Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie
[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