1556. Derth in England, wherein wheat is worthe liij sh: iiij d the quarter; malt, beanes, Rie, at 40 sh:; & peasen at 46 shillinges; but after harvest, wheate was sold for 5 shillinges the quarter, malt at a noble, Rie at 3 sh: 4 d. in London; & therefore the price was not so highe in the country....
Soche was the plenty of Saffron in this yere, that the murmuring Crokers envieng the store, said in blasphemous maner, in & aboute Waldon in Essex, that “God did now shite saffron”; but as some of them died afterward, starke beggars, so in 20 yeres after, there was so little of this Commodity, that it was almost lost & perished in England....
A generall sickenesse in England, where-of the third parte of the people of the land did tast; & many clergymen had their desire, who, suspecting an alteration in relligion to insue after the death of Quene Mary, & fearing to be called to accompt for their bloodshed made, & practize of the losse of Calais, craved of God in their daiely praiers, that they might die before her; & so they did; the Lord hearing their praiers, & intending therby to geue his churche a breathing time....
Harrison on Religious Hatred.
1560. The French Protestantes are exiled out of Frankeford, Aprillis 23, onely for that, in doctrine, they did not agree with Luther, the Augustane confession, pacification at Wittenberg, & reconciliation made at Frankeford: a slender cause, God wote! If it be well examined, you shall find it a thing onely diuised, thereby to put their brethren to incumbrauns. But when I consider what hatred the Lutheranes do here vnto the Calvinistes, & the Precisians to the Protestantes, I can liken the same to nothing better then that mallice which reigneth betwene the papistes & the gospellers....
The Spire of St. Paul’s struck by Lightning.
1560. The Rooffe, with the Spire & steple of Paules church in London, is consumed to ashes, Junij 4, by lightning. Certes the toppe of this Spire, where the wethercocke stode, was 520 foote from the ground, of which the spire was the one halfe. the bredth of the church also, saith Stow, is 130 foote, & the length 2690, or 836 yardes, 2 foote, at this present. Also an erthquake is felt in the kingdome.... (Stowe, p. 1095.—F.)
Queen Elizabeth at Oxford. “Falamon and Arcite.”
1565. The Queene of England beginneth hir progresse, & vpon the 31 of August cometh to Oxford, where she visiteth eche college after other, & making an oration vnto them in Latine, as she had done in Cambridge two yeres passed, to the gret comfort of all soche as are, or had bene, studentes there. During her being there also the Academicall exercises were holden as in their vsuall termes. Diuerse Commedies & plaies also were set forthe by the studentes of Christes Church, where her Majestie lodged; but of all the rest, onely that of “Arcite & Palemon”[239] had a tragicall successe; for, by the falle, of a walle & wooden gallery that leadeth from the staiers vnfinished to the hall, diuers persons were sore hurt, & 3 men killed out right, which came to behold the pastimes. [This paragraph takes up seven lines, and 1¼ inch of the height, of Harrison’s MS.; so close is the writing.—F.]....