Muft willingly follow, of choifes to choose,
Such lessons approued, as skilful do vse.

Ground grauellie, fandie, and mixed with claie,
Is naughtie for hops, anie maner of waie;
Or if it be mingled with rubbish and stone,
For drineffe and barrenneffe let it alone.

Choose foile for the hop of the rottenest mould,
Well doonged and wrought, as a garden-plot fhould;
Not far from the water, but not ouerflowne,
This leffon well noted is meete to be knowne.

The fun in the fouthe, or else southlie and west,
Is ioie to the hop, as a welcomed gueft;
But wind in the north, or else northerlie east,
To the hop, is as ill as a fraie in a feast.

Meet plot for a hop-yard, once found as is told,
Make thereof account, as of iewell of gold:
Now dig it and leaue it, the funne for to burne,
And afterward fence it, to ferue for that turne.

The hop for his profit I thus doo exalt :
It strengtheneth drinke, and it fauoreth malt ;
And being well brewed, long kept it will last,
And drawing abide-if ye drawe not too fast'.

CHAP. 42. fol. 93. In this ftanza, is a copy of verfes by one William Kethe, a divine of Geneva, prefixed to Dr. Chriftopher's Goodman's abfurd and factious pamphlet againft queen Mary, How Juperior Powers, &c. Printed at Geneva by John Crifpin, 1558. 16m0.

Whom fury long fofterd by fufferance and

awe,

Have right rule fubverted, and made will their lawe,

Whose pride how to temper, this truth will thee tell,

So as thou refift mayft, and yet not rebel,

&c.

To this work belongs the well known old fong, which begins,

The Ape, the Lion, the Fox, and the Affe,

Thus fetts foorth man in a glaffe, &c".

For the farmer's general diet he affigns, in Lent, red herrings, and salt fish, which may remain in ftore when Lent is past: at Eafter, veal and bacon: at Martinmas, falted beef, when dainties are not to be had in the country: at Midsummer, when mackrel are no longer in feafon, graffe, or fallads, fresh beef, and pease: at Michaelmas, fresh herrings, with fatted crones, or sheep: at All Saints, pork and pease, sprats and Spurlings: at Christmas, good cheere and plaie. The farmer's weekly fish-days, are Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; and he is charged to be careful in keeping embrings and fast-days ".

Among the Hufbandlie Furniture are recited most of the inftruments now in use, yet with several obsolete and unintelligible names of farming utenfils*. Horfes, I know not from what superstition, are to be annually blooded on faint Stephen's day'. Among the Christmas bufbandlie fare, our author recommends good drinke, a good fire in the Hall, brawne, pudding and fouse, and mustard withall, beef, mutton, and pork, fored, or minced, pies of the beft, pig, veal, goose, capon, and turkey, cheese, apples, and nuts, with jolie carols. A Christmas carol is then introduced to the tune of King Salomon2.

ing a ballad called "Kynge Saloman." REGISTR. STATION. COMP. LOND. notat. A. fol. 48. a. Again, in 1561, 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 other, Newes out of Heaven and "Hell." Ibid. fol. 75. a. See Lycence of John Tyfdale for printing Certayne "goodly Carowles to be fonge to the glory "of God," in 1562. Ibid. fol. 86. a. Again, ibid. "Creftenmas Carowles aucto"risshed by my lord of London." A bal

lad

In a comparison between Champion and Severall, that is, open and inclosed land, the disputes about inclosures appear to have been as violent as at prefent. Among his Hufwifelie Admoni

tions, which are not particularly addreffed to the farmer, he advises three dishes at dinner, which being well dreffed, will be fufficient to please your friend, and will become your Hall'. The prudent houfewife is directed to make her own tallowcandles. Servants of both fexes are ordered to go to bed at ten in the fummer, and nine in the winter to rife at five in the winter, and four in the fummer. The ploughman's feafting days, or holidays, are PLOUGH-MONDAY, or the first Monday after Twelfth-day, when ploughing begins, in Leicestershire. SHROF-TIDE, or SHROVE-TUESDAY, in Effex and Suffolk, when after shroving, or confeffion, he is permitted to go thresh the fat hen, and "if blindfold [you] can kill her "then giue it thy men," and to dine on fritters and pancakes . SHEEP-SHEARING, which is celebrated in Northamptonshire with wafers and cakes. The WAKE-DAY, or the vigil of the church faint, when everie wanton maie danse at her will, as in Leicestershire, and the oven is to be filled with flawnes. HAR

b Fol. 133.

c Fol. 135.

d Fol. 137.

