on the sovereignty of Numidia. War was declared against him by the
Romans, and after some time Metellus drove him to such extremes that
he was obliged to take refuge with his father-in-law, Bocchus, by whom
he was given up to Marius, was carried in triumph to Rome, and finally
starved to death. The history of the war against him is related in
Sallust's _Bellum Jugurthinum_.

[E12] "With losses so perfumid;" _i.e._ pervaded, thoroughly imbued; we
use _imbued_ nearly in the same way.

[E13] Harrison, in his Description of England (E.E.T. Soc. ed.
Furnivall, part i. p. 241), gives a very bad character to the landlords
of his day: "What stocke of monie soeuer he [the farmer] gathereth and
laieth vp in all his yeares, it is often seene, that the landlord will
take such order with him for the same, when he renueth his lease, which
is commonlie eight or six yeares before the old be expired (sith it
is now growen almost to a custome, that if he come not to his lord so
long before, another shall step in for a reuersion, and so defeat him
out right) that it shall neuer trouble him more than the haire of his
beard, when the barber hath washed and shaued it from his skin. And
as they commend these, so (beside the decaie of house-keeping whereby
the poore haue beene relieued) they speake also of three things that
are growen to be verie grieuous vnto them, to wit, the inhansing of
rents, latelie mentioned; the dailie oppression of copiholders, whose
lords seeke to bring their poore tenants almost into plaine seruitude
and miserie, dailie deuising new meanes, and seeking vp all the old,
how to cut them shorter and shorter, _doubling, trebling, and now and
then seuen times increasing their fines_; driuing them also for euerie
trifle to loose and forfeit their tenures, (by whom the greatest part
of the realme dooth stand and is mainteined,) to the end they may
fleece them yet more." See also Norden's Surveyor's Dialogue, ed. 1607,
p. 51.

The following curious prayer is in Edward the Sixth's Liturgies:--"The
earth is Thine, O Lord, and all that is contained therein,
notwithstanding Thou hast given possession of it to the children of
men, to pass over the time of their short pilgrimage in this vale of
misery. We heartily pray Thee to send Thy Holy Spirit into the hearts
of those that possess the grounds, pastures, and dwelling-places of the
earth, that they, remembering themselves to be Thy tenants, may not
rack nor stretch out the rents of their houses and lands, nor yet take
unreasonable fines and incomes after the manner of covetous worldlings,
but so let them out to others, that the inhabitants thereof may both
be able to pay the rents, and also honestly to live and nourish their
families, and relieve the poor. Give them grace also to consider that
they are but strangers and pilgrims in this world, having here no
dwelling-place, but seeking one to come; that they, remembering the
short continuance of their life, may be contented with that which
is sufficient, and not join house to house and land to land, to the
impoverishment of others; but so behave themselves in letting out
their lands, tenements, and pastures, that after this life they may be
received into everlasting dwelling-places, through, etc."

[E14] "Fleeces" = fleecings, frauds, impositions. It _may_, perhaps, be
used literally, of selling wool at a loss.

[E15] "Ictus sapit." This corresponds to our proverb, "The burnt child
dreads the fire," or perhaps more nearly to "Once bit, twice shy."
In the "Proverbs of Hendyng" we find it as: "The burnt child fire
dreadeth, quoth Hendyng." Ray, in his "Collection of Proverbs," edit.
1737, says: "Piscator ictus sapit; struck by the scorpion fish, or
pastinaca, whose prickles are esteemed venomous."

[E16] If Tusser is here writing literally, the price of his book, in
"the golden days of good Queen Bess," was only a groat or two at the
utmost.--M.

[E17] "Shere" = shire; the construction is--don't think that _every_
bit of land (or county) can profit by following my directions, for
soils differ. Compare chapter 19, stanza 8, p. 48.

[E18] "Must keepe such coile;" must bustle about, exert themselves. Cf.
Scott's "Lord of the Isles," canto v. stanza 1: "For wake where'er he
may, man wakes to care and _coil_." And Shakspere: "I pray you watch
about Signor Leonata's door; for the wedding being there to-morrow,
there is a great _coil_ to-night."

[E19] In the edition of 1570 the first stanza of the "Preface to the
Buier" reads as follows:

"What lookest thou herein to haue?
  Trim verses thy fansie to please?
Of Surry so famous that craue,
  Looke nothing but rudenes in these."

The reference in the third line being to Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey,
author of the Translation of the second and fourth Books of the Æneid
of Virgil, and of numerous other poems, who was executed in 1547.

[E20] In the footnote to this Preface it is stated that the metre is
peculiar to Shenstone, but this is incorrect, as it is also used by
Prior: "Despairing beside a clear stream."

[E21] "The sea for my fish," _i.e._ for my fishpond.

[E22] With "The Ladder to Thrift" we may compare the following "Maxims
in _-ly_," from the Lansdowne MS. 762, f. 16_b_ (see Babees Book, ed.
Furnivall, p. 247):

"Aryse erly,
Serue God devowtely,
And the worlde besely,
Doo thy werk wisely,
Yeue thyne almes secretly,
Goo by the waye sadly,
Answer the people demuerly,
Goo to thy mete appetitely,
Sit therat discretely,
Of thy tunge be not to liberally,
Arise therfrom temperally,
Go to thy supper soberly,
And to thy bed merely,
Be in thyn Inne jocundely,
Please thy loue duely,
And slepe suerly."

[E23] "Familie," here used in the sense of the Latin original _familia_
= household, servants. Compare chap. 73, st. 13.

[E24] Compare Shakspere, Richard II. Act ii. sc. 4, 24: "And crossly to
the good all fortune goes."

[E25] "To bridle wild otes fantasie," _i.e._ to restrain the excesses
of youth.

[E26] "Well to account of which honest is not;" never think highly of
that which is not honourable, or honestly come by.

[E27] Cf. Hebrews xiii. 4: "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed
undefiled." Tusser evidently does not appreciate "love in a cottage."

[E28] "Giue ouer to sudgerne, that thinkest to thee;" _i.e._ make up
your mind to settle down in one place and to give up roaming about, if
you hope to prosper, lest the grumbling of your hosts and the wants of
the nurses prove too expensive for you. Compare "The Dialogue of Wiving
and Thriving," ch. 67 stanza 3, p. 152.

[E29] Dr. Mavor suggests that the third line of this stanza should
read: "Of tone _or_ them both," "meaning, if we smell the savour of
saving or winning or them both."

[E30] A fool and his money are soon parted.

[E31] "Good bargaine a dooing," etc. When you have a chance of making
a good bargain, don't let every one know; but when you want to sell
anything, then let it be published abroad as widely as possible. In the
first case don't hesitate or haggle about it, but "take the ball on the
hop;" in the second, don't be in a hurry to take the first offer, if
you are not ashamed of what you wish to sell.

[E32] "Of the complaint of such poore tenants as paie _rent corne_
vnto their landlords, I speake not, who are often dealt withall very
hardlie. For beside that in the measuring of ten quarters, for the most
part they lose one through the iniquitie of the bushell (such is the
greedinesse of the appointed receiuers thereof), fault is found also
with the goodnesse and cleannesse of the graine. Wherby some peece of
monie must needs passe vnto their purses to stop their mouths withall,
or else my lord will not like of the corne: 'Thou are worthie to loose
thy lease, etc.' Or if it be cheaper in the market, than the rate
allowed for it is in their rents, then must they paie monie, and no
corne, which is no small extremitie."--Harrison, part i. p. 301.

[E33] "In this quatrain all the later editions of our author read
uniformly _misers_ for _michers_ (thieves or pilferers). What kind
of _misers_ 'unthriftiness' would make never seems to have been
considered. 'Careless and rash' is a gallicism for carelessness and
rashness."--M. "Mychare, _capax, cleps, furunculus._"--Prompt. Parv.

"_Mychers_, hedge crepers, fylloks and lushes,
That all the somer kepe dyches and bushes."
  --The Hyeway to the Spytell House, ed. Atterson, ii. 11.

See also Townley Mysteries, pp. 216, 308. "_Caqueraffe_, a base
_micher_, scurvie hagler, lowsie dodger, etc. _Caqueduc_, a niggard,
_micher_, etc."--Cotgrave.

[E34] "Make hunger thy sauce." This is the proverb "hunger is the best
sauce," which is reckoned amongst the aphorisms of Socrates: "Optimum
cibi condimentum fames, sitis potus."--Cicero, De Finibus, Bk. II.

[E35] "Mastive, _Bandog, Molossus_."--Baret's Alvearie, 1580. "The
tie-dog or band-dog, so called bicause manie of them are tied up in
chaines and strong bonds, in the daie time, for dooing hurt abroad,
which is an huge dog, stubborne, ouglie, eager, burthenous of bodie
(and therefore but of little swiftnesse), terrible and fearfull to
behold, and oftentimes more fierce and fell than anie Archadian or
Corsican cur.... They take also their name of the word 'mase' and
'theefe' (or 'master theefe' if you will), bicause they often stound
and put such persons to their shifts in townes and villages, and are
the principall causes of their apprehension and taking."--Harrison,
Descrip. of England, part ii. pp. 44-5. "We han great _Bandogs_ will
teare their skins."--Spenser, Shep. Cal. September.

[E36] "The credite of maister," etc. If servants are allowed the credit
or trust, which should only be allowed to their master and mistress,
much trouble will be the result.

[E37] "Be to count ye wote what," that is, nothing to signify, of
little importance.

[E38] "So, twentie lode bushes," etc. So, without proper management,
twenty loads of bushes may be so wasted as only to serve for the
stopping of a single gap.

"A" = one, a single: a very common use in Early English; cf. William of
Nassington's "Myrrour of Lyfe," lines 2, 3;

"Fader and Sonne and Haly Gaste
That er _a_ God als we trowe maste"--that is, _one_ God.

[E39] Some, upon Sundays, have their tables covered with smoking
dishes, and then have to seek, _i.e._ do without dinners for the rest
of the week.

[E40] "Skarborow warning." Grose says it means, "A word and a blow
and the blow first." R. J. S. in Notes and Queries, 1st Ser. i. 170,
adds that it is a common proverb in Yorkshire. Fuller states that the
saying arose from "Thomas Stafford, who in the reign of Mary, A.D.
1557, with a small company, seized on Scarborough Castle, and before
the townspeople had the least notice of their approach." Another
explanation is that, if ships passed the castle without saluting
it, a shotted gun was fired at them. In a ballad by Heywood another
derivation is given:

"This term _Scarborow warning_ grew (some say)
  By hasty hanging for rank robbery theare.
Who that was met, but suspect in that way,
  Strait he was trust up, whatever he were."

This implies that Scarborough imitated the Halifax gibbet law.--N.&
Q. 1st Ser. i. 138. In a letter by Toby Matthew, Bishop of Durham, to
the Archbishop of York, Jan. 19, 1603, he writes: "When I was in the
midst of this discourse I received a message from my Lord Chamberlain
that it was his Majesty's pleasure that I should preach before him
on Sunday next, which _Scarborough warning_ did not only perplex me,
but so puzzel me as no mervail if somewhat be prætermitted, which
otherwise I might have better remembered."--N. & Q. 4th Ser. xii. 408.
"_Scarborough warning_. The antiquity of the phrase is shown by its
occurrence in Puttenham's 'Arte of English Poetrie,' ed. 1589. The
following is the passage, from p. 199 of Arber's reprint: [We have]
'many such prouerbiall speeches: as, _Totnesse is turned French_, for
a strange alteration: _Skarborow warning_, for a sodaine commandement,
allowing no respect or delay to bethinke a man of his busines.'"--Note
by Rev. W. Skeat. See also Ray's Proverbs.

[E41] "Sir I arest yee;" that is, the Sheriff's officer, who, touching
your arm, would use these words.

[E42] "Legem pone," a curious old proverbial or cant term for _ready
money_.

"There are so manie Danaes now a dayes,
  That love for lucre, paine for gaine is sold;
No true affection can their fancie please,
  Except it be a Iove, to raine downe gold
  Into their laps, which they wyde open hold;
If _legem pone_ comes, he is receav'd,
When _vix haud habes_ is of hope bereav'd."
  --The Affectionate Shepheard, 1594.

"But in this there is nothing to bee abated, all their speech is _legem
pone_, or else with their ill custome they will detaine thee."--G.
Minshul, Essays in Prison.

[E43] "_Oremus_," from Lat. _orare_ = to beg, here means making excuses
for non-payment of debts.

[E44] "_Præsta quæsumus_" = lend me, I pray. Compare _Preste_ = a loan,
_Pretoes_ = loans, in Halliwell. A lender hates to hear a man say
_Præsta_.

[E45] The word "collects" is used here in its original meaning of short
prayers; thus the prayers before the Epistle and Gospel in the Prayer
Book are called Collects, as containing briefly the lessons of the
Epistle and Gospel.

[E46] "Nor put to thy hand," etc.; that is, do not meddle in the
business of other people, and be careful whom you assist, lest by being
too free and generous you yourself may be put to inconvenience. Ray
gives: "Put not thy hand between the bark and the tree," that is, do
not meddle in family affairs.

[E47] Tusser here, while acknowledging the necessity and advantages of
the practice of "giving credit" in business, impresses strongly upon
his readers the dishonesty and danger of promiscuous borrowing and
lending, either to relations or friends, winding up with the advice
never to trust a man who has once broken his engagements, without a
surety, and never to lend a second time to a man who is angry with you
for asking for payment of what he already owes.

[E48] "The foole at the bottom, the wise at the brim;" referring to
the proverb, "Better spare at brim than at bottom," that is, "Better
be frugal in youth, than be reduced to the necessity of being saving
in age." Ray also gives another proverb of a similar character,
"'Tis too late to spare when the bottom is dry." "Sera in fundo
parsimonia."--Seneca, Epist. i.

[E49] "Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum." Cf. Barbour's Bruce,
ed. Skeat, p. 612.

[E50] "Stands thee vpon." Compare Shakspere, King Richard II. Act ii.
sc. 3, 138: "_It stands_ your grace _upon_ to do him right;" and,

    "_It stands_ me much _upon_,
To stop all hopes whose growth may damage me."
  --Richard III. Act iv. sc. 2, 59.

[E51] "Jankin and Jenikin" are only names for servants in general.

[E52]

"The proverb says, and who'd a proverb cross?
That stones, when rolling, gather little moss."
  --Vade Mecum for Malt Worms, 1720, p. 6 (part 2).

See also Ray's Proverbs. Cf.

"On the stone that styll doth turne about,
There groweth no mosse."
  --Sir T. Wiat, "How to use the Court," l. 4.

A similar proverb occurs in Piers Plowman, A Text, Passus x. l. 101:
"Selden moseth the marbelston that men ofte treden." Cf. also, "Syldon
mossyth the stone þat oftyn ys tornyd and wende."--"How the good wife
taught her daughter," pr. in Q. Elizabeth's Achademy, ed. Furnivall,
p. 39. In the Verses on Lord Burghley's Crest (printed in Thynne's
Animaduersions, Chaucer Soc. ed. Furnivall), stanza 32, we read:

"And prouerbe olde was not deuis'd in veyne,
That 'roolinge stone doth neuer gather mosse';
Who lightly leaves in myddest of all his peine,
His former labor frustrates with his losse;
But who continues as he did begynne,
Withe equall course the pointed goale doth wynne."

See also chapt. 77. st. 20, p. 170.

[E53] "Of all [the lawyers] that euer I knew in Essex, Denis and
Mainford excelled, till John of Ludlow, alias Mason, came in place,
vnto whome in comparison they two were but children: for this last
in lesse than three or foure yeares, did bring one man (among manie
else-where in other places) almost to extreame miserie (if beggerie
be the vttermost) that before he had the shauing of his beard, was
valued at two hundred pounds (I speake with the least) and finallie
feeling that he had not sufficient wherwith to susteine himselfe and
his familie, and also to satisfie that greedie rauenour, which still
called vpon him for new fees, he went to bed, and within foure daies
made an end of his wofull life, euen with care and pensiuenesse. After
his death also he so handled his sonne, that there was neuer sheepe
shorne in Maie, so neere clipped of his fleece present, as he was of
manie to come: so that he was compelled to let awaie his land, bicause
his cattell and stocke were consumed, and he no longer able to occupie
the ground."--Harrison, Descript. of Eng. part i. pp. 206-7.

