Chapter IX: Part 9

[E77] A Pannel and Ped have this difference, the one is much shorter than the other, and raised before and behind, and serves for small burdens; the other is longer and made for Burdens of Corn. These are fastened with a leathern Girt, called a Wantye.--T.R. Miss Mitford, in her "Recollections," writes that her father, who used to ride a favourite gentle blood-mare, had a _pad_ constructed, perched and strapped upon which, and encircled by his arm, she used to accompany him.

[E78] A cart or wagon whose wheels are hooped and clouted with iron is called in Lincoln a _shod-cart_ or _shod-wain_. In the Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, vol. ii. p. 245, we have "_clot shon_" = boots tipped with iron. "Clowte of a shoo, _pictasium_."--Prompt. Parv. Cf. Milton, Comus, l. 634:

"The dull swain
Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon."

In Lancashire a "Clout-nail" is a large nail used for fixing iron _clouts_ on the wooden axle-trees of carts.

[E79] "Ten sacks," each holding a coome or four bushels, are only sufficient for a single load of wheat; but farms were not so large, nor the produce so great when Tusser wrote.

[E80] A _pulling hook_ is a barbed iron for drawing firing from the wood stack.--M.

[E81] "A nads" = an adze, an instance (like a nall = an awl, above) of the _n_ of the article being joined to the following vowel. Similarly we have "atte nale" = at the ale-house, a corruption of A.S. æt þan ale.--See Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, B. Text, Prologue, l. 43. So in Sir Thomas More's Workes, 1557, p. 709, we have "A verye nodypoll _nydyote_" for _idiot_. Other instances of the prefixed _n_ are "nonce, a nother, nagares (= augers)." Cf. "One axe, a bill, iiij _nagares_, ij hatchettes, an ades," etc.--Shakspereana Genealogica, 1869, p. 472.

[E82] "A Douercourt beetle" is explained by Dr. Mavor as "one that is large (like the rood of Dover once so celebrated) and capable of making a great noise," and he adds that "there is an old proverb 'A Dover Court: all speakers and no hearers.'" But this explanation is entirely erroneous: there is no reference whatever to _Dover_, but, as the following extract will show, a Dovercourt beetle simply means one made of the wood of the elms of Dovercourt in Essex, which were celebrated for their soundness and lasting qualities: "Of all the elms that euer I saw, those in the south side of _Douer court_, in Essex neere Harwich, are the most notable, for they growe, I meane, in crooked maner, that they are almost apt for nothing else but nauie timber, great ordinance, and _beetels_; and such thereto is their naturall qualitie, that being vsed in the said behalfe, they continue longer, and more long than anie the like trees in whatsoeuer parcell else of this land, without cuphar [cracking], shaking or cleauing, as I find."--Harrison, Descr. of Eng. part i. p. 341.

[E83] In the Hist. of Hawsted, Suffolk, by Sir J. Cullum, 2nd ed. p. 216, we are told that there, in the 14th century, oxen were as much used as horses; and, in ploughing heavy land, would go forward where horses would stop. "A horse kept for labour ought to have every night the 6th part of a bushel of oats; for an ox, 3½ measures of oats, 10 of which make a bushel, are sufficient for a week."

[E84] "The ploughstaff is alluded to by Strutt (Manners and Customs, ii. 12): 'The ploughman yoketh oxen to the plough, and he holdeth the plough-stilt [_i.e._ principal hale or handle] in his left hand, and in his right hand the _ploughstaff_ to break the clods.' See plate 32 (vol. i.) in Strutt, and the picture of a plough at work prefixed to Mr. Wright's edition of Piers the Plowman, copied from MS. T. [MS. R. 3. 14, Trin. Coll. Camb.]."--Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, B. vi. 105.

[E85] "Moether" [and "mother", 16. 14.]. This word is derived by Sir H. Spelman from Danish _moer_ = an unmarried girl. "_Puera_, a woman chylde, callyd in Cambrydgeshyre a _modder_." "_Pupa_, a yonge wenche, a gyrle, a _modder_."--Elyot's Lat. Dict. 1538. "_Fille_, a maid, girle, _modder_, lasse."--Cotgrave. Ben Jonson uses the word in his "Alchymist": "Away, you talk like a foolish _mauther_."--Act iv. sc. 7. Richard Brome also has it in the Eng. Moor, Act iii. sc. i.:

_P._ "I am a _mother_, that do want a service.

