Chapter VII: Introduction (7)

_yomenne_, pawns. In Caxton, we find the division of pawns into eight classes (answering to the eight pawns on each side), in which the king’s rook’s pawn represents the _husbandman_. The next in order, the king’s knight’s pawn, is the _smith_; after which, in due order, we find the _notary_, _merchant_, _physician_, _taverner_, _guard_ (or watchman), and the _ribald_ or dice-player, whose character is not well spoken of. This eight-fold division seems to me to have suggested the well-known formula which divides men into the eight classes of ‘soldier, sailor, tinker, tailor, gentleman, apothecary, ploughboy, thief;’ which is sometimes otherwise varied. The German formula is. ‘Edelmann, Bettelman, Amtmann, Pastor, Kaufmann, Laufmann, Maler, Major;’ also, be it observed, eight-fold. Our soldier, tinker, tailor, apothecary, ploughboy, and thief, may be imagined to correspond, with sufficient exactitude, to Caxton’s guard, smith, merchant, physician, husbandman, and ribald.

27. _Remytte_, leave. A word is evidently omitted; we must supply _to_ after _as_, or else substitute _to_ for _as_. In the Book of Surveying, ch. ix, we find, “I remytte that to menne of lawe;” and again, in ch. xii, “I remytte all those poyntes to menne of lawe.” See also sect. 7, l. 14.

=1.= 1. For the manner in which I. R. rewrites this section, see the Preface.

=2.= 5. _Chylturne._ As to the sense, we find, in the Book of Surveying, c. 37, the following. “Chylturne grounde and flyntye grounde be light groundes and drye, and full of small stones, and chalke grounde is moche of the same nature, and they wyll weare and washe awaye with water.”

6. _Meane erthe_, earth of ordinary character. _Mean_ is moderate, ordinary. I. R. alters it to ‘_maine_ earth,’ which was probably not intended. After _marle_, he inserts--“some neither Sand nor Clay, but like a mixture of both, yet neither, which is called a Hassell ground.”

9. I. R. has--“In Sommerset-shiere, Dawset-shiere, and Gloster-shiere.”

_Zelcester._ The old character Ʒ, which had the force of _y_ at the beginning of a word,[36] was often printed as Z, by confusion. Bishop Percy used to print such ludicrous forms as _zow_, _zour_, instead of _yow_, _your_. I conclude that _Zelcester_ = _Yelcester_, _i.e._ Ilchester. The form occurs again in sect. 27, l. 17.

16. _many other places._ J. R. says--“in some parte of Hartford-shiere, Sussex, and Cornwall.”

24. _aslope_] I. R. has _a flote_, _gyue out_, i.e. spread out, are too obtuse.

26. I. R. says--“In Cambridge-shiere, Huntington-shiere, Bedford-shiere, and for the most part of Northamton-shiere, theyr Ploughes haue but one hale. In Leister-shiere, Lankishiere, Yorkshiere, Lincolnshiere, and Notingham-shiere, they haue two; for all other Countries [_counties_] vnnamed, there is none of them but plow with some of these Ploughes before-mentioned.”

=3.= 1. The parts of a plough are enumerated in Gervase Markham’s Complete Husbandman (1614), which is quoted at length in Rogers’s Hist. of Agriculture and Prices, vol. i. p. 534. It is probable that the plough, as described by Fitzherbert, did not materially differ from that in use in 1614.

The principal parts, according to Markham, are as follows.

(1). ‘The _ploughbeam_, a large and long piece of timber, which forms an arch for the other parts of the plough.’ It is, says Fitzherbert, the long beam above, which is slightly bent. The plough-sheath, the coulter, and the plough-foot, are all mortised into it, pointing downwards.

(2). ‘The _skeath_ (i.e. _sheath_), a piece of wood two and a half feet long, eight inches broad, and two inches thick, which is mortised into the beam, and sloping forwards below it.’ Fitzherbert says it is a thin piece of dry oak, fixed both in the plough-beam and the share-beam, and is the chief ‘band,’ i.e. strengthening piece or support, of the whole plough. By ‘thin,’ he must mean that it is thin (2 inches) in proportion to its breadth (8 inches); it is necessary that it should be very strong, as it holds the implement together.