"Daw" = a chattering fool. See Peacock's Glossary (Eng. Dial. Soc.).

[E54] From this stanza it would seem that sportsmen did not hesitate
to trespass on the lands of others in former days any more than at
present, but in such cases Tusser recommends the "mild answer which
turneth away wrath," and sets out the advantages of courteousness and
respect to one's superiors.

[E55] "That flesh might be more plentifull and better cheaper,
two daies in the weeke, that is Fryday and Saturday, are specially
appointed to fish, and now of late yeares, by the prouidence of our
prudent Princesse, Elizabeth, the Wednesday also is in a manner
restrained to the same order, not for any religion or holinesse
supposed to be in the eating of fish rather than of flesh, but onely
for the ciuill policie as I haue said. That as God hath created both
for man's use, so both being used or refrained at certaine seasons,
might by that entercourse be more abundant. And no doubt, if all daies
appointed for that purpose were duly obserued, but that flesh and fish
both would be much more plentifull, and beare lesse price than they
doe. For accounting the Lent season, and all fasting daies in the yeare
together with Wednesday and Friday and Saturday, you shall see that the
one halfe of the yeare is ordeined to eate fish in."--Cogan's Haven of
Health, ed. 1612, p. 138.

"It is lawfull for euerie man to feed vpon what soeuer he is able
to purchase, except it be vpon those daies whereon eating of flesh
is especiallie forbidden by the lawes of the realme, which order is
taken onelie to the end our numbers of cattell may be the better
increased, and that aboundance of fish which the sea yeeldeth, more
generallie receiued. Beside this, there is great consideration had in
making of this law for the preseruation of the nauie, and maintenance
of conuenient numbers of sea faring men, both which would otherwise
greatlie decaie, if some meanes were not found whereby they might be
increased."--Harrison, Descript. of Eng. part i. p. 144.

The following menu for a fish day is given in the Liber Cure Cocorum,
p. 54, ed. Morris:

         "For a servise on fysshe day.

"Fyrst white pese and porray þou take,
Cover þy white heryng for goddys sake;
Þen cover red heryng, and set abufe,
And mustard on heghe, for goddys lufe;
Þen cover salt salmon on hast,
Salt ele þer wyth on þis course last.
For þe secunde course, so god me glad,
Take ryse and fletande fignade,
Þan salt fysshe and stok fysshe take þou schalle,
For last of þis course, so fayre me falle.
For þe iii cours sowpys done fyne,
And also lamprouns in galentyne,
Bakun turbut and sawmon ibake
Alle fresshe, and smalle fysshe þou take
Þerwith, als troute, sperlynges, and menwus with al,
And loches to horn sawce versance shal."

See also the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 50.

[E56] "Setteth his soule vpon sixe or on seauen," that is, risks his
life on the cast of a die.

[E57] "Sit downe Robin and rest thee." I was inclined to think that
this was the burden of some ballad, but Mr. Chappell, to whom I
applied, is of opinion that it was not.

"An habitation inforced," etc., _i.e._ it is better to settle down,
even late in life, than not at all. Comp. chap. 10, stanza 8, p. 19.

[E58] For a great portion of the year the only animal food eaten was
in a salted state. In the autumn as much meat was cured as would last
the winter; and until the pastures had been for some time abundant,
that is, not until Midsummer, there were no means of fattening cattle.
After the winter months, veal and bacon were welcomed as the precursors
of fresh beef; and those who lived near the sea-coast enjoyed the
addition of fresh fish; but the state of the roads prevented the inland
parts of the country partaking of this benefit. The consumption of fish
during Lent and on other fast-days, comprising a great part of the
year, being expressly directed by statute, the people, even after the
abolition of the old religion, provided themselves at several large
fairs held almost expressly for the sale and distribution of salt-fish.

[E59] "Veale and Bakon is the man," _i.e._ is the proper food, or is in
season.

[E60] "Martilmas beef," beef killed at Martinmas, and dried for
winter use. "Biefe salted, dried up in the chimney, Martlemas
biefe."--Hollyband's Dict. 1593. See note to l. 383 of Wallace, in
Specimens of Eng. Literature, ed. Skeat, p. 391.

"Beefe is a good meate for an Englysshe man, so be it the beest be
yonge, and that it be not kowe-flesshe; for olde beefe and kowe-flesshe
doth ingender melancolye and leporouse humoures. Yf it be moderatly
powderyd, that the groose blode by salte may be exhaustyd, it doth make
an Englysshe man stronge, the education of hym with it consyderyd.
Martylmas beef, whiche is called 'hanged beef' in the rofe of the
smoky howse, is not laudable; it maye fyll the bely, and cause a man
to drynke, but it is euyll for the stone, and euyll of dygestyon, and
maketh no good iuce. If a man haue a peace hangynge by his syde, and
another in his bely, that the whiche doth hange by the syde shall do
hym more good, yf a showre of rayne do chaunse, than that the which is
in his bely, the appetyde of mans sensualyte notwithstandynge."--Andrew
Boorde's Dyetary, E. E. Text Soc. edit. F. J. Furnivall, chap. xvi.

"In a hole in the same Rock was three Barrels of nappy liquour; thither
the Keeper brought a good Red-Deere Pye, cold Roast Mutton, and an
excellent shooing-horn of hang'd _Martimas_ Biefe."--1639, John Taylor,
Part of this Summers Travels, p. 26.

"_Bacon_ is good for carters, and plowe men, the which be euer
labouryng in the earth or dunge; but and yf they haue the stone and vse
to eate it, they shall synge 'wo be to the pye!' Wherefore I do say
that coloppes and egges is as holsome for them as a talowe candell is
good for a horse mouth, or a peece of powdred Beefe is good for a blere
eyed mare."--A. Boorde, Regyment, fo. K iii. b.

"As for _bacon_ it is in no wise commended as wholsome, especially for
students, or such as haue feeble stomacks. But for labouring men it is
conuenient according to that Latine prouerbe, grosse meate for grosse
men."--Cogan's Haven of Health, p. 116.

[E61] The farmers in old times were greater economists than now. "Old
crones and such old things," it seems, fell commonly to their own
share, while the best meat was probably sold.--M. Compare also 21. 1.

[E62] "All Saints doe laie," etc. All Saints' Day expects or lays
itself out for pork and souse, sprats and smelts for the household.

"When it [the bore] is killed, scalded, and cut out, of his former
parts is our brawne made, the rest is nothing so fat, and therefore
it beareth the name of sowse onelie, and is commonly reserved for the
serving-man and hind, except it please the owner to have anie part
ther of baked, which are then handed of custome after this manner.
The hinder parts being cut off, they are first drawne with lard, and
then sodden; being sodden, they are sowsed in claret wine and vineger
a certeine space and afterward baked in pasties, and eaten of manie
in steed of the wild bore, and trulie it is very good meat. The
pestles [legs] may be hanged up a while to drie before they be drawne
with lard if you will, and thereby prove the better."--Harrison,
Descrip. of Eng. part ii. p. 11.

"_Spurlings_ are but broad _Sprats_, taken chiefly on our Northern
coast; which being drest and pickled as Anchovaes be in Provence,
rather surpass them than come behind them in taste and goodness.... As
for Red Sprats and _Spurlings_, I vouchsafe them not the name of any
wholesome nourishment, or rather of no nourishment at all; commending
them for nothing, but that they are bawdes to enforce appetite and
serve well the poor man's turn to quench hunger."--Muffett, p. 169,
quoted in The Babees Book, ed. Furnivall. "Smelt = Spirling or Sparling
in Scotland, Salmo Sperlanus."--Yarrell, Names of British Fishes. "A
Sperlynge, _ipimera, sperlingus_."--Catholicon Anglicum. See also
Glossary to Specimens of Early Eng., ed. Morris and Skeat.

[E63] "Embrings." Ember days or weeks, set apart for consecrating to
God the four seasons of the year, and for imploring his blessing by
fasting and prayer. They were settled by the Council of Placentia
A.D. 1095.--M. _Embring_ is a more correct form, being nearer to A.S.
_ymbren_. A connexion with Ger. _quatember_ is out of the question.

[E64] See as to the law relating to fasting and fish days, note E55 on
10. 51.

[E65] "Leaue anker in mud," _i.e._ drift, and break away from their
anchorage.

[E66] "It is an ill winde turnes none to good," _i.e._ turns to good
for none.

"An yll wynd that blowth no man good,
  The blower of whych blast is she;
The lyther lustes bred of her broode
  Can no way brede good propertye."
   --Song against Idleness, by John Heywood, _circa_ 1540.

"Ah! Sirra! it is an old proverb and a true
I sware by the roode!
It is an il wind that bloues no man to good."
  --Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, 1570.

Quoted in Hazlitt's Handbook of Proverbs, p. 240.

[E67] "If great she appereth," _i.e._ if seen through a dense
atmosphere, which causes her to appear much larger, it is an indication
of approaching rain. The reverse is the case when the atmosphere is
rare, and the orb of the moon appears small.

[E68] "Tyde flowing is feared," etc. "The Spaniards think that all
who die of chronic diseases breathe their last during the ebb."--The
Doctor, p. 207. Compare also in David Copperfield, "Mr. Barkis going
out with the tide." Tusser, however, seems to mean that it was the flow
and not the ebb which was dangerous to sick persons.

[E69]

"He that fast spendeth must need borrow,
But when he must pay again, then is all the sorrow."
 --MS. of 15th cent. in Rel. Antiqua, vol. i. p. 316.

[E70] September is the month when the annual labours of agriculture
begin their round, and it is therefore, justly, put first in the
Calendar of farming. Some, indeed, take their bargains from Lady-day;
but this is by no means so convenient as Michaelmas.--M.

[E71] The off-going tenant of champion or open field, as is still
customary, allows the in-coming tenant to summer fallow that portion of
the ground which is destined for wheat. But the occupier of woodland
or inclosures holds the whole till the expiration of his term, unless
certain stipulations are made by lease; and without a lease, neither
the real interest of the tenant nor the landowner can be consulted.--M.

[E72] "Buieng or selling of pig in a poke," i.e. making a blind bargain.

                     "A good cochnay coke,
Though ye loue not to bye the pyg in the poke,
Yet snatche ye at the poke, that the pyg is in,
Not for the poke, but the pyg good chepe to wyn."
--Heywood's Dialogue (1546), ed. 1562, part ii. cap. 9.

See also Hazlitt's Handbook of English Proverbs, p. 413.

[E73] A _gofe_ is a _mow_ (rick); and the _gofe_-ladder is for the
thresher to ascend and descend, in order to throw down the sheaves with
the assistance of the _short pitch-fork_, while the _long_ was probably
for pitching the straw. The _straw-fork_ and _rake_ were to turn the
straw from off the threshed corn, and the _fan_ and _wing_ to clean
it. A _cartnave_ might be required to stand on in this operation. A
_casting shovel_, such as maltmen use, enables the farmer to select the
best and heaviest grain for seed, as they always fly farthest if thrown
with equal force.--M.

[E74] A _skep_ is a small basket or wooden vessel with a handle, to
fetch corn in and for other purposes.--M.

[E75] "_Aperne_ is an old provincial pronunciation, adopted from
a still older _napern_ or _nappern_; and Halliwell observes, that
_nappern_ is still the pronunciation in the North of England. This word
is interesting as illustrating two points: (1) the shifting of _r_,
so that the various pronunciations of _apern_ and _apron_ correspond
to the variations _brid_ for _bird_, and _burd_ for _bride_; and (2)
the loss of the initial _n_; for _apron_ is for Fr. _naperon_, a large
napkin; see Roquefort and Wedgwood. _Naperon_, without _n_ and _e_, is
_apron_; without _n_ and _o_, it is _apern_."--Rev. Walter W. Skeat in
N. & Q. 1869.

[E76] "To make whyte lethyre. Take halfe an unce of whyte coperose
and di. ȝ. of alome, and salle-peter the mowntance of the yolke of an
egge, and yf thou wolle have thy skynne thykke, take of whetmele ij
handfulle, and that is sufficient for a galone of water; and if thou
wolle have thy skynne rynnyng, take of ry mele ij handfulle, and grynd
alle thyes saltes smale, and caste hem into lewke warme water, and
let heme melt togedyre, and so alle in ewene warme water put therein
thy skynne. And if hit be a velome skynne, lett hit be thereinne ix
days and ix nyȝtes ... and if hit be a parchement skyne, let hit ly
thereinne iv days and iv nyȝtes; ... thanne take coperose of the
whyttest the quantité of ij benys for j skynne and the yolke of j egge,
and breke hit into a dysse, and than put water over the fyre, and put
thereinne thy coperas, and than put thy yolke in thy skyne, and rub hit
alle abowte, and thanne ley thy skynne in the seyde water, and let hit
ly, ut dictum est."--From the Porkington MS. 15th cent.

[E77] A Pannel and Ped have this difference, the one is much shorter
than the other, and raised before and behind, and serves for small
burdens; the other is longer and made for Burdens of Corn. These are
fastened with a leathern Girt, called a Wantye.--T.R. Miss Mitford,
in her "Recollections," writes that her father, who used to ride a
favourite gentle blood-mare, had a _pad_ constructed, perched and
strapped upon which, and encircled by his arm, she used to accompany
him.

[E78] A cart or wagon whose wheels are hooped and clouted with iron is
called in Lincoln a _shod-cart_ or _shod-wain_. In the Paston Letters,
ed. Gairdner, vol. ii. p. 245, we have "_clot shon_" = boots tipped
with iron. "Clowte of a shoo, _pictasium_."--Prompt. Parv. Cf. Milton,
Comus, l. 634:

                          "The dull swain
Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon."

In Lancashire a "Clout-nail" is a large nail used for fixing iron
_clouts_ on the wooden axle-trees of carts.

[E79] "Ten sacks," each holding a coome or four bushels, are only
sufficient for a single load of wheat; but farms were not so large, nor
the produce so great when Tusser wrote.

[E80] A _pulling hook_ is a barbed iron for drawing firing from the
wood stack.--M.

[E81] "A nads" = an adze, an instance (like a nall = an awl, above) of
the _n_ of the article being joined to the following vowel. Similarly
we have "atte nale" = at the ale-house, a corruption of A.S. æt þan
ale.--See Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, B. Text, Prologue, l. 43. So in
Sir Thomas More's Workes, 1557, p. 709, we have "A verye nodypoll
_nydyote_" for _idiot_. Other instances of the prefixed _n_ are "nonce,
a nother, nagares (= augers)." Cf. "One axe, a bill, iiij _nagares_, ij
hatchettes, an ades," etc.--Shakspereana Genealogica, 1869, p. 472.

[E82] "A Douercourt beetle" is explained by Dr. Mavor as "one that is
large (like the rood of Dover once so celebrated) and capable of making
a great noise," and he adds that "there is an old proverb 'A Dover
Court: all speakers and no hearers.'" But this explanation is entirely
erroneous: there is no reference whatever to _Dover_, but, as the
following extract will show, a Dovercourt beetle simply means one made
of the wood of the elms of Dovercourt in Essex, which were celebrated
for their soundness and lasting qualities: "Of all the elms that euer I
saw, those in the south side of _Douer court_, in Essex neere Harwich,
are the most notable, for they growe, I meane, in crooked maner, that
they are almost apt for nothing else but nauie timber, great ordinance,
and _beetels_; and such thereto is their naturall qualitie, that being
vsed in the said behalfe, they continue longer, and more long than
anie the like trees in whatsoeuer parcell else of this land, without
cuphar [cracking], shaking or cleauing, as I find."--Harrison, Descr.
of Eng. part i. p. 341.

[E83] In the Hist. of Hawsted, Suffolk, by Sir J. Cullum, 2nd ed. p.
216, we are told that there, in the 14th century, oxen were as much
used as horses; and, in ploughing heavy land, would go forward where
horses would stop. "A horse kept for labour ought to have every night
the 6th part of a bushel of oats; for an ox, 3½ measures of oats, 10 of
which make a bushel, are sufficient for a week."

