to
Lord Cobham, and later Rector of Radwinter in Essex and Canon of
Windsor. To him was allotted the task of writing the "Descriptions of
Britain and England" from which the following chapters are drawn. He
gathered his facts from books, letters, maps, conversations, and, most
important of all, his own observation and experience; and he put them
loosely together into what he calls "this foul frizzled treatise."
Yet, with all his modesty, he claims to "have had an especial eye to
the truth of things"; and as a result we have in his pages the most
vivid and detailed picture in existence of the England into which
Shakespeare was born.

In 1876 Dr. Furnivall condensed Harrison's chapters for the New
Shakspere Society, and these have since been reprinted by Mr. Lothrop
Withington in the modern dress in which the most interesting of them
appear here. No apology is needed for thus selecting and rearranging,
since in their original form they were without unity, and formed part
of a vast compilation.

Harrison's merit does not lie in the rich interest of his matter
alone. He wrote a racy style with a strong individual as well as
Elizabethan flavor; and his personal comment upon the manners of his
time serves as a piquant sauce to the solid meat of his historical
information._

A DESCRIPTION OF ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

CHAPTER I

OF DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

[1577, Book III., Chapter 4; 1587, Book II., Chapter 5.][1]

[1] These references are to the first two editions of
Holinshed's _Chronicles_. The modernization of the spelling,
etc., follows that of Mr. L. Wilkington, whose notes are signed
W.

We in England, divide our people commonly into four sorts, as
gentlemen, citizens or burgesses, yeomen, and artificers or labourers.
Of gentlemen the first and chief (next the king) be the prince, dukes,
marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons; and these are called
gentlemen of the greater sort, or (as our common usage of speech is)
lords and noblemen: and next unto them be knights, esquires, and, last
of all, they that are simply called gentlemen. So that in effect our
gentlemen are divided into their conditions, whereof in this chapter
I will make particular rehearsal.

The title of prince doth peculiarly belong with us to the king's
eldest son, who is called Prince of Wales, and is the heir-apparent
to the crown; as in France the king's eldest son hath