78

ADVANCE OF PRICES

CHAP. XIX

“ kyne. He was able and did finde the king a“ harnesse, with himselfe and his horse, while he“ came to the place that he should receive the“ kinges wages. I can remember that I buckled“ his harnesse when he went into Blackheath field.“ He kept me to schole, or els I had not been able“ to have preached before the kinge’s maiestie now.“ He married my sisters with five pounds or“ twenty nobles apiece, so that he brought them“up in godlinesse and feare of God . He kept“ hospitality for his poor neighbours ; and some“ alms he gave to the poore ; and all this did he“ of the sayde farme. Whene he that now hath it“ payeth sixteen pounds by the year, or more, and“ is not able to doe any thing for hys prince, for“ himselfe, nor for hys children, or give a cup of“ drinke to the poore 1 .”

This rise of rents, which the bishop states ina manner not remarkable for its precision, does,however, deserve notice. When his father rentedthe farm in question (in Lincolnshire) at threeor four pounds a year, may refer to the time ofthe battle of Blackheath, fought in the reign ofHenry VII. , 1497> or fifty years before thesermon was delivered, when the same farm wasrented at sixteen pounds or more. This advancein rent, amounting to four or five hundred percent., must, however, be in some measure apparent

1 First sermon before King Edward, page 31. Edition of1575.