(3). ‘The plough’s _principal hale_ on the left hand, a long bent piece of wood, somewhat strong in the midst, and so slender at the upper end that a man may easily gripe it.’ This is Fitzherbert’s _plough-tail_ (l. 16), which he says is mortised into the sharebeam behind, and pinned to the ploughbeam behind also. The ploughman holds it in his _left_ hand. It is also called the _ploughstart_; where _start_ means _tail_, as in _red-start_.

(4). ‘The _plough-head_, which is fixed with the skeath and the hale, all at one instant, into two several mortise-holes; a flat piece of timber, about three feet in length, seven inches in breadth, and two and a half in thickness, and having two nicks towards the head of the plough.’ This is the same as what Fitzherbert calls the _sharebeam_; see the explanation in sect. 2, l. 10.

(5). ‘The _plough-spindles_, two round pieces of wood which couple the hales [handles] together.’ These are what Fitzherbert calls the _rough staves_; see l. 35.

(6). ‘The _right-hand hale_, through which the other end of the spindles run, much more slender than the left-hand hale, because no force is put on it.’ This is Fitzherbert’s _plough-stilt_; see l. 21.

(7). The _plough-rest_, a small piece of wood, fixed at one end in the further nick of the plough-head, and on the other end to the right-hand hale.’ ‘In the Middle Ages,’ says Prof. Rogers, ‘it appears that this part was made of iron, and that it was occasionally double.’ We must remember that _plough-head_ means the _sharebeam_.

(8). ‘The _shelboard_ [i.e. shield-board], a board of more than an inch thick, covering the right side of the plough, and fastened with two strong wooden pins to the skeath and right-hand hale.’

(9). ‘The _coulter_, a long piece of iron made sharp at one end, passing on one side by a mortise-hole through the beam, and held in place by an iron ring which winds round the beam and strengthens it.’ Fitzherbert’s description is slightly different; see l. 48. The use of the coulter is to make the first incision into the earth; it precedes the share, which follows it and completes its work.

(10). ‘The _share_. If this be needed for a mixed earth, it is made without a wing, or with a small one only: if, however, it be needed for a deep or stiff clay, it should be made with a large wing or an outer point.’

(11). ‘The _plough-foot_. This is an iron implement, passed through a mortise-hole, and fastened at the farther end of the beam by a wedge or two, so that the husbandman may at his discretion set it higher or lower; the use being to give the plough earth or to put it from the earth, for the more it is driven downward the more it raises the beam from the ground and makes the irons forsake the earth, and the more it is driven upward, the more it lets down the beam and makes the irons bite the ground.’ Fitzherbert well describes it as ‘a stay to order of what deepness the plough shall go.’ The word _ploughfote_ occurs in Piers Plowman, B. vi. 105; see my notes to that poem, vol. iv. p. 161. This part of the plough was also called a _plough-shoe_ (in Latin, _ferripedalis_); see Rogers (as above), p. 538. In a modern plough, the plough-foot is generally replaced by small wheels. I may remark that it was placed in front, before the coulter.

If we compare the preceding account with that given by Fitzherbert, we shall see that the two nearly agree. Fitzherbert’s _plough-beam_, _plough-sheath_, and _plough-tail_ are Nos. 1, 2, and 3 above; his _stilt_, _rest_, and _shieldboard_ are Nos. 6, 7, and 8; his _rough staves_, _plough-foot_, _share_, and _coulter_, are Nos. 5, 11, 10, and 9. But he has three additional terms, viz. the _sharebeam_, which is the wooden frame for the _share_, and is called by Markham the _plough-head_ (No. 4). Secondly, the _fen-board_, i.e. _mud-board_, covering the _left_ side of the plough, and fastened to the _left_ of the sheath and the _left_ hale, much as the shield-board is fastened to the _right_ of the sheath and the _right_ hale. Lastly, the _plough-ear_, defined as ‘three pieces of iron, nailed fast to the right side of the plough-beam,’ for which poor men substituted ‘a crooked piece of wood pinned fast to the plough-beam.’ What was the use of this appendage we are not expressly told; but it seems to have been used for fastening the trace to, for draught; see =4.= 34.

Fitzherbert also notices the _plough-mal_, i.e. plough-mall or plough-mallet (l. 55), which seems to have consisted of a head of hard wood and a ‘pynne,’ or handle, and to have been loosely stuck into the plough-beam by passing the handle through ‘an augurs bore,’ i.e. through a hole bored in the beam by an augur for this especial purpose. This was no real _part_ of the plough, but only a tool conveniently kept at hand. He does not, however, mention the plough-staff (or akerstaff), which was ‘a pole shod with a flat iron, the purpose of which was to clear the mould-board from any stiff earth which might cling to it while the plough was at work’; Rogers, as above, p. 539. This was originally held in the right hand (see my notes to P. Plowman); but I think it likely that, when a second handle, or _stilt_, came into use, the plough-staff was given up. Wright’s Prov. Glossary gives “_mell_, _mellet_, a square piece of wood fitted with a handle, a mallet.”

