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$Title{Description Of Elizabethan England
Chapter XIV}
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$Date{1577}
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Title:       Description Of Elizabethan England
Author:      Harrison, William
Date:        1577

Chapter XIV

Of Savage Beasts And Vermin
[1577, Book III., Chapters 7 and 12; 1587, Book III., Chapters 4 and 6.]

     It is none of the least blessings wherewith God hath endued this island
that it is void of noisome beasts, as lions, bears, tigers, pardes, wolves,
and such like, by means whereof our countrymen may travel in safety, and our
herds and flocks remain for the most part abroad in the field without any
herdman or keeper.

     This is chiefly spoken of the south and south-west parts of the island.
For, whereas we that dwell on this side of the Tweed may safely boast of our
security in this behalf, yet cannot the Scots do the like in every point
wherein their kingdom, sith they have grievous wolves and cruel foxes, beside
some others of like disposition continually conversant among them, to the
general hindrance of their husbandmen, and no small damage unto the
inhabitants of those quarters. The happy and fortunate want of these beasts in
England is universally ascribed to the politic government of King Edgar. ^1...

[Footnote 1: Here follows an account of the extermination of wolves, and a
reference to lions and wild bulls rampant in Scotland of old. - W.]

     Of foxes we have some, but no great store, and also badgers in our sandy
and light grounds, where woods, furze, broom, and plenty of shrubs are to
shroud them in when they be from their burrows, and thereunto warrens of
conies at hand to feed upon at will. Otherwise in clay, which we call the
cledgy mould, we seldom hear of any, because the moisture and the toughness of
the soil is such as will not suffer them to draw and make their burrows deep.
Certes, if I may freely say what I think, I suppose that these two kinds (I
mean foxes and badgers) are rather preserved by gentlemen to hunt and have
pastime withal at their own pleasures than otherwise suffered to live as not
able to be destroyed because of their great numbers. For such is the scantity
of them here in England, in comparison of the plenty that is to be seen in
other countries, and so earnestly are the inhabitants bent to root them out,
that, except it had been to bear thus with the recreations of their superiors
in this behalf, it could not otherwise have been chosen but that they should
have been utterly destroyed by many years agone.

     I might here intreat largely of other vermin, as the polecat, the
miniver, the weasel, stote, fulmart, squirrel, fitchew, and such like, which
Cardan includeth under the word Mustela: also of the otter, and likewise of
the beaver, whose hinder feet and tail only are supposed to be fish. Certes
the tail of this beast is like unto a thin whetstone, as the body unto a
monstrous rat: as the beast also itself is of such force in the teeth that it
will gnaw a hole through a thick plank, or shere through a double billet in a
night; it loveth also the stillest rivers, and it is given to them by nature
to go by flocks unto the woods at hand, where they gather sticks wherewith to
build their nests, wherein their bodies lie dry above the water, although they
so provide most commonly that their tails may hang within the same. It is also
reported that their said tails are delicate dish, and their stones of such
medicinal force that (as Vertomannus saith) four men smelling unto them each
after other did bleed at the nose through their attractive force, proceeding
from a vehement savour wherewith they are endued. There is greatest plenty of
them in Persia, chiefly about Balascham, from whence they and their dried cods
are brought into all quarters of the world, though not without some forgery by
such as provide them. And of all these here remembered, as the first sorts are
plentiful in every wood and hedgerow, so these latter, especially the otter
(for, to say the truth, we have not many beavers, but only in the Teisie in
Wales) is not wanting or to seek in many, but most, streams and rivers of this
isle; but it shall suffice in this sort to have named them, as I do finally
the martern, a beast of the chase, although for number I worthily doubt
whether that of our beavers or marterns may be thought to be the less.

