interesting:--1566. A lode of straw IIII_s._--1582. A capon VI_d._; a
calfe V_s._; a firkin of butter VII_s._ VII_d._; a capon and a pullet
VI_d._; a cocke (to fight) IIII_d._ (5 cockes bought to fight); a
pullett III_d._ 5 pullets, 5 capons, 5 cockes, 1 calfe, were provided
on the reckninge day and "these are allowed in the Churchwardens'
accompte to be paide by them."--1590. To Coke for IIII combes of w otes
whh he served to the Quene VI_s._ VIII_d._; 14 rod of ditching cost
V_s._ IIII_d._--1596. Makinge a surplis for the church was II_d._; a
payer of hoose was XII_d._ another XIII_d._; makyng this boke of accts
(a single sheet written on two sides) VI_d._--1599. Three days work
ditchynge 2_s._; a hard day's work was therefore 8_d._ per day, and
a usual day's 4_d._ or 6_d._; three days thatchinge (Thos. Garrarde)
II_s._ IIII_d._; wode was II_s._ the lode.--1587 or 8. A capon vi_d._;
a calfe v_s._; a firkin of butter vii_s._ viii_d._; two capons and one
pullett vi_d._; a cocke iiii_d._; one cocke and one pullett vi_d._;
one pullett iii_d._--1583 No. 5. One short spurred cocke ii_d._; one
chycken ii_d._; one hene ii_d._--1583 No. 4. Fower combes and too
bushell of ottes at iv_s._ iv_d._ the combe; thre henes att thre pence
a pece; bowes and arrowes IIII_d._; ten milch kine 30_s._ each; seven
bullocks 7_s._ each; six calves 5_s._ each; six horses together £7; one
acre of wheat, xx_s._; one acre of Bullimong land 33_s._ 4_d._; a new
carte £11; a porkling 28_d._
Increased facilities of communication, and the numerous means that
farmers now possess, through the press, of obtaining information as to
prices of produce, etc., render _riding about_ almost unnecessary.
[E371] Tusser again sets out the advantages of ready money
transactions, and of _keeping touch_, that is, punctuality and faithful
regard to engagements. He buys at first hand who pays ready money from
his own pocket; at second hand who pays ready money, but who, in order
to enable him to do so, has to borrow a portion of the amount, because
he has not so much money as he requires with him; at third hand who
buys on credit.
[E372] "Stourbridge or Sturbich, the name of a common field extending
between Chesterton and Cambridge, near the little brook Sture, for
about half a mile square, is noted for its fair which is kept annually
on September 19th, and continues a fortnight. It is surpassed by few
fairs in Great Britain, or even in Europe, for traffic, though of late
it is much lessened. The booths are placed in rows like streets, by the
name[s] of which they are called, as Cheapside, etc., and are filled
with all sorts of trades. The Duddery, an area of 80 or 100 yards
square, resembles Blackwell Hall. Large commissions are negotiated here
for all parts of England in cheese, woolen goods, wool, leather, hops,
upholsterers' and ironmongers' ware, etc., etc. Sometimes 50 hackney
coaches from London, ply morning and night, to and from Cambridge,
as well as all the towns around, and the very barns and stables are
turned into inns for the accommodation of the poorer people. After the
wholesale business is over, the country gentry generally flock in,
laying out their money in stage-plays, taverns, music-houses, toys,
puppet-shows, etc., and the whole concludes with a day for the sale
of horses. This fair is under the jurisdiction of the University of
Cambridge."--Walker's Gazetteer, ed. 1801. See also index to Brand's
Antiquities.
Camden says it was anciently called Steresbrigg, from the little
river Stere or Sture that runs by it (in his Britannia, under
Cambridgeshire). There have been many guesses at the name and origin
of this fair, _e.g._ that of Fuller in his History of the University,
p. 66, concerning the clothier of Kendal. The truth of the matter is
this: King John granted Sturbridge fair for the benefit of the hospital
of lepers which stood there (_v. decretum Hubert. Arch. Cantuar. in
Concil. Londinen. An._ 1200. _Regn. Johann._; Spelman, ii. 127): in
the certificatorium we are told that the keeper of the hospital holds
twenty-four and a half acres of land in the county of Cambridgeshire to
maintain these lepers. The Vice Chancellor has the same power in this
fair that he has in the town of Cambridge. The University is always
to have ground assigned for a booth by the mayor. Midsummer Fair was
granted to the Prior and Convent of Barnwell, for much the same reason
that Sturbridge was to the Lepers,--_ad eorum sustentationem_. In the
reign of Henry the Sixth the Nuns of St. Radegund had the grant of
Garlick Fair for the same reason.