[E84] "The ploughstaff is alluded to by Strutt (Manners and Customs,
ii. 12): 'The ploughman yoketh oxen to the plough, and he holdeth the
plough-stilt [_i.e._ principal hale or handle] in his left hand, and
in his right hand the _ploughstaff_ to break the clods.' See plate 32
(vol. i.) in Strutt, and the picture of a plough at work prefixed to
Mr. Wright's edition of Piers the Plowman, copied from MS. T. [MS. R.
3. 14, Trin. Coll. Camb.]."--Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, B. vi. 105.

[E85] "Moether" [and "mother", 16. 14.]. This word is derived by Sir
H. Spelman from Danish _moer_ = an unmarried girl. "_Puera_, a woman
chylde, callyd in Cambrydgeshyre a _modder_." "_Pupa_, a yonge wenche,
a gyrle, a _modder_."--Elyot's Lat. Dict. 1538. "_Fille_, a maid,
girle, _modder_, lasse."--Cotgrave. Ben Jonson uses the word in his
"Alchymist": "Away, you talk like a foolish _mauther_."--Act iv. sc. 7.
Richard Brome also has it in the Eng. Moor, Act iii. sc. i.:

_P._ "I am a _mother_, that do want a service.

_Qu._ O, thou'rt a Norfolk woman (cry thee mercy,)
           Where maids are _mothers_, and _mothers_ are maids."

"I have been informed by an intelligent friend, who is a native of
Norfolk, that on a certain trial in that county, it was asked who was
the evidence of what had been stated. The answer was, 'A _mather_
playing on a planchard.' The Judge was nonplussed, till the meaning was
explained, namely, 'A girl playing on the floor.'"--M.

[E86] "Hoigh de la roy," that is, excellent or proper; but why, I
cannot say.

[E87] A _cradle_ is a three-forked instrument of wood, on which the
corn is caught as it falls from the scythe, and thus is laid in regular
order. It is heavy to work with; but is extremely useful for cutting
barley or oats, which are intended to be put into sheaves.--M.

[E88] Tar was the common salve for all sores in cattle. "Two pounds of
tar to a pound of pitch," is a good composition for sheep marks.--M.
"Every shepherd used to carry a _tar-box_, called a _tarre-boyste_ in
the Chester Plays, p. 121, or a _terre-powghe_ (= tar pouch) in P.
Pl. Crede, l. 618. It held a salve containing tar which was used for
anointing sores in sheep. Compare

"Heare is tarre in a potte
To heale from the rotte."
  --Chester Plays, p. 120.

See also History of Agriculture and Prices in England, by J. E. Thorold
Rogers, vol. i. p. 31. Note to P. Plowman, ed. Skeat, C. x. 262-264.

[E89] "Sealed and true," _i.e._ certified and stamped as correct. In
Liber Albus, ed. Riley, p. 233, we read: "No brewster or taverner shall
sell from henceforth by any measure but the gallon, pottle, and quart;
and that these shall be _sealed_ with the seal of the Alderman," etc.
See also the Statute of Sealed Measures, _id._ p. 290.

[E90] _Striking_ is the last ploughing before the seed is committed to
the ground; previously to which the ridges are to be harrowed.

[E91] "Sowe barlie and dredge." In the 13th century the grain crops
chiefly cultivated in England were wheat, "berecorn," _dragg_, or a
mixture of vetches and oats, beans and pease. The regulations for
the brewers of Paris in 1254 prescribe that they shall brew only "de
grains, c'est à savoir d'orge de mestuel, et de _dragèe_." "_Dredge_
mault, malt made of oats, mixed with barley malt, of which they make
an excellent quick sort of drink."--Bp. Kennett's Gloss. "A mixture of
oates and barley; and at present used very seldom in malting."--T.R.
"_Dragée_ aux chevaux, provender of divers sorts of pulse mixed
together."--Cotgrave. From Way's Notes in Prompt. Parv. s. v. Dragge.

[E92] Forby (Vocab. 1830) says: "Crow-keeper, a boy employed to scare
crows from new sown land. Lear, in his madness, says: 'That fellow
handles his bow like a crow-keeper.' Besides lustily whooping, he
carries an old gun, from which he cracks a little powder, and sometimes
puts in a few stones, but seldom hits, and still seldomer kills a
crow." Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act i. sc. 4: "Scaring the ladies like a
crow-keeper."

[E93] A Marsh Wall is a Sea bank, made with considerable slope to
sea-ward, which is called a Break or Breck; it is faced with Turf which
sometimes is worn by the sea, or Holes made in it by Crabs, etc. The
Foreland is a piece of Land that lies from the foot of the Bank to
Sea-ward, and must be well look'd after, that it wear not away or come
too near the Bank (as the Workmen term it).--T.R.

[E94] A brawner should be kept cool and hard, which encreaseth his
shield, as the skin of the shoulder is called.--M.

[E95] Measles in hogs are small round globules or pustules that lie
along the muscles; and are occasioned by uncleanness and want of
water.--M.

[E96] The retting of hemp, as it is called, should be done with care.
It should be taken out of the water as soon as it begins to swim. The
smell left by hemp and flax is extremely unpleasant, as travellers in
the flax districts of the North of Ireland well know.

[E97] "In time of plenty of mast, our red and fallow deere will not
let to participat thereof with our hogs, more than our nete: yea, our
common pultrie also, if they may come vnto them. But as this abundance
dooth prooue verie pernicious vnto the first, so the egs which these
latter doo bring foorth (beside blackenesse in color and bitternesse of
tast,) haue not seldome beene found to breed diuerse diseases vnto such
persons as haue eaten of the same."--Harrison, Descrip. of Eng. part i.
p. 339.

[E98] If your dog sets chaunting (crying) these lawless hogs, haunting
(or frequenting) your fields so often, he does you a benefit.

[E99] _Shaken_ timber is such as is full of clefts and cracks.
_Bestowe_ and _stick_ it, is to lay the boards neatly on each other,
with sticks between, to admit the air.

[E100] The _hook and line_ is a cord with a hook at its end to bind up
anything with, and carry it away.--M.

[E101] "Flaies," probably a misprint in the edition of 1580 for
_flails_, which is the reading of the other editions.

[E102] Cotgrave has: "Hastiveau, a _hasting_ apple or peare;" and
"Hastivel, as Hastiveau; or a soon-ripe apple, called the St. John's
apple." Lacroix (Manners, Customs, etc., during the Middle Ages, p.
116) mentions "hastiveau, an early sort of pear."

[E103] "Vergis and perie." "Verjuice is well known to be the juice
of Crabs, but it is not so much taken notice of, that for strength
and flavour it comes little short if not exceeds lime-juice."--T.R.
"Verjuice, or green juice, which, with vinegar, formed the essential
basis of sauces, and is now extracted from a species of green grape,
which never ripens, was originally the juice of sorrel; another sort
was extracted by pounding the green blades of wheat."--Lacroix,
Manners, Customs and Dress, during the Middle Ages, p. 167.

[E104] Make up your hedges with brambles and holly. "Set no bar" = put
no limit, do not leave off planting quicksets while the months have an
R in their names. See chap. 35, stanza 6, p. 77, and note E112, for 19.
33.

[E105] Laying up here signifies the first plowing, for Barley it is
often plow'd, so as that a Ridge-balk in the middle is covered by two
opposite furrows.--T.R.

[E106] By Fallow is understood a Winter-fallow, or bringing Ground to a
Barley Season.--T.R.

[E107] "Brantham" parish, in Essex, in which Cattiwade is situated,
and the place where Tusser first commenced farming. The average yield
of corn in his time was, on each acre well tilled and dressed, twenty
bushels of wheat, thirty-two of barley, and forty of oats and pulse.

[E108] Wheat does not thrive well either on very poor or very rich
land. If the land is _peeled_ or poor, the grain is _burnt_ or
_steelie_, and if _proud_ (too heavily manured), the grain is apt to
run to straw.

[E109] "There grows in several parts of Africa, Asia, and America, a
kind of corn called Mays, and such as we commonly name _Turkey wheat_.
They make bread of it, which is hard of digestion, heavy in the
stomach, and does not agree with any but such as are of a robust and
hail constitution."--A Treatise on Foods, by Mons. L. Lemery, London,
1704, p. 71.

[E110] _Breadcorne_ and _drinkcorn_ mean wheat and barley, the first
being used for the making of bread, the second for malting purposes.
Mr. Peacock, in his Glossary of Manley, etc., has: "_Breadcorn_, corn
to be ground into _breadmeal_ (_i.e._ flour with only a portion of the
bran taken out, from which brown bread is made); not to be used for
finer purposes. It is a common custom of farmers, when they engage a
bailiff, to give him a certain sum of money per annum, and to allow
him also his _breadcorn_ at 40_s._ per quarter." Cf. Piers Plowman, C.
Text, Passus ix. 61: "A boussel of _bredcorne_."

[E111] Hazlitt gives as a proverb: "To play the devil in the bulmong."
An acre of bullimong land was worth 33_s._ 4_d._; see note E370.

[E112] According to Norden (Surveyor's Dialogue, 1607, p. 239) the
best mode of making a quickset hedge is as follows: "The plants of
whitethorne, mixed here and there with oke and ash"; if the plants
are not easily procured, then "the berries of the white or hawthorne,
acornes, ash keyes mixed together, and these wrought or wound up in a
rope of straw, wil serve, but they will be somewhat longer in growing.
Make a trench at the top or in the edge of the ditch, and lay into it
some fat soyle, and then lay the rope all along the ditch, and cover
it with good soile also, then cover it with the earth, and ever as any
weedes or grasse begins to grow, pull it off and keepe it as cleane as
may be from all hindrances, and when the seeds begin to come, keepe
cattle from bruising them, and after some two or three yeares, cut the
yong spring by the earth, and so will they branch and grow thick, and
if occasion serve, cut them so again alwayes, preserving the oake and
ashe to become trees." The best time to lay the berries in this manner
is "in _September_ or _October_, if the berries be fully ripe."

[E113] A "porkling" was worth 28_d._ at the time. See note E370.

[E114] With reference to the "daintiness" of the Flemings, many of whom
were settled on the East coast, compare the following:

"Now bere and _bacon_ bene fro Pruse ibrought
Into Flaundres, as loved and fere isoughte;
Osmonde [a kind of iron], coppre, bowstaffes, stile [steel], and wex,
Peltre-ware [hides], and grey, pych, terre, borde, and flex,
And Coleyne threde, fustiane, and canvase,
Corde, bokeram; of olde tyme thus it wase.
But the _Flemmyngis_, amonge these thinges dere,
In comen lowen [love] beste _bacon_ and bere.
Thus arre they hogges; and drynkyn wele ataunt [so much];
Farewel, Flemynge! hay, harys, hay, avaunt!"
  --Wright's Political Songs, ii. 171.

[E115] _Light fire_, as it is termed, is still used in Norfolk.--M.

[E116] "Bowd eaten malt." "The more it be dried (yet must it be doone
with soft fire) the sweeter and better the malt is, and the longer it
will continue, whereas if it be not dried downe (as they call it), but
slackelie handled, it will breed a kind of worme, called a _wiuell_,
which groweth in the floure of the corne, and in processe of time will
so eat out it selfe, that nothing shall remaine of the graine but euen
the verie rind or huske."--Harrison, Description of England, part i.
pp. 156-7. R. Holme says that "the Wievell eateth and devoureth corn
in the garners; they are of some people called _bowds_."--Acad. of
Arm. Bk. ii. p. 467. "Bruk is a maner of flye, short and brodissh,
and in a sad husc, blak hed, in shap mykel toward a golde _bowde_,
and mykhede [size] of twyis and þryis atte moste of a gold _bowde_, a
chouere, oþer vulgal can y non þerfore."--Arundel MS. 42, f. 64. The
name _gold bowde_ probably denotes a species of _Chrysomela_, Linn.
Way, in Prompt. Parv.

[E117] See note E5 on "A Medicine for the Cowlaske." Sloes gently
baked in an oven are best preserved. They are an excellent and cheap
remedy for laxity of the bowels, in men or cattle, if judiciously
used.--M.

[E118] Dr. Mavor suggests that as Tusser is pretty correct in his
rhymes, he probably wrote _beasty_ originally. In Pegge's Forme of
Cury, 1780, p. 111, are given two recipes for the prevention of
_Restyng_ in Venisoun.

[E119] "Stouer." _Stover_ is the term now applied to the coarser hay
made of clover and artificial grasses, which is kept for the winter
feed of cattle. But in Shakespeare's time the artificial grasses were
not known in England, and were not introduced till about the middle of
the seventeenth century. In Cambridgeshire I am informed that hay made
in this manner is not called "stover" till the seeds have been threshed
out. In the sixteenth century the word was apparently used to denote
any kind of winter fodder except grass hay. Compare

"Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep,
And flat meads thatch'd with _stover_, them to keep."
  --Shakspere, Tempest, Act iv. sc. I;

and Drayton, Polyolbion, xxv. 145,

"And others from their Carres, are busily about,
To draw out Sedge and Reed, for Thatch and _Stover_ fit."

"Stover" is enumerated by Ray among the South-and East-Country words as
used in Essex, and is to be found in Moor's Suffolk Words and Forby's
Vocabulary of East Anglia.

[E120] See note E61.

[E121] In cleaning corn for _seed, casting_ or throwing it with a
_casting shovel_ (see 17. 1) from one heap to another, in order to
select the heaviest grains, which will always go farthest, is an
excellent practice: but in _malting_, this is not necessary, as the
light grains and seeds of weeds may be skimmed off in the cistern.--M.

[E122] Wheat is well known to work better in grinding and baking after
it has undergone a natural heat in the rick or mow. Wheat that is
threshed early keeps with difficulty.--M.

[E123] "Rauening curres" seem to have been as great a nuisance in
Tusser's time as at present, in spite of what Dr. Mavor terms one of
the "few patriotic taxes which we have to boast of."

[E124] St. Edmund's Day (20th November) may probably be the proper time
for planting garlic and beans; but why the moon should be "in the wane"
we are not informed, though, according to Tusser, "thereon hangeth a
thing." The moon was formerly supposed to extend her power over all
nature, and not over the tides and weather only.

[E125] The farmer who "looks to thrive" must "have an eye," not only
to his barn, but also to the cruel habits or tricks of his servants;
otherwise he may find his cattle maimed or otherwise injured, and his
poultry made "to plaie tapple vp taile," a cant expression, meaning
to tumble head over heels. Cf. the Scotch phrase, "coup your creels."
Cotgrave, _s.v. Laisser_ and _Houseau_, has an exactly parallel
expression: "_Il a laissé ses houseaux_, he hath tipped up the heeles,
or is ready to doe it; he hath got him to his last bed; he is even as
good as gone; he is no better then a dead man." The Catholicon Anglicum
also gives "Top ouer tayle, _precipitanter_: to cast tope ouer tayle,
_precipitari_."

[E126] The leathern bottle, from its size, must have been a most
convenient vehicle for the removal of corn and other stolen property.

[E127] Our author does not appear to have had any idea of the use of
soot as a top-dressing to land, but its value is now well understood,
as one of the greatest improvers of cold, mossy grasslands.

[E128] It is leanness and ill-dressing that occasion nits and lice, not
the state of the weather when they are taken to house.

[E129] The rack ought to be accessible on all sides, and perhaps high
enough for small cattle to escape under it from their more powerful
adversaries.--M.

[E130] "_Barth_." Wedgwood includes this under _berth_, the seaman's
term for snug anchorage for themselves or their vessels. See Glossary.

[E131] "A _fires-bird_, for that she sat continually by the fire
side."--Tom Tell-Trothe's New Yeare's Gift, New Shakspere Soc. ed.
Furnivall, p. 12.

[E132] "Beath." Bathing at the Fire, as it is commonly called, when the
wood is yet unseasoned, sets it to what purpose you think fit.--T.R.