     Other pernicious beasts we have not, except you repute the great plenty
of red and fallow deer whose colours are oft garled white and black, all white
or all black, and store of conies amongst the hurtful sort. Which although
that of themselves they are not offensive at all, yet their great numbers are
thought to be very prejudicial, and therefore justly reproved of many, as are
in like sort our huge flocks of sheep, whereon the greatest part of our soil
is employed almost in every place, and yet our mutton, wool, and felles never
the better cheap. The young males which our fallow deer do bring forth are
commonly named according to their several ages: for the first year it is a
fawn, the second a pricket, the third a sorel, the fourth a soare, the fifth a
buck of the first head, not bearing the name of a buck till he be five years
old: and from henceforth his age is commonly known by his head or horns.
Howbeit this notice of his years is not so certain but that the best woodman
may now and then be deceived in that account: for in some grounds a buck of
the first head will be as well headed as another in a high rowtie soil will be
in the fourth. It is also much to be marvelled at that, whereas, they do
yearly mew and cast their horns, yet in fighting they never break off where
they do grife or mew. Furthermore, in examining the condition of our red deer,
I find that the young male is called in the first year a calf, in the second a
broket, the third a spay, the fourth a staggon or stag, the fifth a great
stag, the sixth a hart, and so forth unto his death. And with him in degree of
venerie are accounted the hare, boar, and wolf. The fallow deer, as bucks and
does, are nourished in parks, and conies in warrens and burrows. As for hares,
they run at their own adventure, except some gentleman or other (for his
pleasure) do make an enclosure for them. Of these also the stag is accounted
for the most noble game, the fallow deer is the next, then the roe, whereof we
have indifferent store, and last of all the hare, not the least in estimation,
because the hunting of that seely beast is mother to all the terms, blasts,
and artificial devices that hunters do use. All which (notwithstanding our
custom) are pastimes more meet for ladies and gentlewomen to exercise
(whatsoever Franciscus Patritius saith to the contrary in his Institution of a
Prince) than for men of courage to follow, whose hunting should practise their
arms in tasting of their manhood, and dealing with such beasts as eftsoons
will turn again and offer them the hardest, rather than their horses' feet
which many times may carry them with dishonour from the field. ^2 . . .

[Footnote 2: Here follows a discourse on ancient boar-hunting, exalting it
above the degenerate sports of the day. This ends the chapter on "savage
beasts." - W.]

     If I should go about to make any long discourse of venomous beasts or
worms bred in England, I should attempt more than occasion itself would
readily offer, sith we have very few worms, but no beasts at all, that are
thought by their natural qualities to be either venomous or hurtful. First of
all, therefore, we have the adder (in our old Saxon tongue called an atter),
which some men do not rashly take to be the viper. Certes, if it be so, then
is not the viper author of the death of her ^3 parents, as some histories
affirm, and thereto Encelius, a late writer, in his De re Metallica, lib. 3,
cap. 38, where he maketh mention of a she adder which he saw in Sala, whose
womb (as he saith) was eaten out after a like fashion, her young ones lying by
her in the sunshine, as if they had been earthworms. Nevertheless, as he
nameth them viperas, so he calleth the male echis, and the female echidna,
concluding in the end that echis is the same serpent which his countrymen to
this day call ein atter, as I have also noted before out of a Saxon
dictionary. For my part I am persuaded that the slaughter of their parents is
either not true at all, or not always (although I doubt not but that nature
hath right well provided to inhibit their superfluous increase by some means
or other), and so much the rather am I led hereunto for that I gather by
Nicander that of all venomous worms the viper only bringeth out her young
alive, and therefore is called in Latin vipera quasivivipara, but of her own
death he doth not (to my remembrance) say anything. It is testified also by
other in other words, and to the like sense, that "Echis id est vipera sola ex
serpentibus non ova sed animalia parit." ^4 And it may well be, for I remember
that I have read in Philostratus, De vita Appollonii, how he saw a viper
licking her young, I did see an adder once myself that lay (as I thought)
sleeping on a molehill, out of whose mouth came eleven young adders of twelve
or thirteen inches in length apiece, which played to and fro in the grass one
with another, till some of them espied me. So soon therefore as they saw my
face they ran again into the mouth of their dam, whom I killed, and then found
each of them shrouded in a distinct cell or pannicle in her belly, much like
unto a soft white jelly, which maketh me to be of the opinion that our adder
is the viper indeed. The colour of their skin is for the most part like rusty
iron or iron grey, but such as be very old resemble a ruddy blue; and as once
in the year (to wit, in April or about the beginning of May) they cast their
old skins (whereby as it is thought their age reneweth), so their stinging
bringeth death without present remedy be at hand, the wounded never ceasing to
swell, neither the venom to work till the skin of the one break, and the other
ascend upward to the heart, where it finisheth the natural effect, except the
juice of dragons (in Latin called dracunculus minor) be speedily ministered
and drunk in strong ale, or else some other medicine taken of like force that
may countervail and overcome the venom of the same. The length of them is most
commonly two feet, and somewhat more, but seldom doth it extend into two feet
six inches, except it be in some rare and monstrous one, whereas our snakes
are much longer, and seen sometimes to surmount a yard, or three feet,
although their poison be nothing so grievous and deadly as the others. Our
adders lie in winter under stones, as Aristotle also saith of the viper (lib.
8, cap. 15), and in holes of the earth, rotten stubs of trees, and amongst the
dead leaves; but in the heat of the summer they come abroad, and lie either
round in heaps or at length upon some hillock, or elsewhere in the grass. They
are found only in our woodland countries and highest grounds, where sometimes
(though seldom) a speckled stone called echites, in Dutch ein atter stein, is
gotten out of their dried carcases, which divers report to be good against
their poison. ^5 As for our snakes, which in Latin are properly named angues,
they commonly are seen in moors, fens, loam, walls, and low bottoms.