"Sturbridge Fair was formerly proclaimed by both the Corporation and
the University authorities. Originally lasting six weeks, in 1785 it
lasted only three weeks, and now it lasts but one week. A very amusing
account of its proclamation by the Vice Chancellor will be found in
Gunning's 'Reminiscences of Cambridge.'"--S. N. in Notes and Queries,
Aug. 25, 1877.
"When th' fair is done, I to the Colledg come,
Or else I drinke with them at Trompington,
Craving their more acquaintance with my heart,
Till our next _Sturbridg Fair_; and so wee part."
--Brathwaite's Honest Ghost, 1658, p. 189.
[E373] "When it [the malt] hath gone, or beene turned, so long [21
days] vpon the floore, they carrie it to a kill, couered with _haire
cloth_, where they giue it gentle heats (after they haue spread it
there verie thin abroad) till it be drie, and in the meane while
they turne it often, that it may be vniformelie dried."--Harrison,
Description of England, ed. F. J. Furnivall, Part I. p. 156.
[E374] Cf. September's Husbandry, ch. 16 st. 1.
[E375] One part in ten is far below the present average value of land.
If the whole produce will clear _four_ rents, the industrious farmer
would have no reason to complain, though he is now subject to heavy
taxes, which, it is to be remarked are not included in the list of
outgoings.--M.
[E376] "Well fare the plough." On a flyleaf of a MS. of Piers Plowman
(MS. R. 3, 14, in Trinity Coll. Camb.) is written,
"God spede the plouȝ
& sende vs korne I-now."
See print in beginning of Wright's ed. of Piers Plowman.
[E377] The advice given in this short piece, the most difficult,
perhaps, that Tusser had written, is very good, but he has strained
alliteration to an extravagant pitch.
[E378] In the reign of Elizabeth an Act was passed, requiring a seven
years' apprenticeship to enable a person to set up in business or
trade; and hence the idea arose of dividing human life into periods of
seven years.--M. The idea is much older; for, in Arnold's Chronicle
(edition 1811), page 157, we find:--"The vij Ages of Mā liuing ī the
World. The furst age is infance and lastith from ye byrth vnto vij yere
of age. The ij is childhod and endurith vnto xv yere age. The iij age
is adholocencye and endurith vnto xxv yere age. The iiij age is youth
and endurith vnto xxxv yere age. The v age is manhod and endurith vnto
l yere age. The vj age is [elde] and lasteth vnto lxx yere age. The vij
age of mā is crepill and endurith vnto dethe."
See Prompt. Parv. p. 7, for another version of the above, the limits
assigned to the several stages being different, and the seventh stage
beginning at the resurrection.
[E379] "Foxe, Ape with his toieng," etc. Dr. Mavor's edition reads,
"For Ape with his toieng," etc.
[E380] "The tone from the tother;" the tone = that one, the tother
= that other; where the _t_ is the sign of the neuter gender, as in
tha-_t_, i-_t_; compare the Latin _d_ in i-_d_, quo-_d_, illu-_d_.--In
ch. 110, p. 201, we have the curious forms "_thon_" and "_thother_."
[E381] "To him and to hur," that is, to every one, or to any one. Cf.
94. 3, and
"The white lambe þat hurte was with the spere
Flemere of feendes out of hym and here."
--Chaucer, Man of Law's Tale, l. 460, Six-Text ed.
[E382] "Daieth" = dayeth, that is, appoints a _day_ on which he
promises to pay.
Gervase Markham, in the First Part of the English Husbandman, ch. 6,
remarks:--"You may by these usuall observations, and the helpe of a
better judgement, imploy the fruits of your labours to the best profit,
and sell everything at the highest price, except you take upon you to
_give day_ and sell upon trust, which if you doe, you may then sell at
what unconscionable reckoning you will." Cf.
"When drapers draw no gaines by _giving day_."
--Gascoigne, The Steel Glass, 1094.
[E383] "By that and by this;" that is, by anything, or by chance.
Compare stanza 6, and chap. 67, stanza 5, p. 153.