_Qu._ O, thou'rt a Norfolk woman (cry thee mercy,)
Where maids are _mothers_, and _mothers_ are maids."

"I have been informed by an intelligent friend, who is a native of Norfolk, that on a certain trial in that county, it was asked who was the evidence of what had been stated. The answer was, 'A _mather_ playing on a planchard.' The Judge was nonplussed, till the meaning was explained, namely, 'A girl playing on the floor.'"--M.

[E86] "Hoigh de la roy," that is, excellent or proper; but why, I cannot say.

[E87] A _cradle_ is a three-forked instrument of wood, on which the corn is caught as it falls from the scythe, and thus is laid in regular order. It is heavy to work with; but is extremely useful for cutting barley or oats, which are intended to be put into sheaves.--M.

[E88] Tar was the common salve for all sores in cattle. "Two pounds of tar to a pound of pitch," is a good composition for sheep marks.--M. "Every shepherd used to carry a _tar-box_, called a _tarre-boyste_ in the Chester Plays, p. 121, or a _terre-powghe_ (= tar pouch) in P. Pl. Crede, l. 618. It held a salve containing tar which was used for anointing sores in sheep. Compare

"Heare is tarre in a potte To heale from the rotte." --Chester Plays, p. 120.

See also History of Agriculture and Prices in England, by J. E. Thorold Rogers, vol. i. p. 31. Note to P. Plowman, ed. Skeat, C. x. 262-264.

[E89] "Sealed and true," _i.e._ certified and stamped as correct. In Liber Albus, ed. Riley, p. 233, we read: "No brewster or taverner shall sell from henceforth by any measure but the gallon, pottle, and quart; and that these shall be _sealed_ with the seal of the Alderman," etc. See also the Statute of Sealed Measures, _id._ p. 290.

[E90] _Striking_ is the last ploughing before the seed is committed to the ground; previously to which the ridges are to be harrowed.

[E91] "Sowe barlie and dredge." In the 13th century the grain crops chiefly cultivated in England were wheat, "berecorn," _dragg_, or a mixture of vetches and oats, beans and pease. The regulations for the brewers of Paris in 1254 prescribe that they shall brew only "de grains, c'est à savoir d'orge de mestuel, et de _dragèe_." "_Dredge_ mault, malt made of oats, mixed with barley malt, of which they make an excellent quick sort of drink."--Bp. Kennett's Gloss. "A mixture of oates and barley; and at present used very seldom in malting."--T.R. "_Dragée_ aux chevaux, provender of divers sorts of pulse mixed together."--Cotgrave. From Way's Notes in Prompt. Parv. s. v. Dragge.

[E92] Forby (Vocab. 1830) says: "Crow-keeper, a boy employed to scare crows from new sown land. Lear, in his madness, says: 'That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper.' Besides lustily whooping, he carries an old gun, from which he cracks a little powder, and sometimes puts in a few stones, but seldom hits, and still seldomer kills a crow." Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act i. sc. 4: "Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper."

[E93] A Marsh Wall is a Sea bank, made with considerable slope to sea-ward, which is called a Break or Breck; it is faced with Turf which sometimes is worn by the sea, or Holes made in it by Crabs, etc. The Foreland is a piece of Land that lies from the foot of the Bank to Sea-ward, and must be well look'd after, that it wear not away or come too near the Bank (as the Workmen term it).--T.R.

[E94] A brawner should be kept cool and hard, which encreaseth his shield, as the skin of the shoulder is called.--M.

[E95] Measles in hogs are small round globules or pustules that lie along the muscles; and are occasioned by uncleanness and want of water.--M.

[E96] The retting of hemp, as it is called, should be done with care. It should be taken out of the water as soon as it begins to swim. The smell left by hemp and flax is extremely unpleasant, as travellers in the flax districts of the North of Ireland well know.