[E133] "Camping." "Goals were pitched 150 or 200 yards apart, formed
of the thrown-off clothes of the competitors." Each party had two
goals 10 or 15 yards apart. The parties, 10 to 15 aside, stand in line
facing their own goals and each other, at 10 yards distance, midway
between the goals and nearest that of their adversaries. An indifferent
spectator throws up the ball--the size of a cricket ball--midway
between the confronted players, whose object is to seize and convey
it between their own goals. The shock of the first onset to catch the
falling ball is very great, and the player who seizes it speeds home
pursued by his opponents, through whom he has to make his way, aided by
the jostlings of his own sidesmen. If caught and held, or in imminent
danger of it, he _throws_ the ball, but must in no case _give_ it, to
a comrade, who, if it be not arrested in its course, or he be jostled
away by his eager foes, catches it, and hurries home, winning the
game or _snotch_ if he contrive to _carry, not throw_, it between the
goals. A holder of the ball caught with it in his possession loses
a _snotch_. At the loss of each of these the game recommences after
a breathing time. Seven or nine _snotches_ are the game, and these
it will sometimes take two or three hours to win. Sometimes a large
football was used, and the game was then called "_kicking camp_," and
if played with the shoes on, "_savage camp_."--Abridged from Major
Moor's Description.

Ray says it prevailed, in his time, most in Norfolk, Suffolk, and
Essex. It was new to Sir T. Browne on his settling in Norfolk, and is
not mentioned by Strutt amongst the "Sports and Pastimes of the English
People."

Mr. Spurdens, in his Supplement to Forby's Vocabulary, remarks: "The
contests were not unfrequently fatal to many of the combatants. I have
heard old persons speak of a celebrated _Camping_, Norfolk against
Suffolk, on Diss Common, with 300 on each side. Before the ball was
thrown up, the Norfolk men inquired tauntingly of the Suffolk men if
they had brought their coffins. The Suffolk men after fourteen hours
were the victors. Nine deaths were the result of the contest within
a fortnight. These were called _fighting camps_, for much boxing was
practised in them." Cf.

"This faire floure of womanheed
  Hath two pappys also smalle,
Bolsteryd out of lenghth and breed,
  Lyche a large _Campyng ball_."
  --Lydgate.

_Camping Land_ was a piece of ground set apart for the game. A field
abutting on the churchyard at Swaffham was willed for the purpose
by the Rector in 1472. At East Bilney and Stowmarket are pieces of
ground still called _Camping land_. Sir John Cullum, in his "History
of Hawstead, Suffolk," describes the _Camping-pightle_ as mentioned
A.D. 1466. "_Campar_ or _pleyar_ at foott balle, _campyon_ or
_champyon_."--Prompt. Parv. "Camping is Foot Ball playing, at which
they are very dextrous in Norfolk; and so many People running up and
down a piece of ground, without doubt evens and saddens it, so that the
Root of the Grass lies firm.... The trampling of so many People drives
also the Mole away."--T.R.

[E134] "All quickly forgot as a play on a stage." Comp. Shakspere,
As you Like it, Act ii. sc. 7: "All the world's a stage," etc., and
Merchant of Venice, Act i. sc. 1, where Antonio calls the world
"A stage where every man must play a part." "Totus mundus agit
histrionem," from a fragment of Petronius, is said to have been the
motto on the Globe Theatre. Calderon wrote a play called El Teatro del
Mundo (The Theatre of the World). It is remarkable for containing the
lines:

"En el teatro del mundo
Todos son representantes,"

_i.e._ in the stage of the world all men are players.--W. W. S. In the
old play of Damon and Pythias (Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, iv.
31) the following occurs:

"Pythagoras said that this world was like a stage,
Where many play their parts: the lookers on, the sage
Philosophers are, said he, whose part is to learn
The manners of all nations, and the good from the bad to discern."

The same comparison occurs also in Don Quixote, part ii. cap. 12. See
note E378.

[E135] Psalm cxliv. 4.

[E136] "Atrop." "The fatall sisters," Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos,
daughters of Erebus and the Night, were supposed to spin out the life
of man as it were a long thread, which they drew out in length, till
his fatal hour had arrived; but if by any other casualty his days were
shortened, then _Atropos_ was said to have cut the thread in two. Hence
the old verse: "Clotho colum bajulat, Lachesis trahit, Atropos occat."

[E137] "Euer among," an expression of frequent occurrence in Early
English, meaning "constantly, continually." Compare the Mod. Eng. "all
the while." In a Carol of the fifteenth century, we read:

"Thys endus nyȝth
I saw a syȝth,
   A stare as bryȝt as day;
And _ever among_
A mayden song
   Lullay, by by, lullay."

And in another:

"Our der Lady she stod hym by,
And wepe water ful bytterly,
  And terys of blod _ever among_."

[E138] "As onely of whom our comfort is had." The expression is
obscure, but the meaning is clear: as the only one from whom our
comfort (or strength) is derived.

[E139] "Good husbands," that is, good husbandmen or farmers.

[E140] "Then lightly," an old form of expression. Tusser means that
poor people are then _probably_ or _generally_ most sorely oppressed.
Cf. "Short summer _lightly_ has a forward spring."--Shakspere, Richard
III. Act iii. sc. 1.

[E141] "Few Capons are cut now except about Dorking in Surrey; they
have been excluded by the turkey, a more magnificent, but perhaps not a
better fowl."--Pegge's Forme of Cury, ed. 1780, p. 19.

[E142] "Vpon the tune of King Salomon." Mar. 4, 1559, there is a
receipt from Ralph Newberry for his licence for printing a ballad
called "Kynge Saloman," Registr. Station. Comp. Lond. notat. A fol.
48a. Again in 1562, a licence to print "iij balletts, the one entituled
'Newes oute of Kent;' the other, a 'Newe ballat after the tune of Kynge
Solomon;' and the third, 'Newes oute of Heaven and Hell.'"--_Ibid._
fol. 75a. Again, _ibid._ "Crestenmas Carowles auctorisshed by my lord
of London." A ballad of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba is entered in
1567, _ibid._ fol. 166a.--Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt,
vol. iii. p. 428.

[E143] There is some confusion here, although the sense is clear;
probably we should read, "and _flies_ from sinne," etc.

[E144] "Michel cries," _i.e._ to delay the operation of cutting, and
therefore the cries of the animals, till Michaelmas, will have the
effect of getting them into such condition as better to please the
butchers' eyes.

[E145] "Bulchin," a double diminutive = _bull-ock-in_, cf. _man-ik-in_.

"For ten mark men sold a little _bulchin_;
Litille less men tolde a bouke of a motoun;
Men gaf fiveten schillynges for a goos or a hen."
  --R. de Brunne's Chronicle, ed. Hearne, i. 174.

See also Langtoft, p. 174, and Middleton, iii. 524.

[E146] "Apricot;" in Shakspere, and in other writers of that century,
apricock; in older writers abricot and abrecocke; from L. _præcoqua_
or _præcocia_ = early, from the fruit having been considered to be an
early peach. A passage in Pliny (Hist. Nat. xv. 12) explains its name:
"Post autumnum maturescunt Persica, æstate _præcocia_, intra xxx annos
reperta." Martial also refers to it in the following words:

"Vilia materius fueramus praecoqua ramis,
Nunc in adoptivis persica cara sumus."
  --Liber xiii. Ep. 46.

The English, although they take their word from the French, at first
restored the _k_, and afterwards adopted the French termination,
_apricot_.--See a paper on the word in N.& Q. for November 23, 1850. "I
account the _White peare-plum stocks_ the best to _Inoculate Aprecock
buds upon_, although they may be done upon other _Plum-stocks_ with
good successe, if they be good juycie stocks, able to give a good
nourishment, for _Aprecock trees_ require much nourishment."--Austen's
Treatise on Fruit Trees, 1657, p. 57. Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) gives,
"Abricot: m. The Abricot, or Apricocke plum." Minsheu (Span. Dict.
1599) has, "Albarcoque, or Alvarcoque, m. an apricocke." Compare
Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 1. 169: "Feed him with apricocks and
dewberries"; and Rich. II. Act iii. sc. 4, 29: "Go bind you up yon
dangling apricocks."

[E147] "Boollesse." In the Grete Herball _bolays_, in Prompt. Parv.
_bolas_. Prunus communis, Huds.; var. insititia, L. In Bacon's Essays
xlvi. the name is spelt "_bullises_."

[E148] "Cheries." Austen, in his Treatise on Fruit Trees, Oxford, 1657,
p. 56, enumerates the following kinds of cherries: "The _Flanders
Cherry_, most generally planted, is a great bearing fruit. The _May
Cherries_ are tender, and the trees must be set in a warm place. The
_Black-hart Cherry_, a very speciall fruit, and a great bearing fruit,
and doubtlesse exceeding proper to presse for wine either to drink of
itselfe, or to mix the juyce with _Cider_ to give it a _colour_ as
_Clarret-wine_, it being of a deepe red, and a small quantity of it
will colour a gallon of _Cider_ or _White wine_. There is a _Cherry_
we call the _great bearing Cherry_ of M. Milleu. It may very well be
called the _great bearer_, for the trees seldome fayle of great store
of fruits, although in a cold and sharp spring."

[E149] "Chestnuts." Often spelt, but improperly, _chesnut_, as though
the _cheese_-like nut. From the O. Fr. _Chastaigne_, and the Ital.
_Castagna_, we learn its true derivation, namely from _Castanæa_ in
Thessaly, its native place.

[E150] "Cornet plums" = cornel plums; called also cornel cherry. O. Fr.
_cornille_, now _cornouille_, L. Lat. _cornolium_, from Lat. _cornus_ =
a cornel cherry tree.

[E151] "The _Damasco-plum_ is a good fruit and the trees beare
well."--Austen's Treatise on Fruit Trees, 1657.

[E152] Andrew Boorde, in his Introduction of Knowledge, ed. Furnivall,
p. 283, says: "_Fylberdes_ be better than hasell nuttes; yf they be
newe, and taken from the tree, and the skyn or the pyth pulled of, they
be nutrytyue, and doth increase fatnes."

[E153] "Goose beries." Dr. R. A. Prior says: "From the Flemish _kroes_
or _kruys berie_, Swed. _krusbär_, a word that bears the two meanings
of 'cross-' and 'frizzle-berry,' but was given to this fruit with the
first meaning, in reference to its triple spine, which not unfrequently
presents the form of a cross. This equivocal word was misunderstood and
taken in its other sense of 'frizzle-berry,' and translated into German
and herbalist Latin as '_kraüsel-beere_,' and '_uva crispa_.' The Fr.
_groseille_ and Span. _grosella_ are corruptions of Ger. _kraüsel_."

[E154] "Some Authors affirme that there have been _Vine-yards_ in
England in former times, though they be all destroyed long since.
Divers places retaine the name of Vine yards still, at _Bromwell Abby_
in _Norfolke_ and at Elie in Cambridgshiere which afforded _Wine_; what
else is the meaning of these old Rimes?

"'Quatuor sunt Elie, Lanterna, Capella Marias
Et molendinum, nec non dans Vinea vinum.'

"Englished thus:

"'Foure things of Elie Towne much spoken are,
The Leaden Lanthorn, Maries Chappell rare,
The mighty Mil-hill in the Minstre field,
And fruitful _Vine-yards_ which sweet wine doe yeeld.'

"And doubtlesse men might plant Vines with good successe, to make good
wine even with us. There are many kinds of Vines, but I know none so
good, and fit for our climate as the _Parsley Vine_ or Canada Grape, we
see by experience yearly it beares abundance of fruit unto perfection.
And whosoever would plant Vines in England I think he cannot meet
with a better kind than the _Parsley Vine_ both for _bearing_ and
_goodnesse_. The _Fox grape_ is a faire _large Fruit_ and a very
_great bearer_ although not of so much esteem as divers others. The
_Frantiniack Grape_ is of great accompt with many, and is a speciall
fruit where it comes to perfect ripenesse, which it hardly does, except
the Vine be set upon the _South-wall_ where it may have _much sun_.
The _Red_ and _White Muskadine Grape_ are speciall fruits and beare
very well, and come to perfect ripenesse if the Vine grow upon the
_South-wall_ or upon the _Easte-wall_ which is best next. There is the
_Curran Grape, Cluster Grape_, and many other kinds of good grapes, and
the fruits are _better_ or _worse_ according to the _place_ they grow
in: If they have _much sun_, and be _well ordered_, the fruit will be
_better_ and _sooner ripe_."--Austen's Treatise of Fruit Trees, 1657.

[E155] "There are very many kinds of _Plums_, many more than of
Cherries. I esteeme the _Mustle Plum_ one of the best, being a faire
large black plum, and of an excellent rellish, and the _trees beare
abundantly_. The Damazeene also is an excellent fruit. The _Violet_ and
_Premorden_ Plum-trees are very _great bearing trees_, and the fruits
pleasant and good. The _White Peare-plum-stocks_ are accounted the
best, and the _Damson-stocks_ the worst for grafting upon."--_Ibid._ p.
57.

[E156] "Hurtillberies (= Whortleberries) called 'Hurts' for shortness
at Godalming. I suspect this may be connected with Hurtmoor, the name
of a dale near Godalming."--Note by Rev. W. W. Skeat. "'Hurtilberries'
for 'whortleberries,' itself a corruption for 'myrtleberries.'"--Dr.
Prior, Popular Names of British Plants, 1870.

[E157] "Medlars, called in Normandy and Anjou _meslier_, from Lat.
_mespilus_, but as the verb _mesler_ became in English _meddle_, so
this fruit also, although a word of different origin, took a _d_ for an
_s_ and became _medlar_."--_Ibid._

"The Kernells [of medlers] bruised to dust, and drunk in liquor
(especially where Parsly roots have been steeped), doe mightily drive
out stones and gravell from the kidneyes."--Austen, Treatise on Fruit
Trees, 1657, p. 84.

[E158] "The _Iuyce of Mulberries_ is knowne by experience to be a
good remedy for a sore mouth, or throat, such as are perfectly ripe
relax the belly, but the unripe (especially dry'd) are said to bind
exceedingly, and therefore are given to such as have _Lasks and
Fluxes_."--_Ibid._ p. 84.

[E159] "Peach, in old works spelt Peske, Peesk, Peshe, and Peche, O.
Fr. _pesche_, L. _Persica_, formerly called _malum persicum_ = Persian
apple, from which the Arabs formed their name for it with the prefix
_el_ or _al_, and thence the Spanish _alberchigo_."--Dr. R. A. Prior.

Austen, in his work already quoted, says (p. 58): "Of _Peaches_ there
are divers kinds. I know by experience the _Nutmeg and Newington_
Peaches to be excellent fruits, especially the _Nutmeg_ Peach."

[E160] Evidently a misprint for Peare-plums, which is the reading
of all the later editions. Austen, in his Treatise on Fruit Trees,
recommends that Peaches be grafted on plum stocks, such as the _White
Peare-plum-stock_.

[E161] The word "Quince" preserves only a single letter of its
original form. A passage in the Romaunt of the Rose shows an early
form of the word, and also exhibits _chestnut_ and _cherry_ in a
transitional stage of adoption from the French. The author of the
Romaunt writes:

"And many homely trees there were,
That peaches, _coines_, and apples bere;
Medlers, plummes, peeres, chesteines,
Cherise, of which many one faine is."

It is evident that the English word is a corruption of the French
_coing_, which we may trace through the Italian _cotogna_ to Lat.
_cotonium_ or _cydonium malum_, the apple of Cydon, a town in
Crete.--Taylor's Words and Places. In the Paston Letters, i. 245,
occurs the word "chardequeyns," that is, a preserve made of quinces.
See also the Babees Book, E.E.T. Soc. ed. Furnivall, p. 152. In the
ordinances of the household of George, Duke of Clarence, p. 103,
_charequynses_ occur under the head of spices, their price being 5
shillings "the boke," or £2 10_s._ for 10 lbs., A.D. 1468.

[E162] "Respis." In Turner's Herbal called _Raspis_ or _Raspices_, the
latter of which is apparently a double plural. Probably from _resp_,
a word that in the Eastern counties means a shoot, a sucker, a young
stem, and especially the fruit-bearing stem of raspberries (Forby).
This name it may owe to the fact that the fruit grows on the young
shoots of the previous year.