[E384] "A tode with an R" is an elegant euphemism for _torde_; the
meaning being that a bad husbandman is more likely to receive insults
and refusals, than compliance with his requests. Compare Wycliffe's
translation of Luke xiii. 8, as given at p. 365 of Dr. Bosworth's edit.
of the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Gospels, with the Versions of Wycliffe
and Tyndale, London, 1865.
[E385] "Experience should seeme to proue playnely, that Inclosures
should be profitable and not hurtfull to the common weale; for we see
the countryes where most Inclosiers be, are most wealthy, as _Essex,
Kent, Northamptonshyre,_ etc. And I have hearde a Ciuilian once say,
that it was taken for a Maxime in his lawe (this saying), 'that which
is possessed of many in common, is neglected of all;' and experience
sheweth that Tenaunts in common be not so good husbandes, as when euery
man hath his parte in seueralty; also, I have heard say, that in the
most countreyes beyonde the Sea, they knowe not what a common grounde
meaneth."--Stafford's Examination of Complaints, New Shakspere Soc.,
ed. Furnivall, p. 40.
[E386] Fitzherbert shows how a township that is worth twenty marks
a-year may be made worth £20, and the ground-work of his plan is to
enclose the land. "By enclosing," he says, "a farmer shall save meat,
drink, and wages of a shepherd; the wages of the swineherd, the which
may fortune to be as chargeable as his whole rent; and also his corn
shall be better saved from eating or destroying by cattle."
[E387] Harman, 1567 (E. E. Text Soc., ed. Furnivall, p. 82), speaks of
"lewtering lusks and lazy _lorrels_," and in Pierce Plowman's Crede
we find in line 750, "lordes sones lowly to þo _losells_ aloute," and
in l. 755, "and leueþ swiche _lorels_ for her lowe wordes."--See Note
in Prompt. Parv. _s.v._ Lorel. Levins (Manip. Vocab. 1570) translates
_lorel_ by _nebulo, scurra_.
[E388] Courts for presenting nuisances are generally the greatest
nuisances themselves. Under the semblance of justice, they often retard
its execution. The members, or jury who compose them, do not want the
power, but they want the independence to act right.--M.
[E389] "In Bridewell a number be stript," etc. Although all the
editions I have been able to examine read "lesse worthie than _theefe_
to be whipt," I suspect the correct reading to be "lesse worthie than
_theese_ to be whipt." The mistake might easily occur through the
similarity of the old _s_ and _f_. The meaning, as the lines read at
present, is not very clear, but if we adopt the suggested reading, the
sense becomes at once apparent:--"In Bridewell many are stripped for
flogging who do not deserve it so much as these."
[E390] "Take them" = arrest them.
[E391] "Mo," lit. = more; but also used in the sense of others. "This
use of _mo_ is not common, but there are a few examples of it. Thus in
Specimens of English, ed. Morris and Skeat, we have at p. 47, l. 51,
"'Y sike for vnsete
Ant mourne ase men doþ _mo_.'
"_i.e._ 'I sigh for unrest, and mourn as _other_ men do.' And on the
next page (48, l. 22) we have
"'Mody meneþ so doþ _mo_,
Ichot ycham on of þo,'
"_i.e._ 'The moody moan as _others_ do; I wot I am one of them.'
Somewhat similar is the expression _oþer mo_, where we should now say
_others as well_, Piers Plowman, C. Text, Passus v. 10."--Rev. W.
Skeat, in note to l. 1039 of Chaucer, Clerke's Tale, Clarendon Press
Series. _Mo_ is also used in the same sense in 67, 11, p. 154.
[E392] "Verlets," originally a servant to a knight, below page or
squire, though often used in French Romance as equivalent to a squire.
"Pages, _varlets_, ou damoiseaux: noms quelquefois communs aux
_ecuyers_."--Cotgrave. Ducange (Gloss. M. et I. Lat.) has: "_Valeti
valecti_ appellati vulgo magnatum filii, qui necdum militare cingulum
consecuti erant: vassallorum filii _vassaleti_ dicti." Levins (Manip.
Vocab.) says: "Varlett, _verna_." See Wedgwood, Dict. Eng. Etymology,
_s.v._ Valet.
[E393] "Ruleth the roste;" to _rule_ the _roast_ is to preside at the
board, to assign what share one pleases to the guests; hence it came
to mean to domineer, in which sense it is commonly used in our old
authors. See Nares, s.v.
[E394] With this description of an envious neighbour compare Langland's
picture of _Invidia_ (Envy) in Piers Plowman, B. Text, E. E. Text Soc.,
ed. Skeat, Passus v. l. 76.
