Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie
(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