I do not read that this
custom of saving by the book is used anywhere else than in England;
neither do I find (after much diligent enquiry) what Saxon prince
ordained that law. Howbeit this I generally gather thereof, that it
was devised to train the inhabitants of this land to the love of
learning, which before contemned letters and all good knowledge, as
men only giving themselves to husbandry and the wars: the like whereof
I read to have been amongst the Goths and Vandals, who for a time
would not suffer even their princes to be learned, for weakening of
their courage, nor any learned men to remain in the council house, but
by open proclamation would command them to avoid whensoever anything
touching the state of the land was to be consulted upon. Pirates and
robbers by sea are condemned in the Court of the Admiralty, and hanged
on the shore at low-water mark, where they are left till three tides
have overwashed them. Finally, such as having walls and banks near
unto the sea, and do suffer the same to decay (after convenient
admonition), whereby the water entereth and drowneth up the country,
are by a certain ancient custom apprehended, condemned, and staked in
the breach, where they remain for ever as parcel of the foundation of
the new wall that is to be made upon them, as I have heard reported.
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