grotes and half grotes, the whiche lacked of the weight of his former
coyne, ii s. vi d. in a li [_libra_, pound] Troy."--Fabyan, p. 461. The
_groat_ was only equal to about three and a half silver pennies instead
of four.
[E332] "The Pie will discharge thee," etc., that is, the magpie will
save you the trouble, etc., alluding to birds eating vermin on sheep's
backs.
[E333] "Ouercome" = overtake, or keep up with; don't mow more than you
can easily make, not too much at once, lest part of it be spoiled for
want of hands.
[E334] "Cock apace." Cf. Piers Plowman, C. Text, Passus vi. 12, 13 (ed.
Skeat).
"Canstow seruen, he seide, oþer syngen in a churche,
Oþer _coke for my cokers_, oþer to þe cart picche?"
_i.e._ put hay into cocks for my harvest men. Mr. Skeat quotes in
his note to this passage: "Bee it also prouided, that this act, nor
anything therein contained, doe in any wise extende to any _cockers_
or haruest folkes that trauaile into anie countrie of this realme for
haruest worke, either corne haruest, or hay haruest, if they doe worke
and labour accordingly."--Rastall, Statutes; Vagabonds, etc., p. 474.
[E335] To employ your labourers in ploughing, or in performing other
parts of husbandry, till the dew is off the grass, is unquestionably a
saving of time, and essentially forwards the business of the farm.--M.
[E336] He who is constantly borrowing tools and other things which he
ought to have of his own, lays himself under obligation to the lender,
who expects twice as much in return.
[E337] "Woodsere" here means the proper season for felling wood.
[E338] "Fieing." "Feigh, Fey, vb. to clean out a drain, gutter or
cesspool. 'Paid to John Lavghton in haruest for _feighinge_ the milne
becke.'--Kirton in Lindsey Ch. Acc. 1582. George Todd's _feyin'_ out
the sink hole."--Peacock's Glossary, E. Dial. Soc. 1877. To _fey_ a
ditch or pond is to empty and clean it; and the mud taken from such
places, if mixed with lime or chalk, forms an excellent compost for
pasture grounds.--M. Cf. Icel. _fægja_, to cleanse, whence our word is
derived.
[E339] "Of late yeares also we haue found and taken vp a great trade
in planting of _hops_, whereof our moorie hitherto and vnprofitable
grounds doo yeeld such plentie and increase that there are few farmers
or occupiers in the countrie, which haue not gardens and hops growing
of their owne, and those farre better than doo come from Flanders
vnto vs. Certes the corruptions vsed by the Flemings, and forgerie
dailie practised in this kind of ware, gaue vs occasion to plant them
here at home; so that now we may spare and send manie ouer vnto them.
And this I know by experience that some one man by conuersion of his
moorie grounds into hopyards, wherof before he had no commoditie, dooth
raise yearelie by so little as twelue acres in compasse two hundred
markes; all charges borne toward the maintenance of his familie. Which
Industrie God continue! Though some secret freends of Flemings let not
to exclaime against this commoditie, as a spoile of wood, by reason
of the poles, which neuerthelesse after three yeares doo also come to
the fire, and spare their other fewell."--Harrison, Descript. of Eng.,
1587, p. 206. "Lowe and spungie grounds trenched is good for hopps,
as Suffolke, Essex, and Surrie, and other places doe find to their
profit."--Norden, p. 206. Evelyn, Sylva, pp. 201, 469, ed. Hunter,
asserts that there was a petition against them temp. Henry VI., but no
record of it appears on the rolls of Parliament. Brewing with hops was
not introduced here till the reign of King Henry VIII. (Stow, Hist. p.
1038.) _Bere_, however, is mentioned in 1504. (Leland, Coll. vi. p.
30, and see Dr. Percy on Northumberland Book, p. 414.)--Pegge's Forme
of Cury, ed. 1780, p. xxiii. See a long note in Prompt. Parv., _s.v._
Hoppe; and also "Pharmacographia," p. 496.
[E340] For wanting at will = for fear of having none when you really
want it.
[E341] Hay for neat cattle may be made with less labour, and more
expeditiously than for horses; because, if it is a little mow burnt, it
will not be the less acceptable to them; and besides, the fermentation
it undergoes, if not carried too far, has a natural tendency to mellow
coarse grass.--M.
[E342] _Avise auouse_ is French jargon for _take precautions_. Ill-made
hay is apt to take fire; if much wetted with rain, to become mouldy.
Hard and fine hay is best for horses; soft and coarse hay will be more
acceptable to cattle; while short hay is coveted by sheep.--M.
