The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-03-05
THE PRESS.
MEnNESnAY MoRNING. MARCH 5.
MOBILES OF TUDOR Ti@ES.
Their Wealth Lay In Piles OF Cold
and SILVER.

The brilliant court life of the later Tu-
dor times was a new thing in English
history. In earlier days it had not been
the fashion for the great land owners to
forsake their estates and live ut Tower
hill or Shoe lane with a following Of a
hundred or two of gentlemen in livery Of
white frieze, lined with crimson Saffetas,
and to spend two or three times their
yearly income in a merry life Of dicing,
card playing and hunting in Gray's Inn
Fields, Islington and Highgate, and in
buying dresses fine enough to adorn
court pageants and professions where
the greatest mobiles of the land accepted
the honor of bearing the queens litter.
The country noble or gentleman of the
time of Edward ~ and Henry VII had
other business and other ambitions. He
was not, indeed, home keeping man;
he had to be away at French wars. or
fighting on the Scotch border, or leading
levies hither and thither to put down
rebellion or to set one going, or to make
raid on his neighbours property. But
whether he was a successful soldier or
"a good Cotswold shepherd" or pros
porous lawyer, or wealthy judge, he
remained true provincial in heart and
in interests. Booty was to be had in
France, even in Scotland; there was none
in London. On the contrary, journey
to the capital needed the one thing that
mobiles and land owners never had-ready
money in the purse. If a country lord
had to attend parliament, a supply of
oats and corn was carried for the horses,
''to save the expenses of his purse;" his
wife managed the big household and es-
tates in the country, and from London
an army of servants rode backward and
forward continually to fetch provisions
from fields and ponds and sailing tubs
at home, SO that he need never go to the
market or to the baker to buy for
money.
1t was in the provinces that the noble
kept his true state. If his journey lay
through any town all the bells were set
ringing "to give notice of the passage OF
such eminency," and the burgers stood
to watch him pass in his robe of scarlet
twelve yards wide, with pendent sleeves
down on the ground, and the "furru1
therein set worth perhaps e200 or $500
of our money, while his attendants came
after, anxiously holding up with both
hands, out of the filth of the medieval
streets, the wide sleeves that trailed at
their sides.
The great oak chests of the country
houses were piled up with splendid robes
cloth of gold, figured satins, damask and
silk and velyets and fine cloths were
heaped together with rich furs of marten
and beaver. Sir John Fastolf had thirty.
five coverings for his head-hoods OF
satin, russell and velvet, straw hats, hats
of beaver lined with damask gilt and the
like, to suit his various robes. Chains of
gold of the "old fashion" and the ssnew,"
collars of gold covered with "roses and
suns, precious stones, women's girdles
of cloth of gold harnessed with gold, or
with silver gilt worked by famous for. |
eign makers, made fully as brave show |
in the Fifteenth century as in the one that |
came after.
But the real wealth of the mobiles lay |
in their amazing stores of gold and sill. |
yer plate. Fastolf had laid up in his |
tiNaouiC bOhSl anu III Illt sale IOODS Oh /
monasteries vessels that weighed over
10000 ounces, besides the plate in his |
buffers pantry We read of ewers and
goblets and platters of gold; great charg.
ers of silver, weighing 200 ounces OF
more; a hagon of silver of 351 ounces;
others with gold yerges and enameled
chains about them; gilt basins, with an.
telopes; gilt cups like fountains, with |
enameled flowers; salt cellars like tow.
ers; "basins of $50 ounces, covered with |
silver of Paris touch and over gilt, |
pounced and embossed with roses, and |
with great large enamels in the bottom,
with certain beasts embossed standing
within hedge of silver and gilt upon
the said enamels;" great gallon pots
having the edges gilt and wreathed with
poppy leaves; gilded goblets with colum.
bine flowers and the like. At the funeral
of lady of Berkeley, early in the Six.
tenth century, the plate was brought
out to give "a drinking" to the mayor OF
Bristol and his brethren, "and I thank
God," wrote the steward, "no plate nor
spoons was lost, yet there were twenty
dozen spoons" Such was the wealth |
upon which the spendthrifts of Eliza
beth's court "fed and feasted" till ruin |
overlook them, and on which "Jack of |
Newbury" and his fellows prospered and
laid field to field.