Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie
wine, which I would wish to be much used of all such Students as be
weake of stomacke. They may easily haue a rundlet of three or foure
gallons or lesse, which they may draw within their owne chambers as
need requireth. I was woont when appetite failed to steepe a branch
or two of common Wormewood in halfe a pint of good white wine, close
couered in some pot all night, and in the morning to straine it through
a clean linnen cloth, and put in a little sugar and warme it, and so
drinke it. Or sometime to burne a little quantitie of wine with sugar,
and a branch or two of Wormewood put into it. Wherein I have found many
times marvellous commoditie, and who so shall vse it now and then, shal
be sure of a good stomacke to meat, and be free from wormes."--Cogan's
Haven of Health, p. 55. "_Wormwood_, centaury, pennyroyal, are likewise
magnified and much prescribed, especially in hypochondrian melancholy,
daily to be used, sod in whey."--Burton, Anat. of Melancholy, p. 432.
[E347] "As many doo more," _i.e._ as many others do. Cf. 63. 18.
[E348] There is a proverb: "One scabb'd sheep's enough to spoil a
flock."
[E349] In Lincolnshire corn affected by the smut is called _Parson
corn_, the reason assigned being that when tithes were paid in kind,
the sheaves that had the most smuts in them were always given to the
_parson_, if he could be seduced into taking them.--See Peacock's
Gloss. of Manley, etc., E. Dial. Soc. 1877.
[E350] _Mow-burn_ is occasioned by the Hay being stack'd too soon,
before its own juice is thoroughly dried, and by Norfolk people is
called the _Red Raw_; not such as is occasioned by stacking it when wet
with Rain, which is a nasty musty and stinks.--T.R.
[E351] Hentzner, p. 79 (quoted in Harrison's Description of England,
ed. F. J. Furnivall, p. lxxxiv), says: "As we were returning to our
inn (at Windsor, Sept. 14), we happened to meet some country people
celebrating their Harvest-home; their last load of corn they crown with
flowers, having besides an image richly dressed, by which, perhaps,
they would signify Ceres; this they keep moving about, while men and
women, men and maid servants, riding through the streets in the cart,
shout as loud as they can till they arrive at the barn."
[E352]
"Tis merie in hall,
When beards wag all."
This proverb is of great antiquity. It occurs in the Life of Alexander
(formerly, but erroneously, attributed to Adam Davie), written in 1312,
where the words are:
"Swithe mury hit is in halle,
When burdes wawen alle."
--Weber's Met. Rom.
It occurs also in Shakspere, 2 Henry IV. Act v. sc. 3, and is quoted in
the _Merie Tales of Skelton_, 1567. See also Ray's Proverbs.
[E353] "For Mihelmas spring," that is, "for fear of injuring the young
plants, etc., at Michaelmas."
[E354] In Harrison's Descript. of England, Part II. p. 50 _et
seq._, there is a long chapter on the cultivation and uses of Saffron
in England, from which I extract the following: "As the Saffron of
England, which Platina reckneth among spices, is the most excellent
of all other; for it giueth place neither to that of Cilicia, whereof
Solinus speaketh, neither to anie that commeth from Cilicia, where it
groweth upon the mount _Taurus, Tmolus, Italie, Ætolia, Sicilia_ or
_Licia_, in sweetnesse, tincture and continuance; so of that which is
to be had amongst us, the same that grows about Saffron Walden, somtime
called Waldenburg, in the edge of Essex, first of all planted there
in the time of Edward the Third, and that of Glocestershire and those
westerlie parts, which some thinke to be better than those of Walden,
surmounteth all the rest, and therefore beareth worthilie the higher
price, by sixpence or twelue pence most commonlie in the pound.... The
heads of saffron are raised in Julie, either with plough, raising or
tined hooke; and being scowred from their rosse or filth, and seuered
from such heads as are ingendred of them since the last setting, they
are interred againe in Julie and August by ranks or rowes, and being
couered with moulds, they rest in the earth, where they cast forth
little fillets and small roots like vnto a scallion, until September,
in the beginning of which moneth the ground is pared and all weeds and
grasse that groweth vpon the same remooved, to the intent that nothing
may annoie the floure when as his time dooth come to rise. These things
being thus ordered in the latter end of the aforesaid moneth [of
September], the floure beginneth to appeere of a whitish blew, fesse,
or skie colour, and in the end shewing itselfe in the owne kind, it
resembleth almost the _Leucotion_ of _Theophrast_, sauing that it is
longer, and hath in the middest thereof three chines verie red and
pleasant to behold. These floures are gathered in the morning before
the rising of the sunne, which otherwise would cause them to welke
or flitter. And the chines being picked from the floures, these are
throwne into the doong-hill; the other dried vpon little kelles couered
with streined canuasses vpon a soft fire; wherby and by the weight that
is laied vpon them, they are dried and pressed into cakes, and then
bagged vp for the benefit of their owners. In good yeeres we gather
foure score or an hundred pounds of wet saffron of an acre, which being
dried dooth yeeld twentie pounds of drie and more. Whereby, and sith
the price of saffron is commonlie about twentie shillings in monie, or
not so little, it is easie to see what benefit is reaped by an acre of
this commoditie.... For admit that the triple tillage of an acre dooth
cost 13 shillings foure pence before the saffron be set, the clodding
sixteene pence, the taking of euerie load of stones from the same foure
pence, the raising of euerie quarter of heads six pence, and so much
for cleansing of them, besides the doong which is woorth six pence the
load to be laid on the first yeere, for the setting three and twentie
shillings and foure pence, for the paring fiue shillings, six pence for
the picking of a pound wet, etc.; yea though he hire it readie set,
and paie ten pounds for the same, yet shall he susteine no damage, if
warme weather and open season doo happen at the gathering." Harrison
then describes fully the culture of saffron, and the adulterations and
tricks practised by the dealers, and afterwards describes the virtues
of it: "Our saffron (beside the manifold vse that it hath in the
kitchin and pastrie, also in our cakes at bridals, and thanksgivings of
women) is verie profitably mingled with those medicines which we take
for the diseases of the breast, of the lungs, of the liuer, and of the
bladder; it is good also for the stomach if you take it in meat, for
it comforteth the same, and maketh good digestion: being sodden also
in wine, it not onelie keepeth a man from dronkennesse, but incorageth
also unto procreation of issue. If you drinke it in sweet wine, it
inlargeth the breath, and is good for those that are troubled with
the tisike and shortnesse of the wind: mingled with the milke of a
woman, and laied vpon the eies, it staieth such humors as descend into
the same, and taketh away the red wheales and pearles that oft grow
about them: it killeth moths if it be sowed in paper bags verie thin,
and laid vp in presses among tapistrie or apparrell: also it is verie
profitable laid vnto all inflammations, painefull aposthumes, and the
shingles, and doth no small ease vnto deafnes.... Three drams thereof
taken at once, which is about the weight of one shilling nine pence
halfe penie, is deadlie poison."
