Mansions and stately manor houses like Hatfield, Knowle, parts of Haddon Hall, and the “Bracebridge Hall” of Washington Irving,[2] rose instead of castles, and hospitality, not exclusion, became the prevailing custom.  The introduction of chimneys brought the cheery comfort of the English fireside, while among the wealthy, carpets, tapestry, and silver plate took the place of floors strewed with rushes, of bare walls, and of tables covered with pewter or woooden dishes.

[2] Aston Hall, Birmingham, is the original of Irving’s “Bracebridge Hall.”  It came a little later than Elizabeth’s time, but is Elizabethan in style.

An old writer, lamenting these innovations, says:  “When our houses were built of willow, then we had oaken men; but, now that our houses are made of oak, our men have not only become willow, but many are altogether of straw, which is a sore affliction.”

392.  An Age of Adventure and of Daring.

But they were not all of straw, for that was a period of daring enterprise, of explorers, sea rovers, and freebooters.  Sir Walter Raleigh planted the first English colony in America, which the maiden Queen named Virginia, in honor of herself.  It proved unsuccessful, but he said, “I shall live to see it an English nation yet”; and he did.

Frobisher explored the coasts of Labrador and Greenland.  Sir Francis Drake, who plundered the treasure ships of Spain wherever he found them, sailed into the Pacific, spent a winter in or near the harbor of San Francisco, and ended his voyage by circumnavigating the globe.  (See map facing p. 222.) In the Far East, London merchants had established the East India Company, the beginning of English dominion in Asia; while in Holland, Sir Philip Sydney gave his lifeblood for the cause of Protestantism.

393.  Literature and Natural Philosophy.

It was an age, too, not only of brave deeds but of high thoughts.  Shakespeare, Spenser, and Jonson were making English literature the noblest of all literatures.  Furthermore, Shakespeare had no equal as a teacher of English history.  His historical plays appealed then, as they do now, to every heart.  At his touch the dullest and driest records of the past are transformed and glow with color, life, movement, and meaning.[1] On the other hand, Francis Bacon, son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, of Elizabeth’s council, was giving a wholly different direction to education.  In his new system of philosophy,[2] he taught men that in order to use the forces of nature they must learn by observation and experiment to know nature herself; “for,” said he, “knowledge is power.”

[1] On the value of Shakespeare’s Historical Plays, see S298, note 1; S313, note 2; and S410. [2] In his tract on “The Greatest Birth of Time,” in 1582.

394.  Mary Queen of Scots claims the Crown (1561).