Elizabethan England

Everyday habits share space with public institutions in William Harrison's account of England under Elizabeth I. Drawn from his description in Holinshed's Chronicles, this volume covers social ranks, towns, markets, gardens, food, clothing and houses. Its introduction presents a writer who notices both improvements in domestic comfort and reasons to complain about changing manners. The result is a survey shaped by personal judgments as well as close attention to ordinary life.

Harrison's discussion of livestock brings that attention into the fields. He considers the value of sheep, the losses caused by disease and the ways households use milk in making cheese. Practical observations sit beside reports from other writers, which he sometimes questions or admits he cannot verify. For readers studying sixteenth-century society, the book offers concrete details of work, consumption and local resources, alongside the opinions through which one contemporary understood them.