OF CATTLE KEPT FOR PROFIT.
[1577, Book III., Chapter 8; 1587, Book III., Chapter 1.]
There is no kind of tame cattle usually to be seen in these parts of the
world whereof we have not some, and that great store, in England, as
horses, oxen, sheep, goats, swine, and far surmounting the like in other
countries, as may be proved with ease. For where are oxen commonly made
more large of bone, horses more decent and pleasant in pace, kine more
commodious for the pail, sheep more profitable for wool, swine more
wholesome of flesh, and goats more gainful to their keepers than here with
us in England? But, to speak of them peculiarly, I suppose that our kine
are so abundant in yield of milk, whereof we make our butter and cheese,
as the like any where else, and so apt for the plough in divers places as
either our horses or oxen. And, albeit they now and then twin, yet herein
they seem to come short of that commodity which is looked for in other
countries, to wit, in that they bring forth most commonly but one calf at
once. The gains also gotten by a cow (all charges borne) hath been valued
at twenty shillings yearly; but now, as land is enhanced, this proportion
of gain is much abated, and likely to decay more and more, if ground arise
to be yet dearer--which God forbid, if it be His will and pleasure. I
heard of late of a cow in Warwickshire, belonging to Thomas Breuer of
Studley, which in six years had sixteen calves, that is four at once in
three calvings and twice twins, which unto many may seem a thing
incredible. In like manner our oxen are such as the like are not to be
found in any country of Europe, both for greatness of body and sweetness
of flesh, or else would not the Roman writers have preferred them before
those of Liguria. In most places our graziers are now grown to be so
cunning that if they do but see an ox or bullock, and come to the feeling
of him, they will give a guess at his weight, and how many score or stone
of flesh and tallow he beareth, how the butcher may live by the sale, and
what he may have for the skin and tallow, which is a point of skill not
commonly practised heretofore. Some such graziers also are reported to
ride with velvet coats and chains of gold about them, and in their absence
their wives will not let to supply those turns with no less skill than
their husbands: which is a hard work for the poor butcher, sith he through
this means can seldom be rich or wealthy by his trade. In like sort the
flesh of our oxen and kine is sold both by hand and by weight as the buyer
will; but in young ware rather by weight, especially for the steer and
heifer, sith the finer beef is the lightest, whereas the flesh of bulls
and old kine, etc., is of sadder substance, and therefore much heavier as
it lieth in the scale. Their horns also are known to be more fair and
large in England than in any other places, except those which are to be
seen among the Pæones, which quality, albeit that it be given to our breed
generally by nature, yet it is now and then helped also by art. For, when
they be very young, many graziers will oftentimes anoint their budding
horns or tender tips with honey, which mollifieth the natural hardness of
that substance, and thereby maketh them to grow unto a notable greatness.
Certes it is not strange in England to see oxen whose horns have the
length of a yard or three feet between the tips, and they themselves
thereto so tall as the height of a man of mean and indifferent stature is
scarce equal unto them. Nevertheless it is much to be lamented that our
general breed of cattle is not better looked unto; for the greatest
occupiers wean least store, because they can buy them (as they say) far
better cheap than to raise and bring them up. In my time a cow hath risen
from four nobles to four marks by this means, which notwithstanding were
no great price if they did yearly bring forth more than one calf a piece,
as I hear they do in other countries.
Our horses, moreover, are high, and, although not commonly of such huge
greatness as in other places of the main, yet, if you respect the easiness
of their pace, it is hard to say where their like are to be had. Our land
doth yield no asses, and therefore we want the generation also of mules
and somers, and therefore the most part of our carriage is made by these,
which, remaining stoned, are either reserved for the cart or appointed to
bear such burdens as are convenient for them. Our cart or plough horses
(for we use them indifferently) are commonly so strong that five or six of
them (at the most) will draw three thousand weight of the greatest tale
with ease for a long journey, although it be not a load of common usage,
which consisteth only of two thousand, or fifty foot of timber, forty
bushels of white salt, or six-and-thirty of bay, or five quarters of
wheat, experience daily teacheth, and I have elsewhere remembered. Such as
are kept also for burden will carry four hundredweight commonly without
any hurt or hindrance. This furthermore is to be noted, that our princes
and the nobility have their carriage commonly made by carts, whereby it
cometh to pass that when the queen's majesty doth remove from any one
place to another, there are usually 400 carewares, which amount to the sum
of 2400 horses, appointed out of the countries adjoining, whereby her
carriage is conveyed safely unto the appointed place. Hereby also the
ancient use of somers and sumpter horses is in manner utterly
relinquished, which causeth the trains of our princes in their progresses
to shew far less than those of the kings of other nations.