10. I. R. says of the _sharbeame_, that “in some Countries it is called the plough-head.” Fitzherbert has already said this, see =2.= 10.

12. _Oke_] Oake or Ashe; I.R.

15. I. R. says of the _plough-tayle_, that “in many Countries [it is] called the Plough-hale, of which they haue two, but the other is fastened to the rough staues and the shelboard.” The other _hale_ is the _plough-stilt_.

25. _sheldbrede_] Shelboard; I. R.

27. _fenbrede_] Senbred; I. R. This is wrong.

32. _to come past_] compasse; I. R.

34. _roughe_] long; I. R.

49. _bende_, _i.e._ bent] broad; I. R. This is inappropriate, for it is somewhat narrow, viz. of the breadth of three inches; see line 52.

55. _plough-mal_] Plough Maule; I. R. As to the parts of a plough, cf. Tusser’s Husbandry, 17. 10, 11; and see above, note to =3.= 1.

=4.= 14. _slot-wedges_] flote wedges; I. R. I. R. does not seem to have understood it, as he alters _slote_ to _flatte_ in the two lines following.

19. After _erthe_, I. R. has--“so that it may, as the best experienced Plow-men say, kill a worme, or els it goeth not truly.” _Worme_ is clearly right. He further inserts--“The poynt of your Culture, and the poynt of your Share, must runne both in one leuell, so that they may cutte both in one instant, chiefely if the ground be stiffe and tough; but if it be in a light land, then if the point of your Culture be a little longer it shall be so much the better, and in such light groundes, let your Culture be somwhat sickell-wise bowed, for the finer cutting, but in tough Clay ground it ought to be as straight as may be.”

26. _payreth_] hurteth; I. R. This is a gloss.

29. _practyue_] practise; I. R.[37]

33. _bende_] band. But _bende_ probably means ‘bent piece.’

35. _he_] you (throughout). This shews that this idiomatic use of _he_ was obsolescent in 1598.

46. _coke_] Cocke.

58. I. R. adds--“In diuers Countries, as namely in Cambridgshiere, Huntington, Hartford, Bedford, and Northamton, the share is alwayes nayled with certaine nayles vnto the shelboard, to which I am not so well affected, because by that meanes the shelboard can neuer be turnd, or after he is once worne be [_sic_] for other purpose, whereas in the Northerne partes of this Land, the share being only fastned in his socket to the Plough-head, which may at ease be done with a crooked horne of a Ramme, which being put ouer the poynt of the share, may be knocked fast at ones pleasure, the shelboard being worne at the one end may be taken off, and the other end set forward, which will as sufficiently serue as euer it did before, yeelding to the Plough-man a double profit.”

=5.= 1. _But or he_] Before we.

2. _geare_] implements. A genteel improvement! So again in l. 45.

4. _stylkynges_, _wrethyng-temes_] stilting wrethen teames.

6. _sleues_] cleuisse. _pykforke_] Pitchforke.

9. _fellyes_] follies (!). 10. _fettred_] fettered or tyed.

17. _soule_] sole.

19. _lyn-pinnes_] limpins.

23. _pikstaues_] pickstaues, all which are best of Ashe.

24. _hombers_] humbers. _holmes whyted_, _tresses_] holmes, withed traces.

29. _or kyddes, or suche other_] faggots, or Kids.

=6.= 5. I. R. adds--“yet in all _Virgils_ writing the Oxe-plough is most preferred.” There are other unimportant variations here.

17. _teddered_] teathered.

18. _hades_] hadds.

24. _gere that they shal_] harnes and tyer they.

27. _hey_] hay mingled, which Plough-men call bendfoder.

28. _and they haue, &c._] and for shooes for the most part that cost in them is saued, except it be for some long iourney, or in stony wayes for feare of surbayting.

30. _lyttell worthe_] worth nothing, except for a kennell of noyse-begetting Hounds.

32. _ii._ s.] tenne shillings.

=7.= I. R. omits this section altogether.

=8.= I. R. greatly expands this section, after the following manner.