[E343] Thry fallowing, or the third plowing, should be performed
pretty early in the summer, in order that the ground may acquire
sufficient hardness to resist the seeds of thistles and other weeds,
even at the risk of requiring another stirring.--M.
[E344] This can only refer to garden beans, but the practice is now
obsolete.
[E345] See note E318.
[E346] "Wormwood, a word corrupted from A.S. _wermod_, Ger. _wermuth_,
O.S. _weremede_, words which seem to be compounded with Ger. _wehren_,
A.S. _werian_ = to keep off, and _mod_ or _made_ = maggot, but which,
by an accidental coincidence of sound, have been understood as though
the first syllable were _worm_. L. Diefenbach would prefer to derive
it from a Celtic root that means "bitter," Welsh _chwerw_, Cornish
_wherow_. Be its origin what it may, it was understood in the Middle
Ages as meaning a herb obnoxious to maggots, and used to preserve
things from them, and was also given as an anthelmintic or worm
medicine. _Artemisia Absinthium_, L."--Dr. R. A. Prior, Pop. Names
of Brit. Plants. "Two sorts of _Wormewood_ are well knowen of many,
that is, our common Wormewood, and that which is called _Ponticum_,
now sowen in many gardens, and commonly called French-wormewood. And
while it is yong, it is eaten in Salats with other herbes, to the great
commoditie of the stomacke and Liuer. For it strengthneth a weake
stomacke, and openeth the Liuer and Splene. For which purpose there is
to be had in the Stilliard at London a kind of wine named Worme-wood
wine, which I would wish to be much used of all such Students as be
weake of stomacke. They may easily haue a rundlet of three or foure
gallons or lesse, which they may draw within their owne chambers as
need requireth. I was woont when appetite failed to steepe a branch
or two of common Wormewood in halfe a pint of good white wine, close
couered in some pot all night, and in the morning to straine it through
a clean linnen cloth, and put in a little sugar and warme it, and so
drinke it. Or sometime to burne a little quantitie of wine with sugar,
and a branch or two of Wormewood put into it. Wherein I have found many
times marvellous commoditie, and who so shall vse it now and then, shal
be sure of a good stomacke to meat, and be free from wormes."--Cogan's
Haven of Health, p. 55. "_Wormwood_, centaury, pennyroyal, are likewise
magnified and much prescribed, especially in hypochondrian melancholy,
daily to be used, sod in whey."--Burton, Anat. of Melancholy, p. 432.
[E347] "As many doo more," _i.e._ as many others do. Cf. 63. 18.
[E348] There is a proverb: "One scabb'd sheep's enough to spoil a
flock."
[E349] In Lincolnshire corn affected by the smut is called _Parson
corn_, the reason assigned being that when tithes were paid in kind,
the sheaves that had the most smuts in them were always given to the
_parson_, if he could be seduced into taking them.--See Peacock's
Gloss. of Manley, etc., E. Dial. Soc. 1877.
[E350] _Mow-burn_ is occasioned by the Hay being stack'd too soon,
before its own juice is thoroughly dried, and by Norfolk people is
called the _Red Raw_; not such as is occasioned by stacking it when wet
with Rain, which is a nasty musty and stinks.--T.R.
[E351] Hentzner, p. 79 (quoted in Harrison's Description of England,
ed. F. J. Furnivall, p. lxxxiv), says: "As we were returning to our
inn (at Windsor, Sept. 14), we happened to meet some country people
celebrating their Harvest-home; their last load of corn they crown with
flowers, having besides an image richly dressed, by which, perhaps,
they would signify Ceres; this they keep moving about, while men and
women, men and maid servants, riding through the streets in the cart,
shout as loud as they can till they arrive at the barn."
[E352]
"Tis merie in hall,
When beards wag all."
This proverb is of great antiquity. It occurs in the Life of Alexander
(formerly, but erroneously, attributed to Adam Davie), written in 1312,
where the words are:
"Swithe mury hit is in halle,
When burdes wawen alle."
--Weber's Met. Rom.
It occurs also in Shakspere, 2 Henry IV. Act v. sc. 3, and is quoted in
the _Merie Tales of Skelton_, 1567. See also Ray's Proverbs.
[E353] "For Mihelmas spring," that is, "for fear of injuring the young
plants, etc., at Michaelmas."