Such as serve for the saddle are commonly gelded, and now grow to be very
dear among us, especially if they be well coloured, justly limbed, and
have thereto an easy ambling pace. For our countrymen, seeking their ease
in every corner where it is to be had, delight very much in those
qualities, but chiefly in their excellent paces, which, besides that it is
in manner peculiar unto horses of our soil, and not hurtful to the rider
or owner sitting on their backs, it is moreover very pleasant and
delectable in his ears, in that the noise of their well-proportioned pace
doth yield comfortable sound as he travelleth by the way. Yet is there no
greater deceit used anywhere than among our horsekeepers, horsecoursers,
and hostelers; for such is the subtle knavery of a great sort of them
(without exception of any of them be it spoken which deal for private
gain) that an honest-meaning man shall have very good luck among them if
he be not deceived by some false trick or other.
There are certain notable markets wherein great plenty of horses and colts
is bought and sold, and whereunto such as have need resort yearly to buy
and make their necessary provision of them, as Ripon, Newport Pond,
Wolfpit, Harboro', and divers others. But, as most drovers are very
diligent to bring great store of these unto those places, so many of them
are too too lewd in abusing such as buy them. For they have a custom, to
make them look fair to the eye, when they come within two days' journey of
the market to drive them till they sweat, and for the space of eight or
twelve hours, which, being done, they turn them all over the backs into
some water, where they stand for a season, and then go forward with them
to the place appointed, where they make sale of their infected ware, and
such as by this means do fall into many diseases and maladies. Of such
outlandish horses as are daily brought over unto us I speak not, as the
jennet of Spain, the courser of Naples, the hobby of Ireland, the Flemish
roile and the Scottish nag, because that further speech of them cometh not
within the compass of this treatise, and for whose breed and maintenance
(especially of the greatest sort) King Henry the Eighth erected a noble
studdery, and for a time had very good success with them, till the
officers, waxing weary, procured a mixed brood of bastard races, whereby
his good purpose came to little effect. Sir Nicholas Arnold of late hath
bred the best horses in England, and written of the manner of their
production: would to God his compass of ground were like to that of Pella
in Syria, wherein the king of that nation had usually a studdery of 30,000
mares and 300 stallions, as Strabo doth remember, lib. 16. But to leave
this, let us see what may be said of sheep.
Our sheep are very excellent, sith for sweetness of flesh they pass all
other. And so much are our wools to be preferred before those of Milesia
and other places that if Jason had known the value of them that are bred
and to be had in Britain he would never have gone to Colchis to look for
any there. For, as Dionysius Alexandrinus saith in his _De situ orbis_, it
may by spinning be made comparable to the spider's web. What fools then
are our countrymen, in that they seek to bereave themselves of this
commodity by practising daily how to transfer the same to other nations,
in carrying over their rams and ewes to breed and increase among them! The
first example hereof was given under Edward the Fourth, who, not
understanding the bottom of the suit of sundry traitorous merchants that
sought a present gain with the perpetual hindrance of their country,
licensed them to carry over certain numbers of them into Spain, who,
having licence but for a few, shipped very many: a thing practised in
other commodities also, whereby the prince and his land are not seldom
times defrauded. But such is our nature, and so blind are we indeed, that
we see no inconvenience before we feel it; and for a present gain we
regard not what damage may ensue to our posterity. Hereto some other man
would add also the desire that we have to benefit other countries and to
impeach our own. And it is, so sure as God liveth, that every trifle which
cometh from beyond the sea, though it be not worth threepence, is more
esteemed than a continual commodity at home with us, which far exceedeth
that value. In time past the use of this commodity consisteth (for the
most part) in cloth and woolsteds; but now, by means of strangers
succoured here from domestic persecution, the same hath been employed unto
sundry other uses, as mockados, bays, vellures, grograines, etc., whereby
the makers have reaped no small commodity. It is furthermore to be noted,
for the low countries of Belgie know it, and daily experience
(notwithstanding the sharpness of our laws to the contrary) doth yet
confirm it, that, although our rams and wethers do go thither from us
never so well headed according to their kind, yet after they have remained
there a while they cast there their heads, and from thenceforth they
remain polled without any horns at all. Certes this kind of cattle is more
cherished in England than standeth well with the commodity of the commons
or prosperity of divers towns, whereof some are wholly converted to their
feeding; yet such a profitable sweetness is their fleece, such necessity
in their flesh, and so great a benefit in the manuring of barren soil with
their dung and piss, that their superfluous members are the better born
withal. And there is never a husbandman (for now I speak not of our great
sheepmasters, of whom some one man hath 20,000) but hath more or less of
this cattle feeding on his fallows and short grounds, which yield the
finer fleece.