[E355] "The two S. Maries daies," _i.e._ July 22nd, St. Mary
Magdalene's Day, and August 15th, the feast of the Assumption of the
Virgin Mary.--M. Mr. Skeat suggests that the days meant are August 15th
and September 8th, the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.
There is no doubt Mr. Skeat is right; compare "Centory must be gotten
betweene our Lady dayes."--Langham's Garden of Health. The date is not
uncommon in Herbals.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E356] Mustard-seed is very apt to shed, and therefore should be
gathered before it becomes too ripe. After dressing it is to be laid in
a soller or garret. "Soller, a lofte, _garnier_."--Palsgrave. "Garytte,
hay solere."--Prompt. Parv.
[E357] Though all the editions which I have seen read as printed in the
text, it is evident that Tusser meant exactly the opposite, viz.:
"By day will deceiue thee, etc.
By great will dispatch, etc."
Men who take work by the great, that is, by the job or contract, are,
as experience tells us, naturally anxious to get the work done as soon
as possible, while those who are engaged by the day as naturally try
to spin out the work as long as they can. According to Carr's _Craven
Glossary_, a Day-work is three roods of land. "Four perches make a
day-worke; ten daysworks make a roode or quarter." (Twysden MS. quoted
by Halliwell.) The latter agrees with Norden's statement: "You must
know (says he), that there goe 160 perches to one acre; 80 perches to
halfe an acre; 40 perches to one roode, which is ¼ of an acre; ten
_daies worke_ to a roode, foure perches to a daies worke; 16 foote
and a halfe to a perche." (_Surveior's Dialogue_, 1610.) In Cowel's
_Interpreter_ we read "_Day-werc of Land_, as much arable ground as
could be ploughed up in one day's work, or one journey, as the farmers
still call it."
[E358] "Harvest lord," the principal reaper who goes first and
regulates the movements of the rest; _Harvest-Lady_, the second reaper
in the row, called in Cambridgeshire the _Harvest-Queen_. The rate at
which the _Harvest-lord_ reaped of course regulated that of the others,
and therefore Tusser recommends that he should have a penny or two
extra in order to encourage him to have an eye to the loiterers, and to
keep all up to the mark. Cf.:
"At heighe pryme Peres lete the plowe stonde,
To ouersen hem hymself, and who-so best wrouȝte
He shulde be huyred therafter whan heruest tyme come."
--Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, E. E. Text Soc. B Text, Passus vi. 114.
The following particulars as to the farmer's expenses at harvest
time are quoted by Mr. Skeat in his notes to Piers Plowman, C. Text,
Passus ix. 104, from Sir J. Cullum's Hist. of Hawsted, Suffolk, 2nd
ed.: "The outgoings [in harvest] were called the costs of autumn,
and are thus stated. In 1388, [we find] the expences of a ploughman,
head reaper, baker, cook, brewer, _deye_, 244½ reapers (_sic_) hired
for 1 day; 30 bedrepes (days of work performed in harvest-time by the
customary tenants, at the _bidding_ of their lord), the men [being]
fed, according to custom, with bread and herring; 3 qrs. 3 bu. of wheat
from the stock; 5 qrs. 3 bu. of malt from the stock; meat bought,
10_s._ 10_d._; 5 sheep from the stock; fish and herrings bought, 5_s._;
herrings bought for the customary tenants, 7_d._; cheese, milk, and
butter bought (the dairy being let), 9_s._ 6_d._; salt, 3_d._; candles,
5_d._; pepper, 3_d._; spoons, dishes, and faucets, 5_d._ 30 bedrepes,
as before; 19 reapers, hired for 1 day, at their own board, 4_d._ each;
80 men, for 1 day, and kept at the lady's board, 4_d._ each: 40½ men
(_sic_) hired for 1 day, at 3_d._ each; the wages of the head reaper,
6_s._ 8_d._; of the brewer, 3_s._ 4_d._; of the cook, 3_s._ 4_d._ 30
acres of oats tied up by the job (_per taskam_), 1_s._ 8_d._; 6 acres
of bolymong cut and tied up by the job, 3_s._ 4_d._; 16 acres of pease,
cut by the job, 8_s._; 5 acres of pease and bolymong, cut and tied
up by the job, 2_s._ 6_d._; 3 acres of wheat, cut and tied up by the
job, 1_s._ 11_d._" [Here follow similar details for 1389, including a
mention of 5 pairs of harvest-gloves, 10_d._] "What a scene of bustling
industry was this! for, exclusive of the baker, cook, and brewer, who,
we may presume, were fully engaged in their own offices, here were