[Footnote 3: Galenus, De Theriaca ad Pisonem; Pliny, lib. 10, cap. 62. - H.]

[Footnote 4: "The adder or viper alone among serpents brings forth not eggs
but living creatures."]

[Footnote 5: Sallust, cap. 40; Pliny. lib. 37, cap. 2. - H.]

     As we have great store of toads where adders commonly are found, so do
frogs abound where snakes do keep their residence. We have also the slow-worm,
which is black and greyish of colour, and somewhat shorter than an adder. I
was at the killing once of one of them, and thereby perceived that she was not
so called of any want of nimble motion, but rather of the contrary.
Nevertheless we have a blindworm, to be found under logs, in woods and timber
that hath lain long in a place, which some also do call (and upon better
ground) by the name of slow-worms, and they are known easily by their more or
less variety of striped colours, drawn long-ways from their heads, their whole
bodies little exceeding a foot in length, and yet is their venom deadly. This
also is not to be omitted; and now and then in our fenny countries other kinds
of serpents are found of greater quantity than either our adder or our snake,
but, as these are not ordinary and oft to be seen, so I mean not to intreat of
them among our common annoyances. Neither have we the scorpion, a plague of
God sent not long since into Italy, and whose poison (as Apollodorus saith) is
white, neither the tarantula or Neapolitan spider, whose poison bringeth
death, except music be at hand. Wherefore I suppose our country to be the more
happy (I mean in part) for that it is void of these two grievous annoyances
wherewith other nations are plagued.

     We have also efts both of the land and water, and likewise the noisome
swifts, whereof to say any more it would be but loss of time, sith they are
all well known, and no region to my knowledge found to be void of many of
them. As for flies (sith it shall not be amiss a little to touch them also),
we have none that can do hurt or hindrance naturally unto any: for whether
they be cut-waisted or whole-bodied, they are void of poison and all venomous
inclination. The cut or girt waisted (for so I English the word insecta) are
the hornets, wasps, bees, and such like, whereof we have great store, and of
which an opinion is conceived that the first do breed of the corruption of
dead horses, the second of pears and apples corrupted, and the last of kine
and the oxen: which may be true, especially the first and latter in some parts
of beast, and not their whole substances, as also in the second, sith we have
never wasps but when our fruit beginneth to wax ripe. Indeed Virgil and others
speak of a generation of bees by killing or smothering a bruised bullock or
calf and laying his bowels or his flesh wrapped up in his hide in a close
house for a certain season; but how true it is, hitherto I have not tried. Yet
sure I am of this, that no one living creature corrupteth without the
production of another, as we may see by ourselves, whose flesh doth alter into
lice, and also in sheep for excessive numbers of flesh flies, if they be
suffered to lie unburied or uneaten by the dogs and swine, who often and
happily present such needless generations.

     As concerning bees, I think it good to remember that, whereas some
ancient writers affirm it to be a commodity wanting in our island, it is now
found to be nothing so. In old times peradventure we had none indeed; but in
my days there is such plenty of them in manner everywhere that in some
uplandish towns there are one hundred or two hundred hives of them, although
the said hives are not so huge as those of the east country, but far less, and
not able to contain above one bushel of corn or five pecks at the most. Pliny
(a man that of set purpose delighteth to write of wonders), speaking of honey,
noteth that in the north regions the hives in his time were of such quantity
that some one comb contained eight foot in length, and yet (as it should seem)
he speaketh not of the greatest. For in Podolia, which is now subject to the
King of Poland, their hives are so great, and combs so abundant, that huge
boars, overturning and falling into them, are drowned in the honey before they
can recover and find the means to come out.