Nevertheless the sheep of our country are often troubled with the rot (as
are our swine with the measles, though never so generally), and many men
are now and then great losers by the same; but, after the calamity is
over, if they can recover and keep their new stocks sound for seven years
together, the former loss will easily be recompensed with double
commodity. Cardan writeth that our waters are hurtful to our sheep;
howbeit this is but his conjecture, for we know that our sheep are
infected by going to the water, and take the same as a sure and certain
token that a rot hath gotten hold of them, their livers and lights being
already distempered through excessive heat, which enforceth them the
rather to seek unto the water. Certes there is no parcel of the main
wherein a man shall generally find more fine and wholesome water than in
England; and therefore it is impossible that our sheep should decay by
tasting of the same. Wherefore the hindrance by rot is rather to be
ascribed to the unseasonableness and moisture of the weather in summer,
also their licking in of mildews, gossamire, rowtie fogs, and rank grass,
full of superfluous juice, but especially (I say) to over moist weather,
whereby the continual rain piercing into their hollow fells soaketh
forthwith into their flesh, which bringeth them to their baines. Being
also infected, their first shew of sickness is their desire to drink, so
that our waters are not unto them _causa ægritudinis_, but _signum morbi_,
whatsoever Cardan do maintain to the contrary. There are (and peradventure
no small babes) which are grown to be such good husbands that they can
make account of every ten kine to be clearly worth twenty pounds in common
and indifferent years, if the milk of five sheep be daily added to the
same. But, as I wot not how true this surmise is, because it is no part of
my trade, so I am sure hereof that some housewives can and do add daily a
less portion of ewe's milk unto the cheese of so many kine, whereby their
cheese doth the longer abide moist, and eateth more brickle and mellow
than otherwise it would.
Goats we have plenty, and of sundry colours, in the west parts of England,
especially in and towards Wales and amongst the rocky hills, by whom the
owners do reap so small advantage: some also are cherished elsewhere, in
divers steeds, for the benefit of such as are diseased with sundry
maladies, unto whom (as I hear) their milk, cheese, and bodies of their
young kids are judged very profitable, and therefore inquired for of many
far and near. Certes I find among the writers that the milk of a goat is
next in estimation to that of the woman, for that it helpeth the stomach,
removeth oppilations and stoppings of the liver, and looseth the belly.
Some place also next unto it the milk of the ewe, and thirdly that of the
cow. But hereof I can shew no reason; only this I know, that ewe's milk is
fulsome, sweet, and such in taste as (except such as are used unto it) no
man will gladly yield to live and feed withal.
As for swine, there is no place that hath greater store, nor more
wholesome in eating, than are these here in England, which nevertheless do
never any good till they come to the table. Of these some we eat green for
pork, and other dried up into bacon to have it in more continuance. Lard
we make some, though very little, because it is chargeable: neither have
we such use thereof as is to be seen in France and other countries, sith
we do either bake our meat with sweet suet of beef or mutton and baste all
our meat with sweet or salt butter or suffer the fattest to baste itself
by leisure. In champaign countries they are kept by herds, and a hogherd
appointed to attend and wait upon them, who commonly gathereth them
together by his noise and cry, and leadeth them forth to feed abroad in
the fields. In some places also women do scour and wet their clothes with
their dung, as other do with hemlocks and nettles; but such is the savour
of the clothes touched withal that I cannot abide to wear them on my body,
more than such as are scoured with the refuse soap, than the which (in
mine opinion) there is none more unkindly savour.
