Grace with meals—before and after—was not only the law, but the practice. To ask God’s blessing over what His bounty had provided, and to thank Him afterwards, was an elementary duty of all living the Christian life. Children were taught the importance of associating God and His providence with their meals, and, as in so many other matters, instruction was conveyed in some simple rhymes like—
“He that without grace sitteth down to eate
Forgetting to give God thanks for his meate
And riseth againe letting Grace overpasse
Sittes down like an oxe and riseth like an asse.”
Children were taught to rise early, as the Babe of Nurture says—
“Ryse you early in the morning
For it hath propertyes three
Holynesse, health and happy welth,
As my father taught mee.