[E395] "His hatred procureth," etc., his hatred takes pains to bring
bad to worse, his friendship is like that of Judas who, etc., _i.e._ is
selfish.
[E396] "His lips out of frame," _i.e._ are out of order, are not kept
in order. Cf. the expression "loose in the haft."
[E397] "Spials;" so Spenser, Faery Queene, i. 4:
"And privie spials plast in all his way,"
Levins (Manip. Vocab.) has "Spyall, _arbiter_."
[E398] "Would'st thou not be glad to have the niggardly rascally
_sheepbiter_ come by some notable shame."--Shakspere, Twelfth Night,
Act ii. sc. 5.
"Who is in this closet? let me see (_breaks it open_). Oh,
_sheepbiter_, are you here?"--Shadwell, Bury Fair, 1689.
[E399] "Coxcombe:" see Cotgrave, s.v. _Effeminé, Enfourner, Fol,
Lambui_.
[E400] Davus is the common name in Terence for the cunning, plotting
servant.
[E401] Thersites, the ugliest and most scurrilous of the Greeks before
Troy. He spared in his revilings neither prince nor chief, but directed
his abuse especially against Achilles and Ulysses. The name is often
used to denote a calumniator. Cf.
"When rank Thersites opes his mastiff jaws,
We shall hear music, wit, and oracle."
--Shakspere, Troilus and Cressida, Act i. sc. 3.
[E402] "Shall swell like a tode." Cf. 65, 6.
[E403] "To hold a candle to the devil is to assist in a bad cause or an
evil matter."--Ray. Hazlitt (English Proverbs, p. 407) gives "'Tis good
sometimes to hold a candle to the devil." Thus we find an anonymous
correspondent writing to John Paston: "for howr Lords love, goo tharow
with Wyll Weseter, and also plese Chrewys as ye thynke in yow hert
best for to do; for it is a comon proverbe, 'A man must sumtyme _set a
candel befor the Devyle_;' and therfor thow it be not alder most mede
and profytabyl, yet of ij harmys the leste is to be take."--Paston
Letters, ed. Gairdner, ii. 73.
[E404] At Canterbury is a representation of Master Shorne holding up
his hand in a threatening attitude at the Devil, who is in a boot.
[E405] "False birds can fetch the wind;" an expression taken from
hawking. To _fetch the wind_, to _take the wind_ (Bacon), and to _have
the wind_ are various forms of the same expression, the meaning of
which is to gain or take an advantage. We still use the expression "to
get to windward of another," meaning to get the better or advantage of
him. Mavor reads, "false _words_ can fetch the wind," _i.e._ slander
will spread as though borne on the wind. I do not, however, know on
what authority he has adopted this reading, as the text of 1577 gives
"birds."
[E406] The following poem on Evil Tongues is from a MS. of the 15th
century, edited for the Percy Soc. by the late Mr. T. Wright, 1847:
"A man that con his tong stere,
He ther not rek wer that he go."
"Ittes knowyn in every schyre,
Wekyd tongges have no pere;
I wold thei wer brent in the fer,
That warke men soo mykyll wo.
Ittes knowyn in every lond,
Wekyd tongges don gret wrong,
Thei make me to lyyn long,
And also in myche car.
Ȝyf a man go in clothes gay,
Or elles in gud aray,
Wekyd tongges yet wyl say,
Wer cam the by therto?
Ȝyf a man go in cloys ill,
And have not the world at wyl,
Wekyd tongges thei wyll hym spyll,
And seyd he ys a stake, lat hym goo.
Now us to amend God yeve us grace,
Of repentens and of gud grace,
That we mut se hys glorius face.
Amen, Amen, for charyte."
[E407] There is a smoothness in the versification of this sonnet,
and a succession of imagery, though drawn from common sources, which
we do not often find in Tusser. He has made a good use of the figure
_erotesis_.--M. Compare Milton, Lycidas, 45:
"As killing as the canker to the rose,
Or _taint-worm_ to the weanling herds that graze."
[E408] Janus, an old Italian deity, the god of the sun and the year, to
whom the month of January was dedicated.
[E409] Ver = Spring, Æstas = Summer, Hyems = Winter.
[E410] "Delaide;" so in Spenser, Faery Queene, ix. 30. "But to _delay_
the heat," and in Prothalamium 3:
"Zephyrus did softly play
A gentle spirit, that lightly did _delay_
Hot Titan's beames."