[E97] "In time of plenty of mast, our red and fallow deere will not let to participat thereof with our hogs, more than our nete: yea, our common pultrie also, if they may come vnto them. But as this abundance dooth prooue verie pernicious vnto the first, so the egs which these latter doo bring foorth (beside blackenesse in color and bitternesse of tast,) haue not seldome beene found to breed diuerse diseases vnto such persons as haue eaten of the same."--Harrison, Descrip. of Eng. part i. p. 339.

[E98] If your dog sets chaunting (crying) these lawless hogs, haunting (or frequenting) your fields so often, he does you a benefit.

[E99] _Shaken_ timber is such as is full of clefts and cracks. _Bestowe_ and _stick_ it, is to lay the boards neatly on each other, with sticks between, to admit the air.

[E100] The _hook and line_ is a cord with a hook at its end to bind up anything with, and carry it away.--M.

[E101] "Flaies," probably a misprint in the edition of 1580 for _flails_, which is the reading of the other editions.

[E102] Cotgrave has: "Hastiveau, a _hasting_ apple or peare;" and "Hastivel, as Hastiveau; or a soon-ripe apple, called the St. John's apple." Lacroix (Manners, Customs, etc., during the Middle Ages, p. 116) mentions "hastiveau, an early sort of pear."

[E103] "Vergis and perie." "Verjuice is well known to be the juice of Crabs, but it is not so much taken notice of, that for strength and flavour it comes little short if not exceeds lime-juice."--T.R. "Verjuice, or green juice, which, with vinegar, formed the essential basis of sauces, and is now extracted from a species of green grape, which never ripens, was originally the juice of sorrel; another sort was extracted by pounding the green blades of wheat."--Lacroix, Manners, Customs and Dress, during the Middle Ages, p. 167.

[E104] Make up your hedges with brambles and holly. "Set no bar" = put no limit, do not leave off planting quicksets while the months have an R in their names. See chap. 35, stanza 6, p. 77, and note E112, for 19. 33.

[E105] Laying up here signifies the first plowing, for Barley it is often plow'd, so as that a Ridge-balk in the middle is covered by two opposite furrows.--T.R.

[E106] By Fallow is understood a Winter-fallow, or bringing Ground to a Barley Season.--T.R.

[E107] "Brantham" parish, in Essex, in which Cattiwade is situated, and the place where Tusser first commenced farming. The average yield of corn in his time was, on each acre well tilled and dressed, twenty bushels of wheat, thirty-two of barley, and forty of oats and pulse.

[E108] Wheat does not thrive well either on very poor or very rich land. If the land is _peeled_ or poor, the grain is _burnt_ or _steelie_, and if _proud_ (too heavily manured), the grain is apt to run to straw.

[E109] "There grows in several parts of Africa, Asia, and America, a kind of corn called Mays, and such as we commonly name _Turkey wheat_. They make bread of it, which is hard of digestion, heavy in the stomach, and does not agree with any but such as are of a robust and hail constitution."--A Treatise on Foods, by Mons. L. Lemery, London, 1704, p. 71.

[E110] _Breadcorne_ and _drinkcorn_ mean wheat and barley, the first being used for the making of bread, the second for malting purposes. Mr. Peacock, in his Glossary of Manley, etc., has: "_Breadcorn_, corn to be ground into _breadmeal_ (_i.e._ flour with only a portion of the bran taken out, from which brown bread is made); not to be used for finer purposes. It is a common custom of farmers, when they engage a bailiff, to give him a certain sum of money per annum, and to allow him also his _breadcorn_ at 40_s._ per quarter." Cf. Piers Plowman, C. Text, Passus ix. 61: "A boussel of _bredcorne_."

[E111] Hazlitt gives as a proverb: "To play the devil in the bulmong." An acre of bullimong land was worth 33_s._ 4_d._; see note E370.

