, in their young days, there were not above two or three, if so many, in most up-landish towns of the realms, (the religious houses, and manor places of their lords always excepted, and, peradventure, some great personages,) but each one made his fire against a reredosse in the hall, where he dined and dressed his meat. The second, is the great (although not general) amendment of lodging; for, said they, our fathers, yea, and we also ourselves, have lain full oft on straw pallets, or rough mats, covered only with a sheet or coverlets, made of dagswain[3] or hop-harlots[4]; and a good round log under their heads, instead of a bolster and pillow. If our forefathers had, within seven years after their marriage, purchased a mattress or flock-bed, and added thereto a sack of chaff to rest his head upon, he considered himself to be as well lodged as the lord of the town, who, probably, himself, seldom lay on a bed of down, or whole feathers; so contented were they with simple fare. Indeed, even now[5], in some parts of Bedfordshire, and elsewhere farther in the south, the same plans are pretty much pursued. Pillows were only for an indulgence to the sick. As for servants, if they had any sheet above them, it was well; for rarely had they any thing under their bodies, to protect them from the pricking straws, which often found their way through the canvass of the pallet. The third thing they speak of, is the exchange of vessels; as pewter for treen[6] platters, and silver or tin spoons, for wooden ones; for so common were all sorts of treen ware in old times, that a person could hardly find four pieces of pewter, including the salt-cellar, in a good farmer’s house; and yet, in spite of this frugality, they were scarcely