[E411] Alluding to the thirteen revolutions of the moon in the year.
[E412] It appears from the Books of the Stationers' Company, on the
authority of Warton (Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 428) that
a licence was granted to T. Hackett, in the year 1562, to print "A
Dialogue of Wyvynge and Thryvynge of Tusshers with ij lessons for olde
and yonge."
[E413] "Bolted out," a term taken from the language and usage of
millers, who use the word "to bolt" of the separation of the bran from
the flour. Cf. Chaucer, Nonnes Prior's Tale, 415:
"But yit I can not _bult it to the bren_."
And Spenser, Faery Queene, iv. 24:
"He now had _boulted_ all the floure."
"Time and nature will _bolt out_ the truth of things."--D'Estrange.
"To _boulte out_ the truth in reasoning, _limare veritatem in
disceptatione_."--Baret's Alvearie. A "Bolting Cloth" is the name in
Lincolnshire for a cloth used for sifting meal in mills. See Peacock's
Glossary, _s.v._ There was a term "boultings" or "boltings," used of
private arguings of cases in some of the Inns of Court. "Boulter, a
sifter."--Coles' Dict. 1676.
[E414] "Could the way to thriue." _Could_ is here used in its old sense
of _knew_, or _understood_. A.S. _cunnan_, to know; _ic can_, I know;
_ic cuðe_, I knew.
[E415] "To stay himselfe in some good plot," etc.; compare 10. 8.
[E416] "Of this and that;" cf. 62. 10.
[E417] "The blacke oxe neare trod on thy fut:" a proverbial expression,
meaning, you have experienced misfortune close at home.
In Peacock's Glossary of Manley, etc. (E. D. Soc. 1877), we have:
"The _Black Bull's_ trodden on him;" that is, he is in a very bad
temper. And the following passage from Bernard's Terence is quoted:
"Prosperitie hangs on his sleeue; the _black oxe_ cannot tread on his
foot."
"Venus waxeth old; and then she was a pretie wench, when Juno was a
young wife; now crowes foote is on her eye, and the _black oxe_ hath
trod on her foot."--Lyly's Sapho and Phao, 1584, ed. 1858, i. 199.
Mr. George Vere Irving (Notes and Queries, 3rd Ser. xii. 488) remarks
that this expression is at this day frequently used in Scotland in
reference to a person who has experienced misfortune. See Hazlitt's
Eng. Proverbs, p. 359.
[E418] "It is too much we dailie heare," etc. This proverbial
expression occurs in the _Townley Mysteries_, p. 86, as--
"A man may not wive,
And also thrive,
And all in one year."
[E419] "As _mo_ have bin;" compare note E391.
[E420] "The good wiues husband weares no breech." So in a song in the
MS. of the 15th cent. quoted above, the heading of which is
"_Nova, Nova,_ sawe yow ever such,
The moste mayster of the hows weryth no brych."
The burden of the song being
"Lest the most mayster wer no brych."
[E421] The same reply is attributed to Thales. See his life in Diogenes
Laertius, Bk. i. 26.
[E422]
"Yyng men, I red that ye be war,
That ye cum not in the snar;
For he is browt in meche car,
That have a shrow onto his wyfe.
"In a panter I am caute,
My fot his pennyd, I may not owt;
In sorow and car he his put,
That have, etc.
"With a qwene yif that thou run,
Anon it is told into the town;
Sorow he hath both up and down,
That have, etc."
--Song in MS. of 15th century quoted above.
"Feareth me," that is, it frightens me, I fear, as in "me liketh" = it
pleases me, I like.
[E423] "As good a shrew is as a sheepe," etc. This proverb appears in
_Epistolæ Hoelianæ_, ed. 1754, p. 177, in a letter dated 5th February,
1625-6, as "It is better to marry a shrew than a sheep." In Taylor's
Pastorall, 1624, we have "A shrew is better than a sheep."
[E424] William, the first Lord Paget, and the patron of Tusser, married
Anne, daughter of Mr. Prestin, of the County of Lancaster; and to her
it is most probable the Book of Huswifery was dedicated, and not to
Margaret, the daughter of Sir H. Newton, and lady of Thomas, Lord Paget.
[E425] "By their fruits ye shall know them, do men gather grapes of
thorns or figs of thistles?"
[E426] The rime in the last two lines is most remarkable; apparently
_thriue_ is pronounced _threev_, as Mr. Ellis contends.