[E354] In Harrison's Descript. of England, Part II. p. 50 _et
seq._, there is a long chapter on the cultivation and uses of Saffron
in England, from which I extract the following: "As the Saffron of
England, which Platina reckneth among spices, is the most excellent
of all other; for it giueth place neither to that of Cilicia, whereof
Solinus speaketh, neither to anie that commeth from Cilicia, where it
groweth upon the mount _Taurus, Tmolus, Italie, Ætolia, Sicilia_ or
_Licia_, in sweetnesse, tincture and continuance; so of that which is
to be had amongst us, the same that grows about Saffron Walden, somtime
called Waldenburg, in the edge of Essex, first of all planted there
in the time of Edward the Third, and that of Glocestershire and those
westerlie parts, which some thinke to be better than those of Walden,
surmounteth all the rest, and therefore beareth worthilie the higher
price, by sixpence or twelue pence most commonlie in the pound.... The
heads of saffron are raised in Julie, either with plough, raising or
tined hooke; and being scowred from their rosse or filth, and seuered
from such heads as are ingendred of them since the last setting, they
are interred againe in Julie and August by ranks or rowes, and being
couered with moulds, they rest in the earth, where they cast forth
little fillets and small roots like vnto a scallion, until September,
in the beginning of which moneth the ground is pared and all weeds and
grasse that groweth vpon the same remooved, to the intent that nothing
may annoie the floure when as his time dooth come to rise. These things
being thus ordered in the latter end of the aforesaid moneth [of
September], the floure beginneth to appeere of a whitish blew, fesse,
or skie colour, and in the end shewing itselfe in the owne kind, it
resembleth almost the _Leucotion_ of _Theophrast_, sauing that it is
longer, and hath in the middest thereof three chines verie red and
pleasant to behold. These floures are gathered in the morning before
the rising of the sunne, which otherwise would cause them to welke
or flitter. And the chines being picked from the floures, these are
throwne into the doong-hill; the other dried vpon little kelles couered
with streined canuasses vpon a soft fire; wherby and by the weight that
is laied vpon them, they are dried and pressed into cakes, and then
bagged vp for the benefit of their owners. In good yeeres we gather
foure score or an hundred pounds of wet saffron of an acre, which being
dried dooth yeeld twentie pounds of drie and more. Whereby, and sith
the price of saffron is commonlie about twentie shillings in monie, or
not so little, it is easie to see what benefit is reaped by an acre of
this commoditie.... For admit that the triple tillage of an acre dooth
cost 13 shillings foure pence before the saffron be set, the clodding
sixteene pence, the taking of euerie load of stones from the same foure
pence, the raising of euerie quarter of heads six pence, and so much
for cleansing of them, besides the doong which is woorth six pence the
load to be laid on the first yeere, for the setting three and twentie
shillings and foure pence, for the paring fiue shillings, six pence for
the picking of a pound wet, etc.; yea though he hire it readie set,
and paie ten pounds for the same, yet shall he susteine no damage, if
warme weather and open season doo happen at the gathering." Harrison
then describes fully the culture of saffron, and the adulterations and
tricks practised by the dealers, and afterwards describes the virtues
of it: "Our saffron (beside the manifold vse that it hath in the
kitchin and pastrie, also in our cakes at bridals, and thanksgivings of
women) is verie profitably mingled with those medicines which we take
for the diseases of the breast, of the lungs, of the liuer, and of the
bladder; it is good also for the stomach if you take it in meat, for
it comforteth the same, and maketh good digestion: being sodden also
in wine, it not onelie keepeth a man from dronkennesse, but incorageth
also unto procreation of issue. If you drinke it in sweet wine, it
inlargeth the breath, and is good for those that are troubled with
the tisike and shortnesse of the wind: mingled with the milke of a
woman, and laied vpon the eies, it staieth such humors as descend into
the same, and taketh away the red wheales and pearles that oft grow
about them: it killeth moths if it be sowed in paper bags verie thin,
and laid vp in presses among tapistrie or apparrell: also it is verie
profitable laid vnto all inflammations, painefull aposthumes, and the
shingles, and doth no small ease vnto deafnes.... Three drams thereof
taken at once, which is about the weight of one shilling nine pence
halfe penie, is deadlie poison."
[E355] "The two S. Maries daies," _i.e._ July 22nd, St. Mary
Magdalene's Day, and August 15th, the feast of the Assumption of the
Virgin Mary.--M. Mr. Skeat suggests that the days meant are August 15th
and September 8th, the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.
There is no doubt Mr. Skeat is right; compare "Centory must be gotten
betweene our Lady dayes."--Langham's Garden of Health. The date is not
uncommon in Herbals.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E356] Mustard-seed is very apt to shed, and therefore should be
gathered before it becomes too ripe. After dressing it is to be laid in
a soller or garret. "Soller, a lofte, _garnier_."--Palsgrave. "Garytte,
hay solere."--Prompt. Parv.