[E163] "Reisons," most probably currants. "Raysouns of
Coraunte."--Pegge's Forme of Cury, ed. 1780, p. 16.

Turner (Names of Herbes) says the currant tree is called "in some
places of England a _Rasin_ tree."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E164] "Seruice trees." Dr. R. A. Prior, in his Popular Names of
British Plants, 1870, p. 209, says: "Service-, or, as in Ph. Holland's
Pliny more correctly spelt, Servise-tree, from L. _Cervisia_, its fruit
having from ancient times been used for making a fermented liquor, a
kind of beer:

                "Et pocula læti
Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea _sorbis_.
  --Virg. Georgics III. 379.

"Diefenbach remarks (Or. Eur. 102): 'bisweilen bedeutet cervisia einen
nicht aus Getreide gebranten Trank;' and Evelyn tells us in his Sylva
(ch. xv.), that 'ale and beer brewed with these berries, being ripe,
is an incomparable drink.' The _Cerevisia_ of the ancients was made
from malt, and took its name, we are told by Isidore of Seville, from
_Ceres, Cereris_, but this has come to be used in a secondary sense
without regard to its etymological meaning, just as in _Balm-tea_
we use tea in the sense of an infusion, without regard to its being
properly the name of a different plant." Wild Service, the rowan tree;
_Pyrus aucuiparia_, Gärt.

[E165] "Wallnuts are usually eaten after meales to close up the
stomach, and help digestion. And according to _Avicen_ (Can. lib. 2,
cap. 501), recentes sunt meliores stomacho (the newer the better for
the stomach). Bread or Bisket may be made of the meale being dried. The
young nuts peeled are preserved, and candied for Banquetting stuffe:
and being ripe the Kernells may be crusted over with sugar, and kept
long. _Avicen_ says (Can. lib. 2, cap. 501): 'Iuglans ficubus et Rutâ
medicina omnibus venenis': Wallnuts with Figs and Rue is a preservative
against all poison. Schol. Salern. reckons _Wallnuts_ for one of the
six things that resist poyson:

'Allia, Nux, Ruta, Pyra, Raphanus cum Theriaca:
Hæc sunt Antidotum contra mortale venenum.'
Garlicke, Rue, Peares, Treacle and Nuts:
Take these and then no deadly poyson hurts.

Mithridates the great: his preservative was (as is recorded by Pliny,
Nat. Hist. lib. 23, c. 18), '_Two Wallnuts_, two Figs, 20 leaves of
Rue and a grain of salt stamped together,' which taken no poyson that
day could hurt him. _Greene Wallnuts_ about Midsommer distilled and
drunk with vineger, are accounted a certain preservative against the
Pestilence."--Austen's Treatise of Fruit Trees, 1657. "_Walnuts_ be
hurtful to the memory, and so are Onyons, because they annoy the eyes
with dazeling dimnesse through a hoate vapour."--T. Newton, Touchstone,
ed. 1581, f. 125_b_. The original prescription of the antidote of
Mithridates, discovered by Pompey among the archives of the king, was
very simple. Q. Serenus tells us that

              "Magnus scrinia regis
Cum raperet victor, vilem deprehendit in illis
Synthesin, et vulgata satis medicamina risit:
Bis denum rutæ folium, salis et breve granum,
Juglandesque duas, terno cum corpore ficus."

Cf. Piers Plowman, C. Text, Pass. xiii. 143:

"As in a _walnote_ withoute ys a byter barke,
And after þat biter barke be þe shele aweye,
Ys a curnel of comfort kynde to restorie."

On which see Mr. Skeat's note.

[E166] "Warden appulles rosted, stued, or baken, be nutrytyue,
and doth comfort the stomache, specyally yf they be eaten with
comfettes."--Andrew Boorde's Dyetary, ed. Furnivall, E.E.T. Soc. p.
284. And again, _ibid._ p. 291, as a remedy for the Pestilence: "Let
hym vse to eate stued or baken wardens, yf they can be goten; yf not,
eate stued or baken peers, with comfettes: vse no grosse meates, but
those the which be lyght of dygestyon."

[E167] "Froth" refers here to veal and pig and lamb, all three.
Halliwell suggests tender as the meaning. It seems to mean _pulpy_ or
_light_.

[E168] "Be greedie in spending," that is, he who is eager to spend and
careless in saving, will soon become a beggar, and he who is ready to
kill, and unskilful in storing, need look for no plenty.

[E169] There are certain wheels called Dredge Wheels, by the use
of which loads may be carried thro' meadows, even if it be not a
frost.--T.R.

[E170] "Doue houses." The Norfolk and Suffolk rebels, under Kett in
1549, say in their list of Grievances: "We p[r]ay that noman vnder
the degre of a knyght or esquyer, kepe a _dowe-house_, except it hath
byn of an ould aunchyent costome."--See Ballads from Manuscripts, ed.
Furnivall, i. 149.

[E171] "To buie at the stub," that is, to buy on the ground or on the
spot, and do the carriage oneself. A.S. _styb_, Dutch _stobbe_ = a
stump; whence Eng. _stubborn, stubble_.

[E172] "Edder and stake;" still in common use in Kent, Sussex, etc. See
Ray's Glossary, s.v. Yeather.

[E173] "So far as in lopping," etc., seems to imply that the tops will
take root of themselves without planting.

[E174] Spenser uses "Prime" in the sense of "Spring-time." See Fairy
Queene, Canto ii. st. 40, iv. 17, and vi. 13.

[E175] "Beliue" = in the night, according to Tusser Redivivus, but
wrongly. See Mr. Skeat's note in Ray's Glossary, _s.v._ Beliue.

[E176] Hugh Prowler is our Author's name for a night walker.--T.R.

[E177] Harrison, ed. 1587, fo. 42, speaks of sheep, "such as bring
foorth but one at a time," as _anelings_, from which it would seem that
_twinlings_ mean sheep such as _bring forth twins_ and _not the twins_
themselves. Dr. Mavor says: "Twin lambs are supposed to perpetuate
their prolific quality, and are therefore kept for breeders." In some
parts of Norfolk and Lincoln they will keep none but _twinlins_, but
then it is in rich land as Mershland and Holland.--T.R.

[E178] "Peccantem" should be _peccavi_, which is the reading of the
editions of 1573, 1585, and 1597.

[E179] "For yoke or the paile:" whether intended for the yoke or for
the dairy.

[E180] The strongest pigs are observed to suck foremost, because there
they find milk in the greatest abundance.--M.

[E181] "Yoong fils." We should certainly read, as required by the
rhythm of the line, _fillies_, which is found in the editions of 1573,
1577, and 1597.

[E182] "As concerning _Arbors, Seats, etc., in Orchards and Gardens_, I
advise men to make them of _Fruit trees_, rather then of _Privet_, or
other rambling stuffe, which yeelds no profit, but only for shade. If
you make them of _Cherry-trees, Plum-trees_, or the like, there will be
the same advantage for _shade_, and all the _Fruits_ superadded. All
that can be objected is, that _Fruit-trees_ are longer in growing up
then _Privet, Virgine Bower_, or the like, whereof arbors are commonly
made. It is answered. Though _Fruit-trees_ are something longer in
covering an _Arbor_, then some other things, yet they make sufficient
amends in their _lasting and bearing fruits_."--Austen's Treatise of
Fruit Trees, 1657, p. 61.

[E183] Oats sown in January would be most likely to rise free from
weeds, but it is not often that the season and the soil will admit
of such early culture. The whole stanza is somewhat enigmatical. The
earlier editions read uniformly: "by the hay," etc., but the more
modern have: "buy thee hay," etc., which is probably the correct
reading. The obvious meaning is, provide early what may be required,
that you may escape risk of failure and dearth. If you buy your hay in
May, you are prepared against the worst.

[E184] _Plash_ here means to pleach down a hedge over the burrows;
_set_ means plant over the place where the burrows are, not to stop the
rabbits from coming out, but to give them a means of escape from the
dogs who might otherwise _snap_ them up before they reached their holes.

[E185] A cage for moulting hawks was called a _mewe_. "For the better
preservation of their health they strowed mint and sage about them; and
for the speedier _mewing_ of their feathers they gave them the slough
of a snake, or a tortoise out of the shell, or a green lizard cut in
pieces."--Aubrey's Wilts. MS. p. 341. Ducange (Glossary M. et I. Lat.)
has "_Muta_, Accipitrum domuncula in qua includuntur falcones, cum
plumas mutant; accipitres enim quotannis pennas mutant."

[E186] "All's fish they get," etc. See Gascoyne's Steele Glass, Arber's
Reprint, p. 57.

[E187] "Feb, fill the dike." In Mr. Robinson's Whitby Glossary is given
as a weather expression of Yorkshire: "February fill-dike, and March
muck't out." Another form is in Hazlitt's Eng. Proverbs:

"February fill dike be it black or be it white:
But if it be white, it's better to like."

"Fevrier remplit les fosses: Mars les seche."--Fr. Provb.

See also Swainson's Weather Folklore, pp. 40-42.--Note by Mr. J.
Britten, F.L.S.

[E188] "Leaue iobbing," _i.e._ leave off jobbing, or pecking, with
their beaks. See Prompt. Parv. p. 36. "Bollyn, or _jowin_ wythe the
bvlle as byrdys (byllen or _iobbyn_ as bryddys K. _iobbyn_ with the byl
H.P.). _Rostro_."

[E189] See note E112.

[E190] Moles, for the trapping of which each parish used to maintain
a sapper and miner, are found to be excellent husbandmen, the little
heaps of friable soil which they throw up furnishing, when spread
abroad, the best of top dressings. "It may be novel to some to be
informed that moles may be taken with dogs, properly trained. This may
serve to diversify the life of a professed hunter."--M.

[E191] As for _mole-hills_ forming a warm and dry station for lambs,
the same may be said with much greater propriety of _ant-hills_; yet
neither would be suffered to remain on a well-managed farm.

[E192] Lease, a small enclosure near the homestall.--M. A name used in
some countries for a small piece of ground of 2 or 3 acres.--T.R.

[E193] "Mestlen." "Years ago in Norfolk thousands of acres yeelded
no better grain crop than rye, of which the bread of farm households
was made. _Meslin_ bread made of wheat and rye in equal quantity was
for the master's table alone."--Forby. "And there at the manor of
Marlingford, and at the mill loaded both carts with _Mestlyon_ and
Wheat."--Paston Letters, iii. p. 294. "For they were neither hogs nor
devils, nor devilish hogs, nor hoggish devils, but a _mesling_ of the
two."--Fairfax. The mixed grain, meslin, was used in France in the
concoction of beer, as appears by the regulations for the brewers of
Paris, 1254, who were to use "grains, c'est à savoir, d'orge, de_
mestuel, _et de_ dragée."--Reglements t. Louis IX. ed. Depping, p.
29. At a dinner given in 1561 to the Duke of Norfolk by the Mayor of
Norwich, there were provided: "xvj loves white bread iv_d._, xviij
loves wheaten bread, ix_d._, iij loves _mislin_ bread iij_d._"--Leland,
Itin. vi. xvii. Plot (Hist. of Oxford, p. 242) says that the
Oxfordshire land termed sour is good for wheat and "miscellan," namely
wheat and rye mixed.

[E194] It is to be regretted, both on the score of policy and health,
that in reforming false principles, we renounced salutary practices.
Days of abstinence from flesh-meat, if not prescribed by authority,
should be voluntarily imposed on ourselves. If the fisherman purchases
bread of the farmer, the farmer in his turn ought to encourage the
fisherman, who in peace and war has the highest claims to support.--M.

[E195] "Auens." "Avence herbe, Avancia, Sanamunda."--Prompt. Parv. By
some called _harefoot_. It was used in cookery; see Pegge's Forme of
Cury, ed. 1780, p. 13.

[E196] "Betanie." Lat. _betonica_, said by Pliny to have been first
called _Vettonica_, from the Vettones, a people of Spain.

[E197] "Bleets." The name of some pot-herb which Evelyn in Acetaria
takes to be the "Good Henry," and remarks of it that, "'tis insipid
enough." βλιτον [Greek: bliton] = insipid. In Lyte's Dodoens, p. 547,
are given three kinds of Blitte or Bleet, and the French name is said
to be _Pourrée rouge_. "_Suæda maritima_, or sea-blite, belongs to the
goose-foot tribe; the good-king-Henry, or _Chenopodium bonus-Henricus_,
is of the same tribe. See Flowers of the Field, by C. A. Johns."--Note
by Rev. W. W. Skeat.

"Beets," although joined here with "bleets," no doubt refers to the
common beetroot, _Beta vulgaris_, Linn. Gerard had the "White or Yellow
Beete" in his garden.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E198] "Bloodwoort," called also Bloody-dock, from its red veins and
stems. _Rumex sanguineus_, L. Called also _Walwort_ and Danewort in
Lyte's Dodoens, 1578, p. 380, who says that the "fumes of Walwort
burned, driueth away Serpentes and other venemous beastes."

[E199] "The rootes of Borage and _Buglosse_ soden tender and made
in a Succade, doth ingender good blode, and doth set a man in a
temporaunce."--A. Boorde's Dyetary, E.E.T. Soc. ed. Furnivall, p. 278.

[E200] "Burnet, a term formerly applied to a brown cloth, Fr.
_brunette_, It. _brunetta_, and given to the plant so called from its
brown flowers."--Dr. Prior, Popular Names of British Plants, 1870.
Called also _Pimpinell_.--Lyte's Dodoens, 1578, p. 138.

[E201] "Burrage." Fr. _bourache_, M. Lat. _borago_. Apuleius says that
its original name was "_corrago_, quia cordis affectibus medetur," a
word that the herbalists suppose to have become, by change of _c_ to
_b, borrago_. See A. Boorde's Dyetary, ed. Furnivall, pp. 278-280.

[E202] "Clarie." M. Lat. _sclarea_, from _clarus_ = clear, and prefix
_ex_. Called by the apothecaries _clear-eye_, translated into _Oculus
Christi, Godes-eie_, and _See-bright_, and eye-salves made of it.
_Salvia Sclarea_, Linn. "Called in French _Ornale_ or _Fonte-bonne_;
it maketh men dronke and causeth headache, and therefore some Brewers
do boyle it with their Bier in steede of Hoppes."--Lyte's Dodoens, ed.
1578, p. 253.

[E203] "Coleworts." Dioscorides (quoted in Cogan's Haven of Health,
p. 49) says (lib. 2, cap. 113) that "if they be eaten last after
meats, they preserue the stomacke from surfetting, and the head from
drunkennesse. Yea some write, that if one would drinke much wine for a
wager, and not be drunke, but to haue also a good stomacke to meate,
that he should eate before the banquet raw Cabage leaues with Vinegar
so much as he list, and after the banquet to eate againe foure or fiue
raw leaues, which practice is much vsed in Germanie.... The Vine and
the Coleworts be so contrarie by nature that if you plant Coleworts
neere to the rootes of the Vine, of it selfe it will flee from them.
Therefore it is no maruaile if Colewortes be of such force against
drunkennesse; But I trust no student will prooue this experiment,
whether he may be drunken or not, if he eate Coleworte leaues before
and after a feast."

[E204] The numerous virtues of this herb are thus summed up in the
King's Coll. MS. of the Promptorium:

"Bis duo dat maratrum, febres fugat atque venenum,
Et purgat stomacum, sic reddit lumen acutum."

Macer gives a detailed account, in which the following remarkable
passages occur: "þe edderes wole ete fenel, when her yen dasnyþ, and
so she getiþ ayene her clere sighte; and þer þoroghe it is founde and
preved þat fenel doþ profit to mannis yene: þe yen þat ben dusked,
and dasniþ, shul be anoynted with þe ius of fenelle rotis medeled
with hony; and þis oynement shalle put a-way alle þe dasewenesse of
hem, and make hem bryȝt." The virtue of fennel in restoring youth,
was a discovery attributed by Macer to serpents; "Þis prouiþ auctours
and filisoferis, for serpentis whan men _(sic)_ olde, and willeth
to wexe stronge, myghty, and yongly a-yean, þei gon and eten ofte
fenel, and þei become yongliche and myghty."--MS. in the possession
of H. W. Diamond, Esq. This herb is called in German _Fenchel_, Dutch
_Venckel_. In Piers Plowman mention occurs of: "A ferthyng worth of
fynkel-sede for fastinge daies;" C. vii. 360; spelt fenel in the other
texts. "Fenkylle or fenelle, _feniculum_."--Prompt. Parv. "Fenelle or
fenkelle, _feniculum, maratrum_."--Catholicon Anglicum.

