Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie
Roy. MS. 18 A. vi. f. 766, the following description is given: "_Granum
solis_ ys an herbe þat me clepyþ _gromel_, or lyþewale: thys herbe haþ
leuys þat be euelong, and a lytyl white flour, and he haþ whyte seede
ischape as a ston that me clepyþ margery perl." Cotgrave gives "Gremil,
grenil, the hearb _gromill, grummell_, or _graymill_, peare-plant,
lichewall." The word is derived by Skinner "_a granis sc. lapideis, quæ
pro seminibus habet, q.d. granile._"--Way, in Prompt. Parv. "Grumelle,
_milium, gramen solis_."--Catholicon Anglicum.
[E265] "Louage," spelt in Prompt. Parv. and in Holland's Trans. of
Pliny, _love-ache_, as though it were love-parsley. French _levesche_,
A.S. _lufestice, Levisticum officinale_, Koch.
[E266] "Mandrake." Matthioli (lib. iv. c. 61) tells us that Italian
ladies in his own time had been known to pay as much as 25 and 30
ducats for one of the artificial mandrakes (common white bryony) of
itinerant quacks, and describes the process of their manufacture.
They were supposed to remove sterility; hence Rachel's anxiety to
obtain them (Genesis xxx. 14). There were numerous other superstitions
regarding this plant; amongst others it was said to shriek when torn
up. See Gerard's Herbal, 1597, p. 280, and Peacock's Glossary of
Manley, etc., E. D. Soc. Lupton (Book of Notable Things, iii. 39) gives
instructions for the manufacture of Mandrakes from bryony roots. The
true Mandrake is _Atropa Mandragora_, Linn.
[E267] Mogwort. "Mugwort, a name that corresponds in meaning with its
synonym _wyrmwyrt_, wormwood, from O.E. _mough, moghe_, or _moughte_, a
maggot or moth.
'And wormes and _moghes_ on þe same manere
Sal þat day be in wittenes broght;'
--Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, l. 5572;
and Wycliffe (Matt. vi. 20):
'Where neþer ruste ne _moughte_ destruyeþ.'
The name was given to this plant from its having been recommended by
Dioscorides to ward off the attacks of these insects. 'Mogwort, al on
as seyn some, modirwort: lewed folk þat in manye wordes conne no rygt
sownynge, but ofte shortyn wordys, and changyn lettrys and silablys,
þey corruptyn þe _o_ into _u_, and _d_ into _g_, and syncopyn _i_,
smytyn awey _i_ and _r_, and seyn mugwort.'--MS. Arundel, 42, f. 35. It
is unnecessary to have recourse to this singular process. The plant was
known both as a _moth-wort_ and as a _mother-wort_, but while it was
used almost exclusively as a _mother-wort_, it still retained, at the
same time, the name of _mugwort_, a synonym of _moth-wort_. In Ælfric's
glossary it is called _matrum herba_--Dr. R. A. Prior. See Brand's Pop.
Antiq. for an account of the superstitious custom of seeking under the
root of this plant on Midsummer-eve for a coal, to serve as a talisman
against many disasters.
[E268] "Rew." Shakspere, Hamlet, iv. 5. 181: "There's rue for you; and
here's some for me: we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays." And Winter's
Tale, iv. 4. 74:
"For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
Seeming and savour all the winter long:
Grace and remembrance be to you both."
Some suppose it to have been called "herb of grace" on account of the
many excellent properties it was held to possess, being a specific
against poison, the bites of venomous creatures, etc.; but probably it
was so called because "rue" means "repent." Cf. also Richard II. Act
iii. sc. 4. 105:
"Here in this place
I'll set a bank of _rue_, sour herb of grace."
[E269] "Bots." "Pease an beanes are as danke here as a dog, and this is
the next way to give poor jades the _bottes_."--Shakspere King Henry
IV. Act ii. sc. 1. "Begnawne with _bots_."--Taming of Shrew, Act iii.
sc. 2.
"Sauin." "It is often put into horses' drenches, to helpe to cure them
of the bots, and other diseases."--Parkinson, Paradisus, p. 607.