[E112] According to Norden (Surveyor's Dialogue, 1607, p. 239) the best mode of making a quickset hedge is as follows: "The plants of whitethorne, mixed here and there with oke and ash"; if the plants are not easily procured, then "the berries of the white or hawthorne, acornes, ash keyes mixed together, and these wrought or wound up in a rope of straw, wil serve, but they will be somewhat longer in growing. Make a trench at the top or in the edge of the ditch, and lay into it some fat soyle, and then lay the rope all along the ditch, and cover it with good soile also, then cover it with the earth, and ever as any weedes or grasse begins to grow, pull it off and keepe it as cleane as may be from all hindrances, and when the seeds begin to come, keepe cattle from bruising them, and after some two or three yeares, cut the yong spring by the earth, and so will they branch and grow thick, and if occasion serve, cut them so again alwayes, preserving the oake and ashe to become trees." The best time to lay the berries in this manner is "in _September_ or _October_, if the berries be fully ripe."

[E113] A "porkling" was worth 28_d._ at the time. See note E370.

[E114] With reference to the "daintiness" of the Flemings, many of whom were settled on the East coast, compare the following:

"Now bere and _bacon_ bene fro Pruse ibrought Into Flaundres, as loved and fere isoughte; Osmonde [a kind of iron], coppre, bowstaffes, stile [steel], and wex, Peltre-ware [hides], and grey, pych, terre, borde, and flex, And Coleyne threde, fustiane, and canvase, Corde, bokeram; of olde tyme thus it wase. But the _Flemmyngis_, amonge these thinges dere, In comen lowen [love] beste _bacon_ and bere. Thus arre they hogges; and drynkyn wele ataunt [so much]; Farewel, Flemynge! hay, harys, hay, avaunt!" --Wright's Political Songs, ii. 171.

[E115] _Light fire_, as it is termed, is still used in Norfolk.--M.

[E116] "Bowd eaten malt." "The more it be dried (yet must it be doone with soft fire) the sweeter and better the malt is, and the longer it will continue, whereas if it be not dried downe (as they call it), but slackelie handled, it will breed a kind of worme, called a _wiuell_, which groweth in the floure of the corne, and in processe of time will so eat out it selfe, that nothing shall remaine of the graine but euen the verie rind or huske."--Harrison, Description of England, part i. pp. 156-7. R. Holme says that "the Wievell eateth and devoureth corn in the garners; they are of some people called _bowds_."--Acad. of Arm. Bk. ii. p. 467. "Bruk is a maner of flye, short and brodissh, and in a sad husc, blak hed, in shap mykel toward a golde _bowde_, and mykhede [size] of twyis and þryis atte moste of a gold _bowde_, a chouere, oþer vulgal can y non þerfore."--Arundel MS. 42, f. 64. The name _gold bowde_ probably denotes a species of _Chrysomela_, Linn. Way, in Prompt. Parv.

[E117] See note E5 on "A Medicine for the Cowlaske." Sloes gently baked in an oven are best preserved. They are an excellent and cheap remedy for laxity of the bowels, in men or cattle, if judiciously used.--M.

[E118] Dr. Mavor suggests that as Tusser is pretty correct in his rhymes, he probably wrote _beasty_ originally. In Pegge's Forme of Cury, 1780, p. 111, are given two recipes for the prevention of _Restyng_ in Venisoun.

[E119] "Stouer." _Stover_ is the term now applied to the coarser hay made of clover and artificial grasses, which is kept for the winter feed of cattle. But in Shakespeare's time the artificial grasses were not known in England, and were not introduced till about the middle of the seventeenth century. In Cambridgeshire I am informed that hay made in this manner is not called "stover" till the seeds have been threshed out. In the sixteenth century the word was apparently used to denote any kind of winter fodder except grass hay. Compare

"Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, And flat meads thatch'd with _stover_, them to keep." --Shakspere, Tempest, Act iv. sc. I;

and Drayton, Polyolbion, xxv. 145,

"And others from their Carres, are busily about, To draw out Sedge and Reed, for Thatch and _Stover_ fit."

"Stover" is enumerated by Ray among the South-and East-Country words as used in Essex, and is to be found in Moor's Suffolk Words and Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia.

[E120] See note E61.

[E121] In cleaning corn for _seed, casting_ or throwing it with a _casting shovel_ (see 17. 1) from one heap to another, in order to select the heaviest grains, which will always go farthest, is an excellent practice: but in _malting_, this is not necessary, as the light grains and seeds of weeds may be skimmed off in the cistern.--M.