[E205] "Andreas the Herborist writeth that the root of the Langdebeefe
tyed or bounde to the diseased place, swageth the ache of the veynes
(called _Varix_) being to muche opened or enlarged and fylled with
grosse blood."--Lyte's Dodoens, 1578, p. 568. See also Gerard's Herbal,
1633.

This is no doubt _Helminthia echioides_, Linn., of which Parkinson
(_Paradisus_) gives a good description and figure under this name, and
says, "The leaves are onely used ... for an herbe for the pot among
others." Lyte's reference is to some other plant which has "a purple
flower."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E206] "Leek." A remnant of A.S. _porleac_, from Lat. _porrum_ and
_leac_ = a plant, Ger. _lauch_.

[E207] "Longwort," called in Lyte's Dodoens, p. 125, Sage of Jerusalem,
"whiche herbe hath no particular vse in Physicke, but it is much vsed
in Meates and Salades with egges, as is also Cowslippes and Prymeroses,
whervnto in temperature it is much like." See also Gerard's Herbal,
1633, where it is called "Cowslips of Jerusalem."

[E208] "Liuerwort," so called from the liver shape of the thallus,
and its supposed effects in disease of the liver. O. L. Ger.
_Steenleuerwnyt_. According to Lyte's Dodoens, p. 59, "a soueraigne
medicine against the heate and inflammation of the Lyuer, and all hoate
Feuers or Agues." _Anemone Hepatica_, Linn.

The first portion of this note refers to a Cryptogam called Liverwort,
having nothing to do with the plant meant by Tusser.--Note by Mr. J.
Britten, F.L.S.

[E209] "Marigolds are hote and drye, an herbe well knowen and as vsual
in the kitchin as in the hal: the nature whereof is to open at the
Sunne rising, and to close vp at the Sunne setting. It hath one good
propertie and very profitable for Students, that is by the vse thereof
the sight is sharpened. And againe the water distilled of Marigolds
when it flowreth, doth help the rednesse and inflammation of the eyes
if it be dropped into them, or if a linnen cloth wet in the water be
laid upon them. Also the powder of Marigolds dried, being put into the
hollownesse of the teeth, easeth toothach. And the juice of the herbe
mingled with a little salt, and rubbed often times vpon Warts, at
length weareth them away."--Cogan's Haven of Health, ch. 63. Called in
the Grete Herbal _Mary Gowles_, a name that seems to have originated in
the A.S. _mersc-mear-gealla_ = marsh-horse-gowl, the marsh marigold,
or _caltha_, transferred to the exotic plant of our gardens and
misunderstood as _Mary Gold_. It is often mentioned as Gold simply by
our older poets:

"That she sprunge up out of the molde
Into a floure was named _golde_."
  --Gower, ed. 1554, f. 120.

"The yellow marigold, the sunne's own flower," says Heywood in Marriage
Triumphe, and "so called," says Hyll (Art of Gard. ch. xxx.), "for that
after the rising of the sun unto noon, this flower openeth larger and
larger; but after the noontime unto the setting of the sun the flower
closeth more and more, so that after the setting thereof it is wholly
shut up."

"The marigold observes the sun,
More than my subjects me have done."
  --K. Charles I.

[E210] "Mercurie." A name rather vaguely applied in old works,
probably the "Good Henry, _Chenopodium Bonus Henricus_." Called also
"Allgood," Dutch _algoede_, Ger. _allgut_, from Lat. _tota bona_,
Cotgrave and Palsgrave _toutte bonne_, on account of its excellent
qualities as a remedy and as an esculent; hence the proverb: "Be thou
sick or whole, put _Mercury_ in thy koale."--Cogan, Haven of Health,
ch. 28. "The Barons Mercury, or male Phyllon dronken, causeth to
engender male children, and the Mayden Mercurie, or gyrles Phyllon
dronken, causeth to engender Gyrles or Daughters."--Lyte's Dodoens, p.
78.

It is still much grown in some districts, as in Lincolnshire (where it
is called "Marquerry"), being boiled and eaten as spinach.--Note by Mr.
J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E211] "Nep," common Cat-mint. "Dronken with honied water is good
for them that haue fallen from a lofte, and haue some bruse or
squat, and bursting, for it digesteth the congeled and clotted
bloud, and is good for the payne of the bowels, the shortnesse of
breath, the oppillation or stopping of the breast, and against the
Jaundice."--Lyte, p. 148. See also Gerard's Herbal, 1633. "Nepe, herbe,
_Coloquintida, cucurbita_."--Prompt. Parv. "Neppe, an herbe, _herbe du
chat_."--Palsgrave. Forby gives the Norfolk simile "as white as _nep_,"
in allusion to the white down which covers this plant.

The plant referred to in the quotation from the Prompt. Parv. is not
that meant by Tusser.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E212] "Orach," _Atriplex hortensis_, or _sativa_, formerly _Arach_,
Prompt. Parv. _Arage_, in MS. Harl. 979 _Arasches_, Fr. _arroche_, from
Low Lat. _aurago_ from _aurum_ = gold, by the addition to it of _ago_
= wort, as in plantago, lappago, etc. At the same time its use in the
cure of jaundice, _aurugo_, may have fixed upon the plant the name of
the disease.

"_Atriplicem_ tritam cum nitro, melle, et aceto,
Dicunt appositam calidam sedare podagram:
_Ictericis_ dicitque Galenus tollere morbum
Illius semen cum vino sæpius haustum."
  --Macer, cap. xxviii. l. 7, quoted by Dr. Prior.

[E213] "Patience," called in Lyte's Dodoens, p. 559, "Wild Docke," and
stated to be a remedy for jaundice, the "bitinges and stinginges of
Scorpions," and the tooth ache, and if "hanged about the necke it doth
helpe the kinges euill or swelling in the throte."

[E214] If the virtues of Penny Royal, as stated in Lyte's Dodoens, p.
232, be true, the use of it might now be advantageously adopted by the
consumers of London drinking water. He says: "If at any time men be
constrayned to drinke _corrupt, naughtie, stinking,_ or salte water,
throw Penny royal into it, or strow the pouder thereof into it, and it
shall not hurte any bodie." It is sometimes called Pudding-grass, from
its being used to make stuffings for meat, formerly called _puddings_.
It is recommended by Andrew Boorde (Dyetary, ed. E.E.T. Soc. p. 281) as
a remedy for melancholy, and to comfort the spirits of men.

[E215] "Primerose," from _Pryme rolles_, the name it bears in old
books and MSS. The Grete Herball, ch. cccl. says: "It is called _Pryme
Rolles_ of _pryme tyme_, because it beareth the first floure in _pryme
tyme_." It is also so called in Frere Randolph's Catalogue. Chaucer
writes it in one word _primerole_. (See also MS. Addit. 11, 307, f. 37:

"He shal ben lyk the lytel bee
That seketh the blosme on the tre,
And souketh on the _prumorole_.")

_Primerole_ is an abbreviation of Fr. _primeverole_, It. _primaverola_,
dimin. of _prima vera_, from _fior di prima vera_ = the first spring
flower. Primerole, as an outlandish unintelligible word, was soon
familiarized into _prime rolles_, and this into _primrose_. This is
explained in popular works as meaning the first rose of the spring,
a name that never could have been given to a plant that in form and
colour is so unlike a rose. But the rightful claimant is, strange
to say, the _daisy_, which in the South of Europe is a common and
conspicuous flower in early spring, while the _primrose_ is an
extremely rare one, and it is the _daisy_ that bears the name in
all the old books. See Fuchs, Hist. Stirpium, 1542, p. 145, where
there is an excellent figure of it, titled _primula veris_; and the
Ortus Sanitatis, ed. Augsb. 1486, ch. cccxxxiii., where we have a
very good woodcut of a daisy titled "masslieben, _Premula veris_,
Latine." Brunfelsius, Novum Herbarium, ed. 1531, speaking of the
Herba paralysis, the cowslip, says, p. 1590, expressly, "Sye würt von
etlichen Doctores _Primula veris_ genaunt, das doch falsch ist wann
_Primula veris_ ist matsomen oder zeitlosen." Brunschwygk (De Arte
Distillandi, 1500, book ii. c. viii.) uses the same words. The Zeitlose
is the daisy. Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 531) assigns the name to both the
daisy and the primrose. Matthioli (ed. Frankfort, 1586, p. 653) calls
his Bellis Major "_Primo fiore maggiore_, seu _Fiore di prima vera_,
nonnullis _Primula veris major_" and figures the moon-daisy. His Bellis
minor, which seems to be our daisy, he calls "_Primo fiore minore,
Fior di primavera_, Gallis _Marguerites_, Germanis _Masslieben_." At
p. 883, he figures the cowslip, and calls that also "_Primula veris_,
Italis _Fiore di primavera_, Gallis _primevere_."--Dr. Prior's Pop.
Names of British Plants. "_Petie Mulleyn_ (whiche we call _Cowslippe_
and _Primerose_) is of two sortes. The smaller sorte, which we call
Primerose, _Herbasculum minus_, is of diuers kindes, as yellow and
greene, single and dubble."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 122.

Lupton (Book of Notable Things, v. 89) speaks of "Primroses, which some
take to be Daisies."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E216] "Rosemary," Lat. _rosmarinus_, sea-spray, from its usually
growing on the sea-coast and its odour, is recommended by Lyte for
fastening loose teeth. "Take of rewe a grete quantite, and sawge halfe
als mekille, and _rosemaryne_ the same quantitee."--MS. Linc. Med. f.
283. According to Andrew Boorde it is a remedy for "palses and for the
fallynge syckenes, and for the cowghe, and good agaynst colde."

[E217] "Safron," Sp. _azafran_, from Arabic _al zahafaran_. On the
cultivation, etc., of Saffron in England, there is a long account in
Harrison's Description of England, book iii. cap. 24. See note E354.

[E218] "Spinage." "Called in Arabic _Hispanach_; 'Arabicæ factionis
principes _Hispanach_, hoc est, Hispanicum olus nominant.'--Fuchs,
Hist. Stirp. p. 668. Dodoens (bk. v. 1. 5) tells us, '_Spinachiam_
nostra ætas appellat, nonnulli _spinacheum_ olus. Ab Arabibus et
Serapione _Hispanac_ dicitur.' Brunfelsius (ed. 1531) says expressly
at p. 16, 'Quæ vulgo _spinachia_ hodie, Atriplex _Hispaniensis_ dicta
est quondam; eo quod ab Hispania primum allata est ad alias exteras
nationes.' Tragus also calls it _Olus Hispanicum_; Cotgrave, _Herbe
d'Espaigne_; and the modern Greeks σπαναχιον [Greek: spanachion]."--Dr.
R. A. Prior.

[E219] Lyte, p. 642, says: "_Cyues_ or Rushe onions: this kinde of
Leekes is called in English Cyues, and of Turner in Latine, _Cepa
pallacana_, and in Greke Gethyun, which he Englisheth by al these
names, a Cyue, a Civet, a Chyue, or _Sweth_."

[E220] "Tanzie," Fr. _athanasie_, contracted to _tanacée_ and
_tanaisie_. Lyte says, p. 18, that it was sold in the shops under the
name of _Athanasia_, the Greek word for immortality, and that it was so
called, "quod non cito flos inarexat." A cake used to be made in which
tansy was one of the ingredients, and which was called Tansay-Cake. The
following recipe for it is given in MS. Sloane 1986, f. 100:

"Breke egges in bassyn, and swynge hem sone,
Do powder of peper therto anone,
Then grynde _tansay_, tho juse owte wrynge,
To blynde with tho egges, withowte lesynge.
In pan or skelet thou shalt hit frye,
In buttur well skymm et wyturly,
Or white grece thou may take therto,
Geder hit on acake, thenne hase thou do,
With platere of tre, and frye hit browne,
On brodeleches serve hit thou schalle,
With fraunche-mele* or other metis withalle."

* A dish composed chiefly of eggs and sheeps' fat.

In Halliwell's Dict. is also given a recipe for a dish called
_Tansie_. Cogan, in his Haven of Health, p. 65, says: "It is much vsed
among vs in England about Easter, with fried egs, not without good
cause, to purge away the fleame engendred of fish in Lent season,
whereof wormes are soone bred in them that be thereto disposed, though
the common people vnderstand not the cause, why _Tansies_ are more vsed
after Lent, than at any other time of the yeare." "To prevent being
Bug-bitten. Put a sprig or two of _Tansy_ at the bed head, or as near
the pillow as the smell may be agreeable."--T. Cosnett's Footman's
Directory, p. 292. "For to dystroy a Wrang Nayle, othewyse callyd a
Corne. Take wylde _tansey_, and grynde yt, and make yt neshe, and ley
it therto, and it wyl bryng yt owght."--Lambeth MS. 306, f. 65, quoted
in Political, Relig. and Love Poems (E. E. Text Soc. ed. Furnivall), p.
36.

The wild tansey is not Tusser's plant.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E221] "Blessed Thistle." "So worthily named for the singular vertues
that it hath.... It sharpneth the wit and memorie, strengthneth all the
principall parts of the bodie, quickneth all the senses, comforteth
the stomacke, procureth appetite, and hath a speciall vertue against
poyson, and preserueth from the Pestilence, and is excellent good
against any kinde of Feuer, being vsed in this manner: Take a dramme
of the powder, put it into a good draught of ale or wine, warme it and
drink it a quarter of an hour before the fit doth come, then goe to
bed, couer you well with clothes and procure sweate, which by the force
of the herbe will easily come foorth, and so continue vntill the fit be
past.... For which notable effects this herbe may worthily be called
_Benedictus_ or _Omnimorbia_, that is a salue for euery sore, not
knowen to Physitians of old time, but lately reuealed by the speciall
providence of Almighty God."--Cogan's Haven of Health, p. 545.

[E222] "Purslane," in Turner's Herball _Purcellaine_, in the Grete
Herball _Porcelayne_, in Dodoens _Purcelayne_. "It is good against St.
Antonies fier, called _erysipelas_."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 576. "Purslain
in Latin is called _Portulaca, a portula_ = a little gate, because they
fancied it to be like one."--Lemery's Treatise on Foods, 1704, p. 92.

[E223] "Rampions," Fr. _raiponce_, "a word mistaken as in the case
of _cerise_ and _pease_, for a plural, and the _m_ inserted for
euphony."--Dr. Prior, Popular Names of British Plants.

[E224] "Men say that who so taketh the seede of Rockat before he be
beaten or whipt, shalbe so hardened that he shall easily endure the
payne, according as Plinie writeth."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 622. What a
pity Tusser did not know of this property of the Rocket! from his own
account he had plenty of opportunities of testing it at Eton.

[E225] "Sage causeth wemen to be fertill, wherefore in times past the
people of Egypt, after a great mortalite and pestilence, constreyned
their wemen to drinke the iuyce therof, to cause them the sooner to
conceyue, and to bring foorth store of children."--Lyte's Dodoens, p.
252.

[E226] "Sea holie." _Eryngium maritimum_, Linn. "The leaves are good
to be eaten in sallads."--Langham's Garden of Health. "The young and
tender shoots are eaten of divers either raw or pickled."--Parkinson,
Theatrum Botanicum, 1640, p. 988.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E227] "Sampere is a weede growing neare the sea-side, and is very
plentifull about the Ile of Man, from whence it is brought to diuers
parts of England, preserved in Brine, and is no lesse wholesome than
Capers."--Cogan's Haven of Health, p. 64. The Eng. Samphire is a
corruption of the Fr. Herbe de _Saint Pierre_, from its growing on the
rocks on the sea-shore. The leaves are used in the form of a pickle as
an article of diet.