[E270] "Stitchwort," spelt _Stich-wurt_ in Mayer and Wright, Nat.
Antiquities, 1857, and given from a thirteenth century MS. as the
translation of "Valeriane." Supposed to possess the power of curing
a pain or _stitch_ in the sides.--See Gerard's Herbal, 1597, p. 43.
_Stellaria Holostea_, Linn.
[E271] "Woodbine," not a _bine_ that _grows in woods_, but a creeper
that binds or entwines trees, the honeysuckle. A.S. _wudu-winde_ and
_wudu-bind_, from _wudu_ = a tree, and _windan, bindan_ = to entwine.
In Shakspere (Mids. Night Dr. Act iv. sc. 1) it seems to mean the
bittersweet:
"So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist."
[E272] "Gregorie." "This day (12th March) seems to have been much used
as a date for agricultural observances: cf. 37. 3. In connexion with
this it is worth while to note the Suabian saying, 'Säe Erbsen Gregori'
(sow cabbage on St. Gregory's Day). See Swainson's Weather Folklore, p.
168."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E273] "Mastiues and Mungrels." Although the influence of a very
patriotic sumptuary tax has diminished the number of dogs, we have
still 'thousands too manie.' [This may with truth be said even still.]
However, as Lent now makes little difference in the mode of living,
which it certainly did in the earlier period of the Reformation, our
dogs are not driven by our meagre fare to prey on the lambs; and
therefore need not be particularly watched on this account.--M. Mastif
is derived from O. Fr. _mestif_ = a mongrel (Cotgrave). In the Craven
dialect a great dog is still called a _masty_. See note E35.
[E274] By "hooke or by crooke" occurs in Spenser, Faery Queene, Bk. v.
Canto 2, stanza 27; also in Heywood's Works, 1562, reprint 1867, p. 35.
[E275] No trees appear preferable to willows for fencing hop grounds;
and none are said to be worse than elms, as they attract mildews.--M.
[E276] "What better to skilfull," etc., that is, what can be more
profitable to the experienced farmer than to know when to be bold, that
is, to venture the early sowing of barley?
[E277] The Mayweed (_Anthemis cotula_) is common in corn-fields and
hedgerows. "May-weed or stinking camomile."--T.R. "Resembling cammomil
but of a stinking savour and odious to bees." Coles' Dict. 1676.
[E278] Cockle or _Cokyl_ was used by Wycliffe and other old writers in
the sense of a weed generally, but in later works has been confined to
the _gith_ or _corn-pink_.
[E279] Our author's meaning is, sow barley, oats and pease above
furrows and harrow them in; while rye is best ploughed in with a
shallow furrow.
[E280] "Without cost," that is, on which no expense has been incurred.
[E281] Watering is necessary in dry seasons for what is fresh _set_ or
planted, but not for what is newly sown.
[E282] It is to be lamented, both on account of the health and the
finances of the poor, that they are so much attached, either to solid
food, or to watery infusions of tea. Herbs, pulse and roots might often
supersede more expensive articles of diet. Spoonmeat, in this part of
the island at least, is in no high request at this period, though it
appears to have been indispensable formerly.--M.
[E283] "There remaineth yet a third kinde of meats, which is neither
fish nor flesh, commonly called _white meats_, as egges, milk, butter,
cheese, which notwithstanding proceede and come of flesh, as egges from
the henne, and milk from the cowe. Yet because they are not plainely
flesh, they are permitted to be eaten upon the fish daies."--Cogan's
Haven of Health, ed. 1612, p. 149.
"But how soeuer this case standeth, _white meats_, as milke, butter
and cheese, which were neuer so deere as in my time, and woont to be
accounted of as one of the chiefe staies throughout the Iland, are now
reputed as foods appertinent onelie to the inferiour sort, whilest such
as are more wealthie, doo feed vpon the flesh of all kinds of cattell
accustomed to be eaten, all sorts of fish taken vpon our coasts and in
our fresh rivers, and such diuersitie of wild and tame foules as are
either bred in our Iland or brought ouer vnto vs from other countries
of the maine."--Harrison, Descript. of England, ed. Furnivall, Part
I. p. 144. _White meats_ in Lincoln now mean the flesh of lamb, veal,
rabbits, chickens, pheasants, etc.