Of our tame boars we make brawn, which is a kind of meat not usually known
to strangers (as I take it), otherwise would not the swart Rutters and
French cooks, at the loss of Calais (where they found great store of this
provision almost in every house), have attempted with ridiculous success
to roast, bake, broil, and fry the same for their masters, till they were
better informed. I have heard moreover how a nobleman of England not long
since did send over a hogshead of brawn ready soused to a Catholic
gentleman of France, who, supposing it to be fish, reserved it till Lent,
at which time he did eat thereof with great frugality. Thereto he so well
liked the provision itself that he wrote over very earnestly, and with
offer of great recompense, for more of the same fish against the year
ensuing; whereas if he had known it to have been flesh he would not have
touched it (I dare say) for a thousand crowns without the pope's
dispensation. A friend of mine also dwelling some time in Spain, having
certain Jews at his table, did set brawn before them, whereof they did eat
very earnestly, supposing it to be a kind of fish not common in those
parts; but when the goodman of the house brought in the head in pastime
among them, to shew what they had eaten, they rose from the table, hied
them home in haste, each of them procuring himself to vomit, some by oil
and some by other means, till (as they supposed) they had cleansed their
stomachs of that prohibited food. With us it is accounted a great piece of
service at the table from November until February be ended, but chiefly in
the Christmas time. With the same also we begin our dinners each day after
other; and, because it is somewhat hard of digestion, a draught of
malvesey, bastard, or muscadel, is usually drank after it, where either of
them are conveniently to be had; otherwise the meaner sort content
themselves with their own drink, which at that season is generally very
strong, and stronger indeed than it is all the year beside. It is made
commonly of the fore part of a tame boar, set up for the purpose by the
space of a whole year or two, especially in gentlemen's houses (for the
husbandmen and farmers never frank them for their own use above three or
four months, or half a year at the most), in which time he is dieted with
oats and peason, and lodged on the bare planks of an uneasy coat, till his
fat be hardened sufficiently for their purpose: afterward he is killed,
scalded, and cut out, and then of his former parts is our brawn made. The
rest is nothing so fat, and therefore it beareth the name of sowse only,
and is commonly reserved for the serving-man and hind, except it please
the owner to have any part thereof baked, which are then handled of custom
after this manner: the hinder parts being cut off, they are first drawn
with lard, and then sodden; being sodden, they are soused in claret wine
and vinegar a certain space, and afterward baked in pasties, and eaten of
many instead of the wild boar, and truly it is very good meat: the pestles
may be hanged up a while to dry before they be drawn with lard, if you
will, and thereby prove the better. But hereof enough, and therefore to
come again unto our brawn. The neck pieces, being cut off round, are
called collars of brawn, the shoulders are named shilds, only the ribs
retain the former denomination, so that these aforesaid pieces deserve the
name of brawn: the bowels of the beast are commonly cast away because of
their rankness, and so were likewise his stones, till a foolish fantasy
got hold of late amongst some delicate dames, who have now found the means
to dress them also with great cost for a dainty dish, and bring them to
the board as a service among other of like sort, though not without note
of their desire to the provocation of fleshly lust, which by this their
fond curiosity is not a little revealed. When the boar is thus cut out
each piece is wrapped up, either with bulrushes, ozier, peels, tape
inkle,[180] or such like, and then sodden in a lead or caldron together,
till they be so tender that a man may thrust a bruised rush or straw clean
through the fat: which being done, they take it up and lay it abroad to
cool. Afterward, putting it into close vessels, they pour either good
small ale or beer mingled with verjuice and salt thereto till it be
covered, and so let it lie (now and then altering and changing the sousing
drink lest it should was sour) till occasion serve to spend it out of the
way. Some use to make brawn of great barrow hogs, and seethe them, and
souse the whole as they do that of the boar; and in my judgment it is the
better of both, and more easy of digestion. But of brawn thus much, and so
much may seem sufficient.[181]