Hens, chickens, and
partridges, were reckoned delicacies, and were forbidden except at my
lord's table.
This excessive love for eating was not, however, confined to Henry's
time, for about two centuries previous to this, (Edward III.) feasting
was endeavoured to be restrained by a law, though Edward himself did not
follow his own law, for when his "son, Lionel, of Clarence, married
Violentes, of Milant there were thirty courses, and the fragments fed
1,500 persons."
The formation of London was but tardy and very irregular until the reign
of Henry VIII. at which time, some extensive buildings and improvements
were made. On the other hand, building seems at length to have gone on
too rapidly, and caused such alarm, that about a century after Henry's
reign, a proclamation was issued by James I. after mature deliberation,
forbidding all new buildings within ten miles of London; and commanding
if any were built after this they should be pulled down, though no
notice was taken of them for seven years.
It is somewhat singular, that though the population in these early
days were but a handful in comparison to the present number, the
_redundancy_ of population was as bitterly complained of as it ever
has been in modern days. About thirty years after Henry's reign
(Elizabeth) we learn from one Harrison, who wrote in 1577, that "a great
number complain of the increase of povertie, laying the cause upon God,
as though he were in fault for sending such increase of people, or want
of wars that should consume them, affirming that the land was never
so full.
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