[E122] Wheat is well known to work better in grinding and baking after it has undergone a natural heat in the rick or mow. Wheat that is threshed early keeps with difficulty.--M.

[E123] "Rauening curres" seem to have been as great a nuisance in Tusser's time as at present, in spite of what Dr. Mavor terms one of the "few patriotic taxes which we have to boast of."

[E124] St. Edmund's Day (20th November) may probably be the proper time for planting garlic and beans; but why the moon should be "in the wane" we are not informed, though, according to Tusser, "thereon hangeth a thing." The moon was formerly supposed to extend her power over all nature, and not over the tides and weather only.

[E125] The farmer who "looks to thrive" must "have an eye," not only to his barn, but also to the cruel habits or tricks of his servants; otherwise he may find his cattle maimed or otherwise injured, and his poultry made "to plaie tapple vp taile," a cant expression, meaning to tumble head over heels. Cf. the Scotch phrase, "coup your creels." Cotgrave, _s.v. Laisser_ and _Houseau_, has an exactly parallel expression: "_Il a laissé ses houseaux_, he hath tipped up the heeles, or is ready to doe it; he hath got him to his last bed; he is even as good as gone; he is no better then a dead man." The Catholicon Anglicum also gives "Top ouer tayle, _precipitanter_: to cast tope ouer tayle, _precipitari_."

[E126] The leathern bottle, from its size, must have been a most convenient vehicle for the removal of corn and other stolen property.

[E127] Our author does not appear to have had any idea of the use of soot as a top-dressing to land, but its value is now well understood, as one of the greatest improvers of cold, mossy grasslands.

[E128] It is leanness and ill-dressing that occasion nits and lice, not the state of the weather when they are taken to house.

[E129] The rack ought to be accessible on all sides, and perhaps high enough for small cattle to escape under it from their more powerful adversaries.--M.

[E130] "_Barth_." Wedgwood includes this under _berth_, the seaman's term for snug anchorage for themselves or their vessels. See Glossary.

[E131] "A _fires-bird_, for that she sat continually by the fire side."--Tom Tell-Trothe's New Yeare's Gift, New Shakspere Soc. ed. Furnivall, p. 12.

[E132] "Beath." Bathing at the Fire, as it is commonly called, when the wood is yet unseasoned, sets it to what purpose you think fit.--T.R.

[E133] "Camping." "Goals were pitched 150 or 200 yards apart, formed of the thrown-off clothes of the competitors." Each party had two goals 10 or 15 yards apart. The parties, 10 to 15 aside, stand in line facing their own goals and each other, at 10 yards distance, midway between the goals and nearest that of their adversaries. An indifferent spectator throws up the ball--the size of a cricket ball--midway between the confronted players, whose object is to seize and convey it between their own goals. The shock of the first onset to catch the falling ball is very great, and the player who seizes it speeds home pursued by his opponents, through whom he has to make his way, aided by the jostlings of his own sidesmen. If caught and held, or in imminent danger of it, he _throws_ the ball, but must in no case _give_ it, to a comrade, who, if it be not arrested in its course, or he be jostled away by his eager foes, catches it, and hurries home, winning the game or _snotch_ if he contrive to _carry, not throw_, it between the goals. A holder of the ball caught with it in his possession loses a _snotch_. At the loss of each of these the game recommences after a breathing time. Seven or nine _snotches_ are the game, and these it will sometimes take two or three hours to win. Sometimes a large football was used, and the game was then called "_kicking camp_," and if played with the shoes on, "_savage camp_."--Abridged from Major Moor's Description.

Ray says it prevailed, in his time, most in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. It was new to Sir T. Browne on his settling in Norfolk, and is not mentioned by Strutt amongst the "Sports and Pastimes of the English People."

