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308 THE SUSSEX COAST
to alter to 1342), and this is probably the period of most of the building. There is some carved Jacobean panelling, and the house has been well restored.
Andrew Boorde was Sussex born, and after his studies at Oxford he joined the Carthusian Order, but only to find that his nature was much too funny for that sad rule, and, wandering about to various places on the Continent, he graduated in physic at Montpellier in 1542. It was his custom to harangue the people at fairs and markets, endeavouring to draw their attention to his medical skill. Though his brother was their vicar, he had a poor opinion of the people of Pevensey, or Gotham as he calls the place. With laboured humour he accuses their wise men of executing an eel by drowning and their grand jury of finding a man guilty of manslaughter for stealing a pair of leather breeches. He died in Fleet Prison in 1549.
His Book of the Introduction of Knoicledge claims to *' teach a man to speak part of all manner of languages, and to know the usage and fashion of all manner of countries, and to know the most part of all manner of coins of money which is current in every region." An Englishman is represented very insufficiently covered except for a hat with a large feather, and in one hand he holds a huge pair of shears ; over the other arm he has a bundle of cloth, and he says—
'' I am an Englishman and naked I stand here, Musing in my mind what rayment I shall were ; For now I wyl were thys, and now I wyl were that, Now I wyl were I cannot tell what."
Commenting on this passage Holinshed tells us : |
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