[E284] "Count best the best cheape": "For it doth the buyer more credit
and service."--Ray. We still say "Cheap and nasty;" and in the Towneley
Mysteries, p. 102, there is the same sentiment:
"Men say lyght chepe
letherly for yeeldys,"
equivalent to our English proverb: "Light cheap, litter yield."
[E285] It is always advisable to pay carpenters their fair wages,
without any allowance of chips, which is a great temptation for them
to waste timber.--M. In hewing timber, if the workman hews square, the
seller of the timber loses all the gain of the _Wane edges_, which gain
in short is a cheat, although a very customary one.--T.R.
[E286] "Within these fortie yeeres we shall haue little great timber
growing aboue fortie yeeres old; for it is commonlie seene that those
yong _staddles_ which we leaue standing at one and twentie yeeres
fall, are vsuallie at the next sale cut downe without any danger of
the statute, and serue for fire bote, if it please the owner to burne
them."--Harrison, Part I. p. 345. "There is a Statute made, 35 Henry
the 8, and the 1 Eliz. for the presentation of timber trees, Oake,
Ash, Elme, Aspe, and Beech: and that 12 storers and _standils_ should
bee left standing at euery fall, vpon an acre."--Norden's Surveyor's
Dialogue, 1607, p. 213. On the decrease in woods, etc., in England,
see Harrison's Description of England (New Shakspere Soc. edit. F. J.
Furnivall, Part I. p. 344) and Norden's Surveyor's Dialogue, 1607, p.
214, in the latter of which one cause is stated to be the large number
of hammers and furnaces for the manufacture of iron, and the quantity
of charcoal used in the glass-houses; there being, as he says: "now
or lately in Sussex, neere 140 hammers and furnaces for iron, and in
it, and Surry adjoyning 3,400 glasse houses: the hammers and furnaces
spend, each of them, in every 24 houres 2, 3 or foure loades of
charrcoale."--p. 215. "There is a Law in Spaine, that he that cuts down
_one Tree_, shall plant _three_ for it."--A Treatise of Fruit Trees, R.
A. Austin, Oxford, 1657, p. 128.
[E287] "Leaue oxen abrode," etc. The Author of Tusser Redivivus is
supported in his reading of this line by the edition of 1597, which has
"leaue _not_ oxe abrode." The sense, however, may possibly be, "keep
oxen at a distance, for fear of injuring the young shoots." "_Springe_
or ympe that commeth out of the rote."--Huloet's Abcedarium, 1552.
"Keep from biting, treading underfoot, or damage of beasts ... whereby
mischief may be done to the _Springs_, during the time limited by the
statute for such kind of wood."--Brumby Lease, 1716, in Peacock's
Glossary, E. Dial. Soc.
[E288] "Meet with a bootie," etc., that is, as we say, find something
which was never lost.
[E289] Wanteth = is without, does not keep.
[E290] "Waine her to mee." Perhaps = waggon, that is, "drive, carry her
to me," but it is a forced expression.
[E291] "Such maister such man." Another form of the proverb is, "Trim,
Tram; like master, like man." "Tel maître, tel valet" (Fr.).
[E292] Compare with Tusser's description of the faults to be avoided in
the making of cheese the following extracts on the same subject:
"Now what cheese is well made or otherwise may partly be perceiued by
this old Latine verse:
Non nix, non Argos, Methusalem, Magdaleneve,
Esaus, non Lazarus, caseus ille bonus.
That is to say, Cheese should not be white as Snowe is, nor full of
eyes as Argos was, nor old as Methusalem was, nor full of whey or
weeping as Marie Magdalen was, nor rough as Esau was, nor full of spots
as Lazarus. Master Tusser in his Booke of husbandrie addeth other
properties also of Cheese well made, which who so listeth may read.