THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



191 



have said in anothei' place, all that is known of him 

 and of his curious production has been collected 

 by Dr. Mavor, in his edition of Tusser's book, and 

 by my brother, Mr. George W. Johnson, in his 

 " History of English Gardening"; and both these 

 authors have been obliged to content themselves 

 chiefly with Tusser's own account of himself; for 

 Tusser did what few men attempt— he wrote his 

 own life, and in a manner still more rare, in verse. 

 His life was full of adventure; for he evidently 

 had all the restlessness of genius, with the un- 

 settled habits too commonly confirmed by con- 

 tinued change of occupation. 



He was born about the year 1515, at Rivenhall, 

 a village on the high road between the towns of 

 Witham and Kelvedon, in Essex, of a family allied 

 by marriage to the higher ranks of society. He 

 says of himself : 



" It came to pass that born I was 

 Of lineage good, of gentle blood. 

 In Essex layer, in village fair. 



That Rivenhall bight ; 

 Which village ly'd by Banktree side : 

 There spend did I mine infancy; 

 There then my name, in honest fame, 



Remain'd in sight." 



He was, considerably against his inclination, 

 educated for, and became, a chorister at the col- 

 legiate chapel of Wallingford, in Berkshire. His 

 voice, it seems, was excellent ; and, in consequence, 

 he was pressed, as the despotic custom then per- 

 mitted, for the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral. He 

 speaks feehngly of a chorister's miseries : 



" O painfull time, for every crime ! 

 What touzed ears, like baited bears ! 

 What bobbed lips, what jerks, what nips ! 



What hellish toys ! 

 What robes how bare, what college fare ! 

 What bread how stale, what penny ale! 

 Then Wallingford, how wert thou abhorr'd 



Of seely boys !" 



From London he was sent to Eton, and became 

 a student there about 1534, under Udall, whose 

 severity of discipline he has recorded. He then 

 proceeded to Trinity Hall, Cambridge ; but leaving 

 it on account of ill health, he was dissuaded from 

 returning by William Lord Paget, who kept him 

 about the court as one of his retainers (most likely 

 as a chorister), for ten years : he left that noble- 

 man, however, without any improvement of his 

 fortune. Retiring to Katwade (Catiwade), in 

 Suffolk, he took a farm, and it was here that he 

 composed his book on husbandry. He says of 

 himself: 



" When court 'gan frown, and strife in town. 

 And lords and knights saw heavy sights ; 

 Then took I wife, and led my hfe 



In Suff'olk soil. 

 There was I fain, myself to train, — 

 To learn too long, the farmer's s.ong, 

 For hope of pelf, like worldly elf. 



To moil and toil !" 



The ill state of his wife's health induced him, 

 fter some years, to quit his farm, and reside at 



Ipswich, where she died. He was then married a 

 second time, to Miss Amy Moon, and settled at 

 West Dereham, iu Norfolk^— 



" A place for wood, that trimly stood ; 

 With flesh and fish as heart could wish." 



But the temper of his youthful wife, and the 

 harshness of his landlord, induced him to move to 

 Norwich, where, under the patronage of Dean 

 Salisbury, he appears once more to have become a 

 chorister. He thus alludes to his second marriage, 

 and its expenses : 



" For lo ! for guile, what haps the wile. 

 Through Venus toys, in hopes of joys, 

 I chanced soon to find a Moon, 

 Of cheerful hue. 



ii^ ^ ^ ^ 



Behold of truth, with wife in youth. 

 For joy at large, what daily charge. 

 Through children's hap ; what opened gap, 



To more begun : 

 The child at nurse, to rob the purse. 

 The same to wed, to trouble head ; 

 For pleasure rare, such endless care. 



Hath husband won." 



Ill health induced him again to remove; and 

 he then took the glebe land of Fairstead, in Essex, 

 near his native village. Fearing the death of the 

 clergyman, he moved to London ; but hastened 

 thence, in 157-1, to Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 that he might be beyond the influence of tbe 

 plague. The time he spent at Fairstead was evi- 

 dently far from agreeable to Tusser, for he says : 



" From thence so sent, away I went. 

 With sickness worn, as one forlorn. 

 To house my head at Fairstead, 



Where whiles I dwelt. 

 The tithing life, the tithing strife. 

 Through tithing ill of Jack and Gill, 

 The daily pays, the miry ways, 

 Too long I felt. 



" When charges grew, still new and new. 

 And that I spy'd, if parson dy'd, 

 (All hope in vain) to hope for gain, 



I might go dance ; 

 Once rid my hand of parsonage land, 

 Thence, by-and-bye, away went I, 

 To London straight, to hope and wait. 



For better chance." 



He returned to the metropolis, and died there^ 

 about 1580, certainly before 1585, as is proved by 

 the title-page of the edition of his work published 

 that year. That he possessed religious and moral 

 feelings of the most excellent kind peeps out in 

 many parts of his works. He thus concludes, for 

 instance, the sketch of his own life : 



" Friend, all things weigh'd, that here is said. 

 And being got, that pays the shot. 

 Methinks of right, have leave I might, 



(Death drawing near) 

 To seek some ways, my God to praise. 

 And mercy crave, in time to have. 

 And for the rest, what He thinks best, 

 - To suff"er here." 



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