Mr. Spurdens, in his Supplement to Forby's Vocabulary, remarks: "The contests were not unfrequently fatal to many of the combatants. I have heard old persons speak of a celebrated _Camping_, Norfolk against Suffolk, on Diss Common, with 300 on each side. Before the ball was thrown up, the Norfolk men inquired tauntingly of the Suffolk men if they had brought their coffins. The Suffolk men after fourteen hours were the victors. Nine deaths were the result of the contest within a fortnight. These were called _fighting camps_, for much boxing was practised in them." Cf.

"This faire floure of womanheed
Hath two pappys also smalle,
Bolsteryd out of lenghth and breed,
Lyche a large _Campyng ball_."
--Lydgate.

_Camping Land_ was a piece of ground set apart for the game. A field abutting on the churchyard at Swaffham was willed for the purpose by the Rector in 1472. At East Bilney and Stowmarket are pieces of ground still called _Camping land_. Sir John Cullum, in his "History of Hawstead, Suffolk," describes the _Camping-pightle_ as mentioned A.D. 1466. "_Campar_ or _pleyar_ at foott balle, _campyon_ or _champyon_."--Prompt. Parv. "Camping is Foot Ball playing, at which they are very dextrous in Norfolk; and so many People running up and down a piece of ground, without doubt evens and saddens it, so that the Root of the Grass lies firm.... The trampling of so many People drives also the Mole away."--T.R.

[E134] "All quickly forgot as a play on a stage." Comp. Shakspere, As you Like it, Act ii. sc. 7: "All the world's a stage," etc., and Merchant of Venice, Act i. sc. 1, where Antonio calls the world "A stage where every man must play a part." "Totus mundus agit histrionem," from a fragment of Petronius, is said to have been the motto on the Globe Theatre. Calderon wrote a play called El Teatro del Mundo (The Theatre of the World). It is remarkable for containing the lines:

"En el teatro del mundo Todos son representantes,"

_i.e._ in the stage of the world all men are players.--W. W. S. In the old play of Damon and Pythias (Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, iv. 31) the following occurs:

"Pythagoras said that this world was like a stage, Where many play their parts: the lookers on, the sage Philosophers are, said he, whose part is to learn The manners of all nations, and the good from the bad to discern."

The same comparison occurs also in Don Quixote, part ii. cap. 12. See note E378.

[E135] Psalm cxliv. 4.

[E136] "Atrop." "The fatall sisters," Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, daughters of Erebus and the Night, were supposed to spin out the life of man as it were a long thread, which they drew out in length, till his fatal hour had arrived; but if by any other casualty his days were shortened, then _Atropos_ was said to have cut the thread in two. Hence the old verse: "Clotho colum bajulat, Lachesis trahit, Atropos occat."

[E137] "Euer among," an expression of frequent occurrence in Early English, meaning "constantly, continually." Compare the Mod. Eng. "all the while." In a Carol of the fifteenth century, we read:

"Thys endus nyȝth I saw a syȝth, A stare as bryȝt as day; And _ever among_ A mayden song Lullay, by by, lullay."

And in another:

"Our der Lady she stod hym by, And wepe water ful bytterly, And terys of blod _ever among_."

[E138] "As onely of whom our comfort is had." The expression is obscure, but the meaning is clear: as the only one from whom our comfort (or strength) is derived.

[E139] "Good husbands," that is, good husbandmen or farmers.

[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 (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 in a Succade, doth ingender good blode, and doth set a man in a temporaunce."--A. Boorde's Dyetary, E.E.T. Soc. ed. Furnivall, p. 278.

[E200] "Burnet, a term formerly applied to a brown cloth, Fr. _brunette_, It. _brunetta_, and given to the plant so called from its brown flowers."--Dr. Prior, Popular Names of British Plants, 1870. Called also _Pimpinell_.--Lyte's Dodoens, 1578, p. 138.

[E201] "Burrage." Fr. _bourache_, M. Lat. _borago_. Apuleius says that its original name was "_corrago_, quia cordis affectibus medetur," a word that the herbalists suppose to have become, by change of _c_ to _b, borrago_. See A. Boorde's Dyetary, ed. Furnivall, pp. 278-280.