[E427] From the last two lines of this stanza it would appear that
Tusser was a widower at the time when he wrote this Address to the
Reader, or at least when he first wrote on the subject of Huswifery.
[E428] "A description of Huswife," etc. This antithetical description
seems to have been introduced, in order that it might correspond with
the description of Husbandry, chapter 8, p. 16.--M.
[E429] According to Fitzherbert, the farmers' wives must have been
patterns of diligence and industry, and a variety of duties devolved
upon them which have since ceased to be required, or have fallen
with more propriety upon the other sex. They had to measure out
the quantity of corn to be ground, and see that it was sent to the
miller. The poultry, swine, and cows were under their charge; and they
superintended the brewing and baking. The garden was peculiarly the
care of the farmer's wife. She had to depend upon it for various herbs
which are no longer in use, but which could not be dispensed with when
spices were rare and costly. Besides pot-herbs, strewing-herbs were
required for the chambers, and herbs possessing medical virtues. The
list of fruits at this date was confined to a few of indigenous growth,
which were but little improved by skill and management. Tusser directs
his housewife to transplant into her garden wild strawberries from the
woods. All the writers on rural economy during this period recommend
the farmer's wife carefully to attend to her crop of flax and hemp.
When, however, Fitzherbert asserts that it is a wife's duty "to winnow
all manner of corn, to make malt, to wash, and to make hay, shear
corn, and, in time of need, help her husband to fill the muck-wain or
dung-cart, drive the plough, to load hay, corn, and such other, to go
to market and sell butter or pigs, fowls or corn," it is to be presumed
that he had in his view the smallest class of yeomen, who had no hired
servants.
[E430] "Reason their cace," that is, gossip and argue over their
circumstances.
[E431] "Home is home, be it never so ill." Ballad licensed in 1569-70.
Clarke (Paræm. 1639, p. 101) has with us, "home is home, be it never so
homely." On the other hand, Heywood, in his Epigrams, 1562, says:
"Home is homely, yea, and to homely sometyme,
Where wives' footestooles to their husbandes' heads clime."
[E432] "Familie" = household. Compare chap. 9, st. 12.
[E433] "Maides, three a clock," etc. Compare Romeo and Juliet, Act iv.
sc. 4, 3--
"The second cock hath crow'd,
The curfew bell hath rung, 'tis three o'clock."
[E434] "Lay your bucks," _i.e._ get ready the washing tubs.
Compare: "Throw foul linen upon him as if it were going to
_bucking_."--Shakspere, Merry Wives of Wind., Act iii. sc. 3.
Buck-basket, the basket in which linen is carried to the wash.
"Bouck-fatt, a washing tub."--Upton Inventories, p. 28. Cf. "And
for I can so wele wasche and so wele _bowke_, Godde has made me
his chaumberere."--The Pilgrimage of the Life of the Manhode, f.
21_b._, MS. in Libr. of St. John's Coll. Camb. "'I _bucke_ lynen
clothes to scoure of their fylthe and make them whyte, _Ie bue_.
Bucke these shyrtes, for they be to foule to be wasshed by hande,
_buez ces chemises, car elles sont trop sallies de les lauer a
sauon._'--Palsgrave. 'Buée, lie wherwith clothes are scowred; also
a _buck_ of clothes; _Buer_, to wash a _buck_, to scowre with lie;
_Buandiere_ f., a laundresse, or buck-washer.'--Cotgrave. To _buck_
is to cleanse clothes by steeping them in lye: see _Buck_ in Webster,
Nares, Wedgwood, etc."--Rev. W. W. Skeat, note to P. Plowman, B. Text,
xiv. 19.
[E435] The hours of meals varied at different dates. In the Myrour
of Our Lady, ed. Blunt, p. 15, we read: "At houre of tyerse [9 a.m.]
labourers desyre to haue theyr dyner."
In Chambers's Book of Days, i. 96, we read that Gervase Markham, in
1653, makes the ploughman have three meals, viz. breakfast at 6 a.m.,
dinner at half-past 3 p.m., and supper at 6 p.m. See also note E444.
[E436] In the Library of Caius Coll. Camb. is a volume of Tracts, No.
286, one of which, published in 1555, An Account of the Cruelties of
the King of Spain, has as its motto: "Beware of Had I wiste." This is
also the title of a poem in the Paradyce of Daynty Deuyses, 1578. It is
quoted by Sir Simon D'Ewes (Diary, etc., ii. 366):