The Armourers Prentices

The Armourer's Prentices, by
Charlotte M. Yonge

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Title: The Armourer's Prentices
Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge
Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9959] [This file was first

posted on November 5, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
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ARMOURER'S PRENTICES ***

Transcribed by David Price, email [email protected]

THE ARMOURER'S PRENTICES

PREFACE

I have attempted here to sketch citizen life in the early Tudor days,
aided therein by Stowe's Survey of London, supplemented by Mr.
Loftie's excellent history, and Dr. Burton's English Merchants.
Stowe gives a full account of the relations of apprentices to their
masters; though I confess that I do not know whether Edmund Burgess
could have become a citizen of York after serving an apprenticeship in
London. Evil May Day is closely described in Hall's Chronicle. The
ballad, said to be by Churchill, a contemporary, does not agree with it
in all respects; but the story-teller may surely have license to follow
whatever is most suitable to the purpose. The sermon is exactly as
given by Hall, who is also responsible for the description of the King's
sports and of the Field of the Cloth of Gold and of Ardres. Knight's
admirable Pictorial History of England tells of Barlow, the archer,
dubbed by Henry VIII. the King of Shoreditch.

Historic Winchester describes both St. Elizabeth College and the
Archer Monks of Hyde Abbey. The tales mentioned as told by
Ambrose to Dennet are really New Forest legends.
The Moresco's Arabic Gospel and Breviary are mentioned in Lady
Calcott's History of Spain, but she does not give her authority. Nor can
I go further than Knight's Pictorial History for the King's adventure in
the marsh. He does not say where it happened, but as in Stowe's map
"Dead Man's Hole" appears in what is now Regent's Park, the marsh
was probably deep enough in places for the adventure there. Brand's
Popular Antiquities are the authority for the nutting in St. John's Wood
on Holy Cross Day. Indeed, in some country parishes I have heard that
boys still think they have a license to crack nuts at church on the
ensuing Sunday.
Seebohm's Oxford Reformers and the Life of Sir Thomas More, written
by William Roper, are my other authorities, though I touched
somewhat unwillingly on ground already lighted up by Miss Manning
in her Household of Sir Thomas More.
Galt's Life of Cardinal Wolsey afforded the description of his
household taken from his faithful Cavendish, and likewise the story of
Patch the Fool. In fact, a large portion of the whole book was built on
that anecdote.
I mention all this because I have so often been asked my authorities in
historical tales, that I think people prefer to have what the French
appropriately call pieces justificatives.
C. M. YONGE.
August 1st, 1884
CHAPTER I.
THE VERDURER'S LODGE

"Give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament, with that I
will go buy me fortunes." "Get you with him, you old dog."
As You Like It.
The officials of the New Forest have ever since the days of the
Conqueror enjoyed some of the pleasantest dwellings that southern
England can boast.
The home of the Birkenholt family was not one of the least delightful.
It stood at the foot of a rising ground, on which grew a grove of
magnificent beeches, their large silvery boles rising majestically like
columns into a lofty vaulting of branches, covered above with tender
green foliage. Here and there the shade beneath was broken by the
gilding of a ray of sunshine on a lower twig, or on a white trunk, but
the floor of the vast arcades was almost entirely of the russet brown of
the fallen leaves, save where a fern or holly bush made a spot of green.
At the foot of the slope