• I have before mentioned Shrove-Tuefday as a day dedicated to feftivities. See fupr. vol. ii. p. 387. In fome parts of Germany it was ufual to celebrate Shrove tide with bonfires. Lavaterus of GHOSTES, &c. tranflated into English by R. H. Lond. 1572 4to. fol. 51. Bl. Lett. Polydore Virgil fays, that fo early as the year 1170, it was the cuftom of the English nation to celebrate their Christmas with plays, mafques, and the moft magnificent specta

cles; together with games at dice, and dancing. This practice he adds, was not conformable to the usage of moft other nations, who permitted thefe diverfions, not at Christmas, but a few days before Lent, about the time of Shrovetide. HIST. ANGL. Lib. xiii. f. 211. Bafil. 1534. By the way, Polydore Virgil obferves, that the Christmasprince or Lord of Mifrule, is almoft peculiar to the English. De RER. INVENTOR. lib.v. cap. ii. Shrove-Tuefday feems to have been fometimes confidered as the last day of Christmas, and on that account might be celebrated as a feftival. In the year 1440, on Shrove-Tuesday, which that year was in March, at Norwich there was a Difport in the streets, when one rode "through the streets havyng his hors trappyd with tyn-foyle, and other nyfe "difgyfyngs, coronned as Kyng of CRES"TEMASSE, in tokyn that fefon fhould "end

VEST-HOME, when the harvest-home goofe is to be killed. SEED-CAKE, a festival fo called at the end of wheat-fowing in Effex and Suffolk, when the village is to be treated with feedcakes, pasties, and the frumentie-pot. But twice a week, according to antient right and custom, the farmer is to give roaftmeat, that is, on Sundays and on Thursday-nights'. We have then a set of pofies or proverbial rhymes, to be written in various rooms of the house, fuch as "Hufbandlie pofies for the Hall, "Pofies for the Parlour, Pofies for the Ghefts chamber, and "Pofies for thine own bedchamber." Botany appears to have been eminently cultivated, and illuftrated with numerous treatifes in English, throughout the latter part of the fixteenth century. In this work are large enumerations of plants, as well for the medical as the culinary garden.

Our author's general precepts have often an expreffive brevity, and are sometimes pointed with an epigrammatic turn and a smartness of allufion. As thus,

Saue wing for a thresher, when gander doth die;

Saue fethers of all things, the softer to lie :
Much spice is a theefe, fo is candle and fire ;
Sweet faufe is as craftie as euer was frier '.

Again, under the leffons of the housewife.

Though cat, a good moufer, doth dwell in a house,
Yet euer in dairie haue trap for a mouse:

"end with the twelve moneths of the

FLORA quibus mater præfpergens ante viai Cuneta coloribus egregiis et odoribus opplet.

Inde AUTUMNUS adit, &c.

Take heed how thou laieft the bane* for the rats,
For poisoning thy fervant, thyself, and thy brats'.
And in the following rule of the smaller economics.

Saue droppings and skimmings, however ye doo,
For medcine, for cattell, for cart, and for fhoo'

m

In these stanzas on haymaking, he rifes above his common

manner.

Go mufter thy feruants, be captain thyfelfe,
Prouiding them weapons, and other like pelfe:
Get bottells and wallets, keepe fielde in the heat,
The feare is as much, as the danger is great.

With toffing, and raking, and setting on cox,
Graffe latelie in fwathes, is haie for an oxe.
That done, go to cart it, and haue it awaie :
The battell is fought, ye haue gotten the daie ".

A great variety of verfe is used in this poem, which is thrown. into numerous detached chapters °. The HUSBANDRIE is divided into the feveral months. Tuffer, in refpect of his antiquated diction, and his argument, may not improperly be styled the English Varro.