is Queen traveled
through the nation, they often stopped to talk to the common
people. They sometimes gave away money, such as to a man who had
lost his hand. Henry paid for an intelligent boy he met to go to
school.

Henry had the first paper mill erected in the nation. He fostered
the reading of books and the study of Roman law, the classics, and
the Bible. He had his own library and gave books to other
libraries.

The age of entry to university was between 13 and 16. It took four
years' study of grammar, logic, and rhetoric to achieve the
Bachelor of Arts degree and another five before a master could
begin a specialized study of the civil law, canon law, theology,
or medicine. Arabic numbers replaced Roman numerals, making easy
multiplication and division possible. Humanist studies were
espoused by individual scholars at the three centers of higher
learning: Oxford University, Cambridge University, and the Inns of
Court in London. The Inns of Court attracted the sons of gentry
and merchants pursuing practical and social accomplishments. The
text of 'readings' to members of the inns survive from this time.
In the legalistic climate of these times, attorneys were
prosperous.

The enclosure of land by hedges for sheep farming continued,
especially by rich merchants who bought country land for this
purpose. Often this was land that had been under the plough. Any
villeins were given their freedom and they and the tenants at will
were thrown off it immediately. That land held by copyholders of
land who had only a life estate, was withheld from their sons.
Only freeholders and copyholders with the custom of the manor in
their favor were secure against eviction. But they could be
pressured to sell by tactics such as breeding rabbits or keeping
geese on adjoining land to the detriment of their crops, or
preventing them from taking their traditional short cuts across
the now enclosed land to their fields. The real line of
distinction between rural people was one of material means instead
of legal status: free or unfree. On one extreme was the well-to-do
yeoman farmer farming his own land. On the other extreme was the
agricultural laborer working for wages. Henry made several
proclamations ordering certain enclosures to be destroyed and
tillage to be restored.

Other land put to use for sheep breeding was waste land. There
were three sheep to every person. The nearby woodlands no longer
had wolves or lynx who could kil