ccess with them, till the
officers, waxing weary, procured a mixed brood of bastard races, whereby
his good purpose came to little effect. Sir Nicholas Arnold of late hath
bred the best horses in England, and written of the manner of their
production: would to God his compass of ground were like to that of Pella
in Syria, wherein the king of that nation had usually a studdery of 30,000
mares and 300 stallions, as Strabo doth remember, lib. 16. But to leave
this, let us see what may be said of sheep.

Our sheep are very excellent, sith for sweetness of flesh they pass all
other. And so much are our wools to be preferred before those of Milesia
and other places that if Jason had known the value of them that are bred
and to be had in Britain he would never have gone to Colchis to look for
any there. For, as Dionysius Alexandrinus saith in his _De situ orbis_, it
may by spinning be made comparable to the spider's web. What fools then
are our countrymen, in that they seek to bereave themselves of this
commodity by practising daily how to transfer the same to other nations,
in carrying over their rams and ewes to breed and increase among them! The
first example hereof was given under Edward the Fourth, who, not
understanding the bottom of the suit of sundry traitorous merchants that
sought a present gain with the perpetual hindrance of their country,
licensed them to carry over certain numbers of them into Spain, who,
having licence but for a few, shipped very many: a thing practised in
other commodities also, whereby the prince and his land are not seldom
times defrauded. But such is our nature, and so blind are we indeed, that
we see no inconvenience before we feel it; and for a present gain we
regard not what damage may ensue to our posterity. Hereto some other man
would add also the desire that we have to benefit other countries and to
impeach our own. And it is, so sure as God liveth, that every trifle which
cometh from beyond the sea, though it be not worth threepence, is more
esteemed than a continual commodity at home with us, which far exceedeth
that value. In time past the use of this commodity consisteth (for the
most part) in cloth and woolsteds; but now, by means of strangers
succoured here from domestic persecution, the same hath been employed unto
sundry other uses, as mockados, bays, vellures, grograines, etc., whereby
the makers have reaped no small commodity. It is furthermore to be noted,
for the low countri