[E202] "Clarie." M. Lat. _sclarea_, from _clarus_ = clear, and prefix _ex_. Called by the apothecaries _clear-eye_, translated into _Oculus Christi, Godes-eie_, and _See-bright_, and eye-salves made of it. _Salvia Sclarea_, Linn. "Called in French _Ornale_ or _Fonte-bonne_; it maketh men dronke and causeth headache, and therefore some Brewers do boyle it with their Bier in steede of Hoppes."--Lyte's Dodoens, ed. 1578, p. 253.

[E203] "Coleworts." Dioscorides (quoted in Cogan's Haven of Health, p. 49) says (lib. 2, cap. 113) that "if they be eaten last after meats, they preserue the stomacke from surfetting, and the head from drunkennesse. Yea some write, that if one would drinke much wine for a wager, and not be drunke, but to haue also a good stomacke to meate, that he should eate before the banquet raw Cabage leaues with Vinegar so much as he list, and after the banquet to eate againe foure or fiue raw leaues, which practice is much vsed in Germanie.... The Vine and the Coleworts be so contrarie by nature that if you plant Coleworts neere to the rootes of the Vine, of it selfe it will flee from them. Therefore it is no maruaile if Colewortes be of such force against drunkennesse; But I trust no student will prooue this experiment, whether he may be drunken or not, if he eate Coleworte leaues before and after a feast."

[E204] The numerous virtues of this herb are thus summed up in the King's Coll. MS. of the Promptorium:

"Bis duo dat maratrum, febres fugat atque venenum, Et purgat stomacum, sic reddit lumen acutum."

Macer gives a detailed account, in which the following remarkable passages occur: "þe edderes wole ete fenel, when her yen dasnyþ, and so she getiþ ayene her clere sighte; and þer þoroghe it is founde and preved þat fenel doþ profit to mannis yene: þe yen þat ben dusked, and dasniþ, shul be anoynted with þe ius of fenelle rotis medeled with hony; and þis oynement shalle put a-way alle þe dasewenesse of hem, and make hem bryȝt." The virtue of fennel in restoring youth, was a discovery attributed by Macer to serpents; "Þis prouiþ auctours and filisoferis, for serpentis whan men _(sic)_ olde, and willeth to wexe stronge, myghty, and yongly a-yean, þei gon and eten ofte fenel, and þei become yongliche and myghty."--MS. in the possession of H. W. Diamond, Esq. This herb is called in German _Fenchel_, Dutch _Venckel_. In Piers Plowman mention occurs of: "A ferthyng worth of fynkel-sede for fastinge daies;" C. vii. 360; spelt fenel in the other texts. "Fenkylle or fenelle, _feniculum_."--Prompt. Parv. "Fenelle or fenkelle, _feniculum, maratrum_."--Catholicon Anglicum.

[E205] "Andreas the Herborist writeth that the root of the Langdebeefe tyed or bounde to the diseased place, swageth the ache of the veynes (called _Varix_) being to muche opened or enlarged and fylled with grosse blood."--Lyte's Dodoens, 1578, p. 568. See also Gerard's Herbal, 1633.

This is no doubt _Helminthia echioides_, Linn., of which Parkinson (_Paradisus_) gives a good description and figure under this name, and says, "The leaves are onely used ... for an herbe for the pot among others." Lyte's reference is to some other plant which has "a purple flower."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E206] "Leek." A remnant of A.S. _porleac_, from Lat. _porrum_ and _leac_ = a plant, Ger. _lauch_.

[E207] "Longwort," called in Lyte's Dodoens, p. 125, Sage of Jerusalem, "whiche herbe hath no particular vse in Physicke, but it is much vsed in Meates and Salades with egges, as is also Cowslippes and Prymeroses, whervnto in temperature it is much like." See also Gerard's Herbal, 1633, where it is called "Cowslips of Jerusalem."

[E208] "Liuerwort," so called from the liver shape of the thallus, and its supposed effects in disease of the liver. O. L. Ger. _Steenleuerwnyt_. According to Lyte's Dodoens, p. 59, "a soueraigne medicine against the heate and inflammation of the Lyuer, and all hoate Feuers or Agues." _Anemone Hepatica_, Linn.

The first portion of this note refers to a Cryptogam called Liverwort, having nothing to do with the plant meant by Tusser.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.