[E228] "The _Ionians_ had so much Veneration for them that they swore
by _Cabbages_, and were therein as superstitious as the _Egyptians_,
who gave divine Honours to _Leeks_ and _Onions_, for the great Benefits
which they said they received from them."--Lemery's "Treatise on
Foods," 1704, p. 73.

[E229] "Citrons," according to Lyte, p. 704, will cure "tremblynge
of the hart and pensiue heavinesse, wamblynges, vomitinges, and
lothsomnesse of the stomache." The citron was probably introduced into
Europe with the orange by the Arab conquerors of Spain, and first
received in England from that country. By a MS. in the Tower it appears
that in 1290, 18 Edw. I., a large Spanish ship came to Portsmouth,
and that from her cargo Queen Eleanor purchased Seville figs, dates,
pomegranates, 15 _Citrons_, and 7 _poma de orenge_.--Way in Prompt.
Parv.

[E230] "The garden Basill is called in English _Basill Royall_ or
_Basill gentle_, and the smaller kinde is called _Bushse_ (sic)
_Basill_. The herbe brused with vineger and holden to the nose of
suche as are faynt and fallen into a sound bringeth them againe to
themselues, and the seede therof giuen to be smelled upon causeth the
sternutation or niesing."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 241. "One thing I read in
Hollerius (Lib. i. cap. i.) of Basill, which is wonderfull. 'A certaine
Italian, by often smelling to Basill, had a scorpion bred in his
braine, and after vehement and long paines he died thereof.'"--Cogan's
Haven of Health, p. 50. See also 51. 34.

[E231] "Costmary, L. _Costus amarus_, Fr. _coste amere_, misunderstood
as _Costus Mariæ_, an error that has very naturally arisen from this
plant having been dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, and called after
her, _Maudlin_, either in allusion to her box of scented ointment, or
to its use in the uterine affections over which she presided. In old
authors it occurs as _Herba sanctæ_ or _divæ Mariæ_."--Dr. R. Prior,
Popular Names of Brit. Plants. Called also Alecost from its having
formerly been esteemed an agreeable aromatic bitter, and much used for
flavouring ale: "If you list to make a pleasant drinke, and comfortable
to the stomache, put certaine handfuls of this herbe in the bottome of
a vesselle, and tunne up new Ale vpon it."--Cogan, Haven of Health, ch.
69.

[E232] "Paggles," spelt also Paigle, Pagle, Pagel, Peagle, Pegyll and
Pygil, a name now confined to the Eastern Counties, and generally
assigned to the Cowslip, but by Ray and Moor to the _Ranunculus
bulbosus_. The derivation is uncertain. "Blake (yellow) as a
paigle."--Ray. In Suffolk the name is applied to the Crowfoot, the
_Cuckoo-flower_.

[E233] "Our common germander or thistle benet is found and knowne to
bee so wholesome and of so great power in medicine, as anie other
hearbe, if they be vsed accordinglie."--Harrison, Descript. of Eng.,
ed. Furnivall, pt. i. p. 326. "The iuyce of the leaues mengled with
oyle, and straked vpon the eyes, driueth away the white cloude,
called the Hawe or Pearle in the eye, and all manner dimness of the
same."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 25.

[E234] "That which is commonly called Sothernewood is the male kinde
of this herbe, and that which we doe call _Lauender-cotten_ is the
female, named in Latine _Cypressus_ or _Santolina_. The setting of
_Lauender-cotten_ within the house in floure pots must needes be very
wholesome, for it driveth away venemous wormes, both by strawing, and
by the sauour of it, and being drunke in wine it is a remedie against
poyson."--Cogan's Haven of Health, p. 56.

[E235] "Mawdelin," spelt also _Maudlin, Mawdeleyn_ and _Maudeline_,
appears to have derived its name similarly to _Costmary_, q.v., and to
have been applied to the same uses.

[E236] "Baies," Bays, from French _baie_, which is formed from
Lat. _bacca_ = a berry. In old writers _bay_ is used for a _berry_
generally, as "the bayes of ivyne," but in time the term came to be
applied to the berries of the _sweet bay_, called by Virgil _lauri
baccas_, from their being an article of commerce; from the berry the
term was extended to the tree itself.

[E237] "Bachelor's Buttons." So called, according to Johnson's Gerarde,
p. 472, "from their similitude to the jagged cloathe buttons anciently
worne in this kingdom," but according to others from "a habit of
country fellows to carry them in their pockets to divine their success
with their sweethearts." Called by Lyte (Dodoens, p. 421), _Goldcup_
or _Gold knoppe_, and described as a double variety of the flower now
known so well as the Butterflower, or Buttercup, the Fr. _bouton d'or_.

[E238] "Columbine," called Colourbine in Lincoln, _Aquilegia vulgaris_,
used for making stuffed chine.

"There are many sorts of Colombines, as well differing in forme as
colour of the flowers, and of them both single and double carefully
noursed up in our gardens, for the delight both of their forme and
colours."--Parkinson, _Paradisus_, 1629, p. 271.--Note by Mr. J.
Britten, F.L.S.

[E239] "Daffadowndilly, Daffodilly, Affodilly, and Daffodil, Lat.
_asphodelus_, from which was formed Affodilly, the name of it in all
the older writers, but subsequently confused with that of another
flower, the so-called _sapharoun_ or saffron _lily_:

"'The thyrde _lylye_ ȝyt there ys,
That ys called felde lylye, y wys,
Hys levys be lyke to _sapharoun_,
Men know yt therby many one.'
  --MS. Sloane, 1571.

"With the taste for alliteration that is shown in popular names, the
_Sapharoun-lily_, upon blending with _affodilly_, became, by a sort
of mutual compromise, _daffadowndilly_, whence our _daffodilly_ and
_daffodil_."--Dr. R. A. Prior, Popular Names of British Plants. "Strew
me the ground with daffadowndillies."--Spenser, Shep. Cal. 140.

[E240] "Eglantine," a word of doubtful origin. Chaucer writes it
_eglatere_ and _eglentere_. Fr. _aiglantier_, Prov. _aiglentina_ = wild
rose. Diez derives it from Lat. _aculeus_ = a prickle, through the adj.
_aculentus_.

[E241] Feverfew (_Pyrethrum parthenium_), a genus of Composite
plants, common in our gardens, and deriving its name from having long
been employed as a popular remedy in ague and other fevers, and as an
emmenagogue. It appears to possess stimulant and tonic properties. It
is a perennial plant, and may attain a height of one or two feet. Its
leaves are flat and broad, its flowers small. It is nearly allied to
Camomile. The variety grown in gardens is well known under the name of
"golden feather."

[E242] "Flower armor," evidently the _Floramor_, Fr. _fleur d'amour_,
from a misconception of its Latin name _Amaranthus_, as though a
compound of _Amor_, love, and _anthus_, a flower.

[E243] "Flower de luce," the _flos deliciarum_ of the Middle Ages.
Ducange, quoting from the history of the Harcourts, says:--"Thomas,
Dux Exoniæ habet comitatum de Harcourt ... per homagium ac reddendum
_florem deliciarum_ apud Castrum de Rouen," etc. (A.D. 1423).
Another derivation is as follows:--"Louis VII. dit le Jeune, prit le
premier des _fleurs de lis_, par allusion à son nom de Loys (comme
on l'écrivait alors). On a dit dans ce temps-là _Fleur de Loys_,
puis _Fleur de Louis_, enfin, _Fleur de Lis_." (Grandmaison, Dict.
Heraldique.) The flower that he chose seems to have been a _white_ one,
for Chaucer says:

"His nekke was white as is the flour de lis."

In E. K.'s Glossary to Spenser's Shep. Cal. April, we read "_Flower
delice_, that which they use to misterme _Flowre deluce_ being in the
Latine called _Flos delitiarum_."

[E244] According to Lyte the Flower Gentle is identical with the
Floramor (see above). Various species of _Amaranthus_, including the
Flower amor (43. 10), and what we now call _Celosia cristata_, or
Cockscomb, were included under this name. Parkinson (Paradisus, p. 370)
says: "We have foure or five sorts of Flower-gentle to trimme up this
our Garden withall."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E245] "Gilliflower, formerly spelt _gyllofer_ and _gilofre_ with the
_o_ long, from Fr. _giroflée_, ltal. _garofalo_, in Douglas's Virgil
_jereflouris_, words formed from M. Lat. _garoffolum, gariofilum_, or,
as in Albert Magn. (lib. vi. cap. 22), _gariofilus_, corrupted from
Lat. _caryophyllum_ = a clove, and referring to the spicy odour of the
flower, which seems to have been used in flavouring wines to replace
the more costly clove of India. The name was originally given in India
to plants of the Pink tribe, especially the carnation, but has in
England been transferred of late years to several Cruciferous plants.
That of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakspere was, as in Italy, _Dianthus
caryophyllus_, Linn., that of later writers and gardeners _Matthiola_
and _Cheiranthus_, Linn. Much of the confusion in the names of plants
has arisen from the vague use of the French terms _Giroflée, Oeillet_,
and _Violette_, which were, all three of them, applied to flowers of
the Pink tribe, but subsequently extended, and finally restricted in
English to very different plants. _Giroflée_ has become _Gilliflower_,
and passed over to the _Cruciferæ, Oeillet_ has been restricted to
the _Sweet Williams_, and _Violette_ has been appropriated to one
of the numerous claimants of its name, the genus to which the pansy
belongs."--Dr. R. A. Prior.

[E246] "Holiokes," in Huloet's Dict. Holy Hoke. Wedgwood (Etym. Dict.)
derives it from A.S. _hoc_, Welsh _hocys_ = a mallow, and says that it
obtained the title of _Holy_ from its being brought from the Holy Land,
where it is indigenous.

[E247] "Indian Eie." This was probably a _Dianthus_ of some kind
(French _œillet_), the same perhaps which is now grown in our gardens
as Indian or Chinese Pink.

[E248] _Laus tibi_, "a narcissus with white flowers. It groweth
plenteously in my Lorde's garden in Syon and it is called of divers
White Laus tibi."--Turner's Herball, pt. ii. b. 2. "It is very
difficult to ascertain what plant was meant by this name, which is
also mentioned by Turner in his 'Names of Herbes' (1548), and in his
'Libellus' (1538), where there is a long disquisition concerning it. It
may be _Narcissus poeticus_, L., as Mr. B. D. Jackson supposes in his
reprint of the 'Libellus' or possibly _N. biflorus_, L."--Note by Mr.
J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E249] "Lillium cum vallium," the "Lily of the Valley," in Lyte
_Lyllie Conuall_, and also termed _May Blossoms, May Lyllies_, and
_Lyryconfancy_.

[E250] "Nigella Romana." The _Nigella Damascena_, Linn., a favourite
old-fashioned garden annual, still to be met with in gardens under the
names of "Love-in-a-mist," or "Devil-in-a-bush."

[E251] "Pansy," or Paunce, Fr. _pensée_, thought. According to Dr.
Johnson the name is derived from Lat. _panacea_, but there is no
evidence of the plant ever having been so called, or having been
regarded as a panacea. It has received more popular names perhaps
than any other plant, both in our own and in foreign languages. The
following are some of the quaint titles given to it: "Cull me to you,"
or "Cuddle me to you," "Love and Idle," "Live in Idleness," "Love in
Idleness" (originally "Love in idle," _i.e._ in vain); "Love in idle
Pances," "Tittle my fancy," "Kiss me, ere I rise," "Jump up and kiss
me," "Kiss me at the garden gate," "Pink of my John," "Herb Trinity,"
and "Three faces under one hood," from the three colours combined in
one flower. It was also called "Hearts-ease," and "Flame flower" (M.
Lat. _Viola flammea_).

_Heartsease_, a term meaning "_a cordial_," as in Sir W. Scott's
Antiquary, ch. xi., "Buy a dram to be eilding and claise, and a supper
and _hearts-ease_ into the bargain," given to certain plants supposed
to be cardiac: at present [applied] to the _pansy_ alone, but by Lyte,
Bulleyn, and W. Turner, to the _Wallflower_ equally.--Dr. R. A. Prior's
Popular Names of British Plants, which see for an account of the origin
of the name.

[E252] "Sops-in-Wine," the Clove Gilliflower, _Dianthus caryophyllus_,
L., so called from the flowers being used to flavour wine or ale. Cf.
Chaucer's Rime of Sir Thopas, B. 1950:

"Ther springen herbes grete and smale,
The lycorys and cetewale,
And many a clowe gilofre,
And notemuge to putte in ale,
Whether it be moyste or stale."

"Bring Coronations and _Sops in wine_ worne of Paramoures."
  ---Spenser, Shep. Cal. April.

"Garlands of Roses and _Sopps in Wine_."--Ibid. May. E. K., in his
Glossary, says: "_Sops in Wine_, a flowre in colour much like a
_coronation_ (carnation), but differing in smel and quantitye."

[E253] "Sweete Williams,"from Fr. _œillet_, Lat. _ocellus_, a
little eye, corrupted to _Willy_, and thence to _William_, "in
reference, perhaps, to a popular ballad, 'Fair Margaret and Sweet
William,' [printed in Ritson's Early Songs and Ballads, ed. Hazlitt,
1877] a name assigned by W. Bulleyn (f. 48) to the Wallflower, but by
later herbalists and modern gardeners, as here, to a species of pink,
_Dianthus barbatus_, Linn. According to an article in the Quarterly
Review (No. 227), it formerly bore the name of 'Sweet Saint William';
but the writer gives no reference, and probably had no authority for
saying so."--Dr. R. A. Prior, pp. 228 and 250.

[E254] "Sweete Johns." Apparently a variety of Sweet William. See
Parkinson's "Paradisus," pp. 319, 321, for descriptions and figures:
"The chiefe differences betweene them are, that [Sweet Williams] have
broader, and darker greene leaues, somewhat brownish, especially
towards the points, and that the flowers stand thicker and closer,
and more in number together, in the head or tuft."--Note by Mr. J.
Britten,, F.L.S.

[E255] "Star of Jerusalem." This is usually _Tragopogon pratensis_,
L., as in Gerard, p. 736, but some other plant is likely to be meant
here.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E256] "Tuft gilleflowers." Probably some low-growing _Dianthus_,
such as that figured as "Matted Pinkes" by Parkinson (Paradisus, p.
315).--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E257] "Veluet flowers," according to Dr. Prior, the
"love-lies-bleeding," _Amaranthus caudatus_, Linn., from its crimson
velvety tassels; according to Lyte, the same as the Flower Gentle, or
Floramor, Fr. _passevelours, A. tricolor_, Linn.

[E258] "Eyebright." "Divers Authours write that goldfinches, linnets,
and some other Birds make use of this Herb for the repairing of their
own and their young ones sight."--Coles, "Adam in Eden," 1657, p. 46.
It is the "Euphrasy" of Milton, P. L. xi. 414. A similar story is told
of the Hawk-weed. See Pliny (lib. xx. c. 7).

[E259] "Fumetorie," Fr. _fume terre_, Lat. _fumus terræ_, earth-smoke,
it being believed to be produced without seed from vapours arising
from the earth, as stated by Platearius: "Dicitur _fumus terræ_, quod
generatur a quadam fumositate grossâ, a terrâ resolutâ, et circa
superficiem terræ adherente." Pliny (lib. xxv. c. 13) says that it
takes its name from causing the eyes to water when applied to them, as
smoke does;

             "Take youre laxatives
Of lauriol, centaure, and _fumytere_."
  --Chaucer, Nonnes Prestes Tale, 143.

See Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pp. 432-3 and 438, ed. 1845.

[E260] "Woodrofe," spelt according to an old distich thus:

"Double U, double O, double D, E,
R, O, double U, double F, E."

It derives its name originally from the Fr. _roue_ = a wheel, dimin.
_rouelle_, the leaves being set on the stems so as to resemble the
large _rowels_ of ancient spurs.