[E357] Though all the editions which I have seen read as printed in the
text, it is evident that Tusser meant exactly the opposite, viz.:
"By day will deceiue thee, etc.
By great will dispatch, etc."
Men who take work by the great, that is, by the job or contract, are,
as experience tells us, naturally anxious to get the work done as soon
as possible, while those who are engaged by the day as naturally try
to spin out the work as long as they can. According to Carr's _Craven
Glossary_, a Day-work is three roods of land. "Four perches make a
day-worke; ten daysworks make a roode or quarter." (Twysden MS. quoted
by Halliwell.) The latter agrees with Norden's statement: "You must
know (says he), that there goe 160 perches to one acre; 80 perches to
halfe an acre; 40 perches to one roode, which is ¼ of an acre; ten
_daies worke_ to a roode, foure perches to a daies worke; 16 foote
and a halfe to a perche." (_Surveior's Dialogue_, 1610.) In Cowel's
_Interpreter_ we read "_Day-werc of Land_, as much arable ground as
could be ploughed up in one day's work, or one journey, as the farmers
still call it."
[E358] "Harvest lord," the principal reaper who goes first and
regulates the movements of the rest; _Harvest-Lady_, the second reaper
in the row, called in Cambridgeshire the _Harvest-Queen_. The rate at
which the _Harvest-lord_ reaped of course regulated that of the others,
and therefore Tusser recommends that he should have a penny or two
extra in order to encourage him to have an eye to the loiterers, and to
keep all up to the mark. Cf.:
"At heighe pryme Peres lete the plowe stonde,
To ouersen hem hymself, and who-so best wrouȝte
He shulde be huyred therafter whan heruest tyme come."
--Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, E. E. Text Soc. B Text, Passus vi. 114.
The following particulars as to the farmer's expenses at harvest
time are quoted by Mr. Skeat in his notes to Piers Plowman, C. Text,
Passus ix. 104, from Sir J. Cullum's Hist. of Hawsted, Suffolk, 2nd
ed.: "The outgoings [in harvest] were called the costs of autumn,
and are thus stated. In 1388, [we find] the expences of a ploughman,
head reaper, baker, cook, brewer, _deye_, 244½ reapers (_sic_) hired
for 1 day; 30 bedrepes (days of work performed in harvest-time by the
customary tenants, at the _bidding_ of their lord), the men [being]
fed, according to custom, with bread and herring; 3 qrs. 3 bu. of wheat
from the stock; 5 qrs. 3 bu. of malt from the stock; meat bought,
10_s._ 10_d._; 5 sheep from the stock; fish and herrings bought, 5_s._;
herrings bought for the customary tenants, 7_d._; cheese, milk, and
butter bought (the dairy being let), 9_s._ 6_d._; salt, 3_d._; candles,
5_d._; pepper, 3_d._; spoons, dishes, and faucets, 5_d._ 30 bedrepes,
as before; 19 reapers, hired for 1 day, at their own board, 4_d._ each;
80 men, for 1 day, and kept at the lady's board, 4_d._ each: 40½ men
(_sic_) hired for 1 day, at 3_d._ each; the wages of the head reaper,
6_s._ 8_d._; of the brewer, 3_s._ 4_d._; of the cook, 3_s._ 4_d._ 30
acres of oats tied up by the job (_per taskam_), 1_s._ 8_d._; 6 acres
of bolymong cut and tied up by the job, 3_s._ 4_d._; 16 acres of pease,
cut by the job, 8_s._; 5 acres of pease and bolymong, cut and tied
up by the job, 2_s._ 6_d._; 3 acres of wheat, cut and tied up by the
job, 1_s._ 11_d._" [Here follow similar details for 1389, including a
mention of 5 pairs of harvest-gloves, 10_d._] "What a scene of bustling
industry was this! for, exclusive of the baker, cook, and brewer, who,
we may presume, were fully engaged in their own offices, here were
553 persons employed in the first year; in the second, 520; and in a
third, 538; yet the annual number of acres, of all sorts of corn, did
not much exceed 200. From this prodigious number of hands, the whole
business must have been soon finished. There were probably 2 principal
days; for two large parties were hired, every year, for 1 day each....