     Our honey also is taken and reputed to be the best, because it is harder,
better wrought, and cleanlier vesselled up, than that which cometh from beyond
the sea, where they stamp and strain their combs, bees, and young blowings
altogether into the stuff, as I have been informed. In use also of medicine
our physicians and apothecaries eschew the foreign, especially that of Spain
and Pontus, by reason of a venomous quality naturally planted in the same, as
some write, and choose the home-made: not only by reason of our soil (which
hath no less plenty of wild thyme growing therein than in Sicilia and about
Athens, and maketh the best stuff) as also for that it breedeth (being gotten
in harvest time) less choler, and which is oftentimes (as I have seen by
experience) so white as sugar, and corned as if it were salt. Our hives are
made commonly of rye straw and wattled about with bramble quarters; but some
make the same of wicker, and cast them over with clay. We cherish none in
trees, but set our hives somewhere on the warmest side of the house, providing
that they may stand dry and without danger both of the mouse and the moth.
This furthermore is to be noted, that whereas in vessels of oil that which is
nearest the top is counted the finest and of wine that in the middest, so of
honey the best which is heaviest and moistest is always next the bottom, and
evermore casteth and driveth his dregs upward toward the very top, contrary to
the nature of other liquid substances, whose grounds and leeze do generally
settle downwards. And thus much as by the way of our bees and English honey.

     As for the whole-bodied, as the cantharides, and such venomous creatures
of the same kind, to be abundantly found in other countries, we hear not of
them: yet have we beetles, horseflies, turdbugs or dors (called in Latin
scarabei), the locust or the grasshopper (which to me do seem to be one thing,
as I will anon declare), and such like, whereof let other intreat that make an
exercise in catching of flies, but a far greater sport in offering them to
spiders, as did Domitian sometime, and another prince yet living who delighted
so much to see the jolly combats betwixt a stout fly and an old spider that
divers men have had great rewards given them for their painful provision of
flies made only for this purpose. Some parasites also, in the time of the
aforesaid emperor (when they were disposed to laugh at his folly, and yet
would seem in appearance to gratify his fantastical head with some shew of
dutiful demeanour), could devise to set their lord on work by letting a flesh
fly privily into his chamber, which he forthwith would eagerly have hunted
(all other business set apart) and never ceased till he had caught her into
his fingers, wherewith arose the proverb, "Ne musca quidem," uttered first by
Vibius Priscus, who being asked whether anybody was with Domitian, answered
"Ne musca quidem," whereby he noted his folly. There are some cockscombs here
and there in England, learning it abroad as men transregionate, which make
account also of this pastime, as of a notable matter, telling what a sight is
seen between them, if either of them be lusty and courageous in his kind. One
also hath made a book of the spider and the fly, wherein he dealeth so
profoundly, and beyond all measure of skill that neither he himself that made
it nor any one that readeth it can reach unto the meaning thereof. But if
those jolly fellows, instead of the straw that they must thrust into the fly's
tail (a great injury no doubt to such a noble champion), would bestow the cost
to set a fool's cap upon their own heads, then might they with more security
and less reprehension behold these notable battles.

     Now, as concerning the locust, I am led by divers of my country, who (as
they say) were either in Germany, Italy, or Pannonia, 1542, when those nations
were greatly annoyed with that kind of fly, and affirm very constantly that
they saw none other creature than the grasshopper during the time of that
annoyance, which was said to come to them from the Meotides. In most of our
translations also of the Bible the word locusta is Englished a grasshopper,
and thereunto (Leviticus xi.) it is reputed among the clean food, otherwise
John the Baptist would never have lived with them in the wilderness. In
Barbary, Numidia, and sundry other places of Africa, as they have been, ^6 so
are they eaten to this day powdered in barrels, and therefore the people of
those parts are called Acedophagi: nevertheless they shorten the life of the
eaters, by the production at the last of an irksome and filthy disease. In
India they are three foot long, in Ethiopia much shorter, but in England
seldom above an inch. As for the cricket, called in Latin cicada, he hath some
likelihood, but not very great, with the grasshopper, and therefore he is not
to be brought in as an umpire in this case. Finally, Matthiolus and so many as
describe the locust do set down none other form than that of our grasshopper,
which maketh me so much the more to rest upon my former imagination, which is
that the locust and the grasshopper are one.

[Footnote 6: See Diodorus Siculus. - H.]