[E261] "Archangel." This is _Archangelica officinalis_, the stalks of
which "were formerly blanched and eaten as Celeri.... The gardeners
near London, who have ditches of water running through their gardens,
propagate great quantities of this plant, for which they have a
great demand from the confectioners, who make a sweetmeat with the
tender stalks of it cut in May."--Martyn's ed. of Miller's Gardener's
Dictionary. It is still sometimes grown in gardens for use in the
above-mentioned manner. According to Cogan (Haven of Health, p. 71), it
will cure the bite of a mad dog.

[E262] According to Cogan "Cummin" was extensively used for washing
the face, it having the effect, if not used too often, of making the
complexion clear; if used to excess, it caused paleness. He continues,
"In Matthiolus (lib. 3, cap. 60) I reade a practise to be wrought with
_Cummine_ seedes, and (as I thinke) hath been vsed in time past of
Monkes and Friers. They that counterfait holinesse and leannesse of
bodie, doe often vse Cummine seedes in their meates, and be perfumed
therewith."--Haven of Health, p. 47.

[E263] "Detanie." Dittany (_Origanum onites_, Linn.) was commonly
cultivated in gardens at this period. Gerard, p. 795, says it is "a hot
and sharpe hearbe," and speaks of it as biting the tongue.

[E264] Gromell, Grummel, or Gray myle, as Turner says it should be
written, from _granum solis_ and _milium solis_ together. "That is al
one," says the Grete Herbal, "_granum solis_ and _milium solis_." The
common _gromwell_ or gray millet, _Lithospermum officinale_, Linn.,
was formerly esteemed as a remedy for the stone and other diseases.
In a treatise on the virtues of plants, written in the 15th century,
Roy. MS. 18 A. vi. f. 766, the following description is given: "_Granum
solis_ ys an herbe þat me clepyþ _gromel_, or lyþewale: thys herbe haþ
leuys þat be euelong, and a lytyl white flour, and he haþ whyte seede
ischape as a ston that me clepyþ margery perl." Cotgrave gives "Gremil,
grenil, the hearb _gromill, grummell_, or _graymill_, peare-plant,
lichewall." The word is derived by Skinner "_a granis sc. lapideis, quæ
pro seminibus habet, q.d. granile._"--Way, in Prompt. Parv. "Grumelle,
_milium, gramen solis_."--Catholicon Anglicum.

[E265] "Louage," spelt in Prompt. Parv. and in Holland's Trans. of
Pliny, _love-ache_, as though it were love-parsley. French _levesche_,
A.S. _lufestice, Levisticum officinale_, Koch.

[E266] "Mandrake." Matthioli (lib. iv. c. 61) tells us that Italian
ladies in his own time had been known to pay as much as 25 and 30
ducats for one of the artificial mandrakes (common white bryony) of
itinerant quacks, and describes the process of their manufacture.
They were supposed to remove sterility; hence Rachel's anxiety to
obtain them (Genesis xxx. 14). There were numerous other superstitions
regarding this plant; amongst others it was said to shriek when torn
up. See Gerard's Herbal, 1597, p. 280, and Peacock's Glossary of
Manley, etc., E. D. Soc. Lupton (Book of Notable Things, iii. 39) gives
instructions for the manufacture of Mandrakes from bryony roots. The
true Mandrake is _Atropa Mandragora_, Linn.

[E267] Mogwort. "Mugwort, a name that corresponds in meaning with its
synonym _wyrmwyrt_, wormwood, from O.E. _mough, moghe_, or _moughte_, a
maggot or moth.

'And wormes and _moghes_ on þe same manere
Sal þat day be in wittenes broght;'
  --Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, l. 5572;

and Wycliffe (Matt. vi. 20):

'Where neþer ruste ne _moughte_ destruyeþ.'

The name was given to this plant from its having been recommended by
Dioscorides to ward off the attacks of these insects. 'Mogwort, al on
as seyn some, modirwort: lewed folk þat in manye wordes conne no rygt
sownynge, but ofte shortyn wordys, and changyn lettrys and silablys,
þey corruptyn þe _o_ into _u_, and _d_ into _g_, and syncopyn _i_,
smytyn awey _i_ and _r_, and seyn mugwort.'--MS. Arundel, 42, f. 35. It
is unnecessary to have recourse to this singular process. The plant was
known both as a _moth-wort_ and as a _mother-wort_, but while it was
used almost exclusively as a _mother-wort_, it still retained, at the
same time, the name of _mugwort_, a synonym of _moth-wort_. In Ælfric's
glossary it is called _matrum herba_--Dr. R. A. Prior. See Brand's Pop.
Antiq. for an account of the superstitious custom of seeking under the
root of this plant on Midsummer-eve for a coal, to serve as a talisman
against many disasters.

[E268] "Rew." Shakspere, Hamlet, iv. 5. 181: "There's rue for you; and
here's some for me: we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays." And Winter's
Tale, iv. 4. 74:

"For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
Seeming and savour all the winter long:
Grace and remembrance be to you both."

Some suppose it to have been called "herb of grace" on account of the
many excellent properties it was held to possess, being a specific
against poison, the bites of venomous creatures, etc.; but probably it
was so called because "rue" means "repent." Cf. also Richard II. Act
iii. sc. 4. 105:

                  "Here in this place
I'll set a bank of _rue_, sour herb of grace."

[E269] "Bots." "Pease an beanes are as danke here as a dog, and this is
the next way to give poor jades the _bottes_."--Shakspere King Henry
IV. Act ii. sc. 1. "Begnawne with _bots_."--Taming of Shrew, Act iii.
sc. 2.

"Sauin." "It is often put into horses' drenches, to helpe to cure them
of the bots, and other diseases."--Parkinson, Paradisus, p. 607.

[E270] "Stitchwort," spelt _Stich-wurt_ in Mayer and Wright, Nat.
Antiquities, 1857, and given from a thirteenth century MS. as the
translation of "Valeriane." Supposed to possess the power of curing
a pain or _stitch_ in the sides.--See Gerard's Herbal, 1597, p. 43.
_Stellaria Holostea_, Linn.

[E271] "Woodbine," not a _bine_ that _grows in woods_, but a creeper
that binds or entwines trees, the honeysuckle. A.S. _wudu-winde_ and
_wudu-bind_, from _wudu_ = a tree, and _windan, bindan_ = to entwine.
In Shakspere (Mids. Night Dr. Act iv. sc. 1) it seems to mean the
bittersweet:

"So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist."

[E272] "Gregorie." "This day (12th March) seems to have been much used
as a date for agricultural observances: cf. 37. 3. In connexion with
this it is worth while to note the Suabian saying, 'Säe Erbsen Gregori'
(sow cabbage on St. Gregory's Day). See Swainson's Weather Folklore, p.
168."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E273] "Mastiues and Mungrels." Although the influence of a very
patriotic sumptuary tax has diminished the number of dogs, we have
still 'thousands too manie.' [This may with truth be said even still.]
However, as Lent now makes little difference in the mode of living,
which it certainly did in the earlier period of the Reformation, our
dogs are not driven by our meagre fare to prey on the lambs; and
therefore need not be particularly watched on this account.--M. Mastif
is derived from O. Fr. _mestif_ = a mongrel (Cotgrave). In the Craven
dialect a great dog is still called a _masty_. See note E35.

[E274] By "hooke or by crooke" occurs in Spenser, Faery Queene, Bk. v.
Canto 2, stanza 27; also in Heywood's Works, 1562, reprint 1867, p. 35.

[E275] No trees appear preferable to willows for fencing hop grounds;
and none are said to be worse than elms, as they attract mildews.--M.

[E276] "What better to skilfull," etc., that is, what can be more
profitable to the experienced farmer than to know when to be bold, that
is, to venture the early sowing of barley?

[E277] The Mayweed (_Anthemis cotula_) is common in corn-fields and
hedgerows. "May-weed or stinking camomile."--T.R. "Resembling cammomil
but of a stinking savour and odious to bees." Coles' Dict. 1676.

[E278] Cockle or _Cokyl_ was used by Wycliffe and other old writers in
the sense of a weed generally, but in later works has been confined to
the _gith_ or _corn-pink_.

[E279] Our author's meaning is, sow barley, oats and pease above
furrows and harrow them in; while rye is best ploughed in with a
shallow furrow.

[E280] "Without cost," that is, on which no expense has been incurred.

[E281] Watering is necessary in dry seasons for what is fresh _set_ or
planted, but not for what is newly sown.

[E282] It is to be lamented, both on account of the health and the
finances of the poor, that they are so much attached, either to solid
food, or to watery infusions of tea. Herbs, pulse and roots might often
supersede more expensive articles of diet. Spoonmeat, in this part of
the island at least, is in no high request at this period, though it
appears to have been indispensable formerly.--M.

[E283] "There remaineth yet a third kinde of meats, which is neither
fish nor flesh, commonly called _white meats_, as egges, milk, butter,
cheese, which notwithstanding proceede and come of flesh, as egges from
the henne, and milk from the cowe. Yet because they are not plainely
flesh, they are permitted to be eaten upon the fish daies."--Cogan's
Haven of Health, ed. 1612, p. 149.

"But how soeuer this case standeth, _white meats_, as milke, butter
and cheese, which were neuer so deere as in my time, and woont to be
accounted of as one of the chiefe staies throughout the Iland, are now
reputed as foods appertinent onelie to the inferiour sort, whilest such
as are more wealthie, doo feed vpon the flesh of all kinds of cattell
accustomed to be eaten, all sorts of fish taken vpon our coasts and in
our fresh rivers, and such diuersitie of wild and tame foules as are
either bred in our Iland or brought ouer vnto vs from other countries
of the maine."--Harrison, Descript. of England, ed. Furnivall, Part
I. p. 144. _White meats_ in Lincoln now mean the flesh of lamb, veal,
rabbits, chickens, pheasants, etc.

[E284] "Count best the best cheape": "For it doth the buyer more credit
and service."--Ray. We still say "Cheap and nasty;" and in the Towneley
Mysteries, p. 102, there is the same sentiment:

"Men say lyght chepe
letherly for yeeldys,"

equivalent to our English proverb: "Light cheap, litter yield."

[E285] It is always advisable to pay carpenters their fair wages,
without any allowance of chips, which is a great temptation for them
to waste timber.--M. In hewing timber, if the workman hews square, the
seller of the timber loses all the gain of the _Wane edges_, which gain
in short is a cheat, although a very customary one.--T.R.

[E286] "Within these fortie yeeres we shall haue little great timber
growing aboue fortie yeeres old; for it is commonlie seene that those
yong _staddles_ which we leaue standing at one and twentie yeeres
fall, are vsuallie at the next sale cut downe without any danger of
the statute, and serue for fire bote, if it please the owner to burne
them."--Harrison, Part I. p. 345. "There is a Statute made, 35 Henry
the 8, and the 1 Eliz. for the presentation of timber trees, Oake,
Ash, Elme, Aspe, and Beech: and that 12 storers and _standils_ should
bee left standing at euery fall, vpon an acre."--Norden's Surveyor's
Dialogue, 1607, p. 213. On the decrease in woods, etc., in England,
see Harrison's Description of England (New Shakspere Soc. edit. F. J.
Furnivall, Part I. p. 344) and Norden's Surveyor's Dialogue, 1607, p.
214, in the latter of which one cause is stated to be the large number
of hammers and furnaces for the manufacture of iron, and the quantity
of charcoal used in the glass-houses; there being, as he says: "now
or lately in Sussex, neere 140 hammers and furnaces for iron, and in
it, and Surry adjoyning 3,400 glasse houses: the hammers and furnaces
spend, each of them, in every 24 houres 2, 3 or foure loades of
charrcoale."--p. 215. "There is a Law in Spaine, that he that cuts down
_one Tree_, shall plant _three_ for it."--A Treatise of Fruit Trees, R.
A. Austin, Oxford, 1657, p. 128.

[E287] "Leaue oxen abrode," etc. The Author of Tusser Redivivus is
supported in his reading of this line by the edition of 1597, which has
"leaue _not_ oxe abrode." The sense, however, may possibly be, "keep
oxen at a distance, for fear of injuring the young shoots." "_Springe_
or ympe that commeth out of the rote."--Huloet's Abcedarium, 1552.
"Keep from biting, treading underfoot, or damage of beasts ... whereby
mischief may be done to the _Springs_, during the time limited by the
statute for such kind of wood."--Brumby Lease, 1716, in Peacock's
Glossary, E. Dial. Soc.

[E288] "Meet with a bootie," etc., that is, as we say, find something
which was never lost.

[E289] Wanteth = is without, does not keep.

[E290] "Waine her to mee." Perhaps = waggon, that is, "drive, carry her
to me," but it is a forced expression.

[E291] "Such maister such man." Another form of the proverb is, "Trim,
Tram; like master, like man." "Tel maître, tel valet" (Fr.).

[E292] Compare with Tusser's description of the faults to be avoided in
the making of cheese the following extracts on the same subject:

"Now what cheese is well made or otherwise may partly be perceiued by
this old Latine verse:

Non nix, non Argos, Methusalem, Magdaleneve,
Esaus, non Lazarus, caseus ille bonus.

That is to say, Cheese should not be white as Snowe is, nor full of
eyes as Argos was, nor old as Methusalem was, nor full of whey or
weeping as Marie Magdalen was, nor rough as Esau was, nor full of spots
as Lazarus. Master Tusser in his Booke of husbandrie addeth other
properties also of Cheese well made, which who so listeth may read.
Of this sort for the most part is that which is made about Banbury
in Oxfordshire: for of all cheese (in my judgement) it is the best,
though some preferre Cheshire Cheese made about Nantwich: and other
also commend the Cheese of other countries: But Banbury Cheese shall
goe for my money: for therein (if it be of the best sort) you shall
neither tast the renet nor salt, which be two speciall properties of
good Cheese. Now who so is desirous to eate Cheese, must eate it after
other meat, and in little quantitie. A pennyweight, according to the
old saying, is enough."--Cogan's Haven of Health, ed. 1612, pp. 158-9.

Andrew Boorde, in his Dyetary already referred to, p. 266, mentions 5
kinds of cheese, namely: "grene chese, softe chese, harde chese and
spermyse. Besyde these iiij natures of chese, there is a chese called
a rewene chese, the whiche, yf it be well orderyd, doth passe all
other cheses, none excesse taken." ... "Chese that is good oughte not
be to harde nor to softe, but betwyxt both; it shuld not be towgh nor
brultell; it ought not to be swete, nor tarte, nor to salt, nor to
fresshe; it must be of good savour and taledge, nor full of iyes, nor
mytes, nor magottes."

           "Yf a chees is drie,
Hit is a vyce, and so is many an eye
Yf it see with, that cometh yf sounyng brendde,
Or moche of salt, or lite of presse, it shende."
  ---Palladius on Husbondrie, E. E. Text Soc. ed. Lodge, p. 154.

With these extracts showing the essentials of good cheese, compare
the following description of Suffolk Cheese, locally termed _Bang and
Thump_, and made of milk several times skimmed:

"Unrivall'd stands thy county cheese, O Giles!
Whose very name alone engenders smiles;
Whose fame abroad by every tongue is spoke,
The well-known butt of many a flinty joke,
Its name derision and reproach pursue,
And strangers tell of 'three times skimm'd skye blue.'"
  --Blomfield.

Its toughness has given rise to a number of local illustrations. In one
the cheese exclaims:

"Those that made me were uncivil,
For they made me harder than the devil;
Knives won't cut me; fire won't sweat me;
Dogs bark at me, but can't eat me."

"Hunger will break through stone walls, or anything except Suffolk
cheese," is a proverb from Ray. Mowbray says "it is only fit to be cut
up for gate latches, a use to which it is often applied." Other writers
represent it as most suitable for making wheels for wheelbarrows.

[E293] "Argusses eies." The mythical Argus, surnamed Panoptes (the
All-seer), had a hundred eyes; he was placed by Juno to guard Io, and
at his death his eyes were transplanted to the peacock's tail.

[E294] To fleet or skim the cream is a verb still in use in
East Anglia, and the utensil used for the purpose is termed a
_fleeting-dish_. "I flete mylke, take away the creame that lyeth above
it whan it hath rested."--Palsgr. "_Esburrer_, to fleet the creame
potte; _laict esburré_, fleeted milk; _maigne_, fleeted milke or