These ancient harvest-days must have exhibited one of the most cheerful
spectacles in the world. One can hardly imagine a more animated scene
than that of between 200 and 300 harvest-people all busily employed at
once, and enlivened with the expectation of a festivity, which perhaps
they experienced but this one season in the year. All the inhabitants
of the village, of both sexes, and all ages, that could work, must have
been assembled on the occasion; a muster that, in the present state of
things, would be impossible. The success of thus compressing so much
business into so short a time must have depended on the weather. But
dispatch seems to have been the plan of agriculture at this time, at
least in this village. We have seen before, that 60 persons were hired
for 1 day, to weed the corn. These throngs of harvest-people were
superintended by a person who was called the head-reaper (_supermessor_
or _præpositus_), who was annually elected, and presented to the
lord, by the inhabitants; and it should seem that, in this village at
least, he was always one of the customary tenants. The year he was in
office, he was exempt from all or half of his usual rents and services,
according to his tenure; he was to have his victuals and drink at the
lord's table, if the lord kept house (_si dominus hospitium tenuerit_);
if he did not, he was to have a livery of corn, as other domestics
had; and his horse was to be kept in the manor-stable. He was next in
dignity to the steward and bailiff. The hay-harvest was an affair of
no great importance. There were but 30 acres of grass annually mown at
this period. This was done or paid for by the customary tenants. The
price of mowing an acre was 6_d._"
By an "Assessment of the Corporation of Canterbury," made in 1594, the
following were the rates of wages declared payable:--"Every labourer
from Easter to Michaelmas, with meat and drink, 4_d._ per day; finding
himself, 10_d._; and from Michaelmas to Easter, with meat and drink,
4_d._; without, 8_d._ Mowers per day, with meat and drink, 8_d._;
finding themselves, 14_d._ By the acre, with meat and drink, 4_d._;
without, 8_d._ Reapers per day, with meat and drink, 6_d._; finding
themselves, 12_d._; by the acre, with meat and drink, 14_d._; without,
28_d_. Plashing and teeming of a quick hedge, 2_d._ per rod. Laying
upon the band and binding and copping of oats, 8_d._, barley, 10_d._
Threshers by the quarter with meat and drink, for the quarter and
making clean of wheat and rye, 5_d._, oats and barley, 3_d._; without
meat and drink, for the quarter and making clean of wheat and rye,
12_d._, oats and barley, 6_d._ Making talewood, the load, 4_d._;
billets, per 1000, 12_d._ A bailiff, with livery, £3 per annum; without
livery, £3 6_s._ 8_d._"--Hasted's Antiquities of Canterbury, 1801, vol.
ii. Appendix.
[E359] "Larges," "usually a shilling" (says Major Moor in his Suffolk
Glossary). "For this the reapers will ask you if you 'chuse to have
it hallered.' If answered, yes, they assemble in a ring, holding each
other's hands, and inclining their heads to the centre. One of them,
detached a few yards apart, calls loudly, thrice, 'Holla Lar!--Holla
Lar!--Holla Lar!--j e e s.' Those in the ring lengthen out o-o-o-o
with a low sonorous note and inclined heads, and then throwing the
head up, vociferate 'a-a-a-ah.' This thrice repeated for a shilling is
the established exchange in Suffolk." "Largesse bounty, handfuls of
money cast among the people."--Cotgrave. "Crye a larges when a rewarde
is geven to workemen, _stipem vociferare_."--Huloet's Dict. 1552. The
phrase "crie a largesse" occurs in Piers Plowman, B Text, xiii. 449. As
to the gloves given to harvest-men see above and note E309.
[E360] Though barley is generally mown, it is a slovenly practice,
unless when performed with a cradle scythe.--M. See note E87.
[E361] "Dallops," patches of barley which have run to straw.--M.
[E362] Tidie means _neat, proper,_ and _in season_.--M.
[E363] "There finding a smack," _i.e._ finding a pleasant repast.
[E364] "Doo perish," _i.e._ cause to perish, ruin: the use of "do" in
this sense is very common in Early English.
[E365] "Lengthen" here is equivalent to increase the extent or produce
of.
[E366] "Fill out the black boule," etc. I am quite unable to explain
this line; the "boule of bleith" is evidently the "merry bowl," but the
epithet _black_ I do not understand.
[E367] "Thrifts ladder may clime," _i.e._ may prosper. Cf. ch. 9.
[E368] "_That_ many doo hate," in edd. of 1573, 1580, 1585, etc., the
reading is "_as_ many do hate."
[E369] "Ling perhaps looks for great extolling, being counted the
beefe of the sea, and standing every fish-day (as a cold supporter) at
my Lord Maior's table: yet it is nothing but a long cod: whereof the
greater sised is called Organe Ling, and the other Codling, because
it is no longer then a Cod, and yet hath the taste of Ling: whilst it
is new it is called green-fish: when it is salted it is called Ling,
perhaps of lying, because the longer it lyeth ... the better it is,
waxing in the end as yellow as a gold noble, at which time they are
worth a noble a piece."--Muffett, pp. 154-5, quoted in the Babees Book,
ed. Furnivall.