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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



He was buried in the church of St. Mildred, in 

 the Poultry, according to Stowe, with this epitaph: 



" Here Thomas Tusser, clad in earth, doth lie. 

 That sometime made the Points of Husbandry ; 

 By him then learn thou may'stj here learn we 



must, 

 When all is done, we sleep, and turn to dust : 

 And yet through Christ to heaven we hope to go ; 

 Who reads his books, shall find his faith was so." 



This is an outline of all that is known of this 

 extraordinary man. In whatever capacity he at 

 various times lived he acted with ability, yet never 

 60 as Jo benefit his fortune. That he excelled as a 

 singer is certain ; for none but those of more than 

 ordinary powers are admitted into the royal choir. 

 As a courtier he was unfrowned upon till the dis- 

 grace of his patron. As a farmer it is evident that 

 he possessed a correct knowledge, from his work 

 upon the subject. The same book testifies that, 

 as an author and a poet, he was far above mediocrity. 

 Fuller, in his " Worthies of Essex," describes him, 

 in his usual quaint manner, as "a musician, school- 

 master, serving-man, husbandman, grazier, poet, 

 more skilful in all than thriving in any vocation. 

 He spread," he adds, " his bread with all sorts of 

 butter, yet none would stick thereon." The testi- 

 mony of Fuller to the excellent private character 

 of Tusser is valuable as coming from one who 

 must have been the contemporary of many persons 

 who well remembered our author. " I hear," says 

 Fuller, " no man to charge him with any vicious 

 extravagancy or visible carelessness." The true 

 reason of his ill success in life is to be found, 

 perhaps, in the verses of a poet almost his con- 

 temporary. Peacham, in his " Minerva," a book 

 of emblems, published in 1612, has a device of a 

 whetstone and a scythe, with this beneath : 



"They tell me, Tusser, when thou wert alive. 



And had'st for profit turned every stone. 

 Where'er thou camest thou couldst never thrive. 

 Though hereto blest couldst counsel every one ; 

 As it may in thy " Husbandry" appear. 

 Wherein afresh thou liv'st among us here. 

 So, like thyself, a number more are wont 

 To sharpen others with advice of wit. 

 When they themselves are like the whetstone blunt." 



Tusser's work first appeared in 1557, entitled, 

 *' A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie" : 



"A hundreth good points of husbandry 

 Maintaineth good household, with huswifry. 

 Housekeeping and husbandry, if it be good. 

 Must love one another like cousinnes in blood. 

 The wife, too, must husband as well as the man. 

 Or farewell thy husbandry do what thou can." 



Imprinted at London, in Flete strete, within 

 Temple barre, at the sygne of the Hand and Starre, 

 by Richard Totell, the third day of February, an. 

 1557. Cum privilegio ad impriraendum solum." 



A copy of this edition, which Dr. Mavor con- 

 siders to be unique, is in the British Museum. It 

 consists of only thirteen quarto leaves. The" Book 

 of Huswifry," it is supposed, was at first printed 

 by itself; it was afterwards added to the editions 

 of the •' Husbandry." 



Tusser dedicated his book first to Lord William 

 Paget, in an acrostic ; and after his death to " the 

 Lord Paget of Beaudesert," his son and heir. 

 From this we find that Tusser shared an author's 

 very common fate, for he tells us : 



" By practice and ill speeding. 

 These lessons had their breeding, 

 And not by hearsay or reading. 



As some abroad have blown ; 

 Who will not thus believe me. 

 So much the more they grieve me. 

 Because they grudge to give me, 



What is of right mine own." 



Its price, when first published, as described in 

 his prefatory address to the reader, was only 4c?. 

 or 8d, He says : 



" What is a groat 

 Or twain to note. 

 Once in the life. 

 For man or wife ?" 



The style in which Tusser wrote his book is 

 plain, and sometimes rather hobbling; but, at the 

 same time, it is metre easily remembered ; and 

 verse is well adapted to impress upon the memory 

 the mass of useful truths and rural directions 

 contained in the work. In the rhyming preface, 

 " to the buyer of this book" (for Tusser seemed to 

 do every thing in verse), he says : 



" What look ye, I pray you shew what ? 

 Terms pointed with rhetorick fine ? 

 Good husbandry seeketh not that, 

 Nor is't any meaning of mine." 



His tenth chapter consists of a series of sixty- 

 three excellent " Good Husbandry Lessons, worthy 

 te be followed of such as will thrive." He omitted 

 no opportunity to give occasion for seasonable 

 reflections : 



" As bud, by appearing, betok'neth the spring, 

 And leaf, by her falling, the contrary thing ; 

 So youth bids us labour to get as we can. 

 For age is a burden to labouring man." 



He commends the system of moderate com 

 rents, and was evidently no enemy to the sports of 

 the field : 



" To hunters and hawkers take heed what ye say. 

 Mild answer, with courtesy, drives them away; 

 So where a man's better will open a gap. 

 Resist not with rudeness, for fear of mishap." 



He begins his monthly husbandry with Sep- 

 tember, for that was then the period, as now, when 

 arable land ,was commonly entered upon by the 

 farmer. He says, in his opening stanza : 



"At Michaelmas hghtly, new farmer comes in. 

 New husbandry forceth him ; new to begin ; 

 Old farmer, still taking the time to him given. 

 Makes August to last until Michaelmas even." 



In furtherance of his object, that of giving some 

 very minute directions to the in-coming tenant, he 

 even gives a catalogue of farming implements in 

 verse, in which he manages with some adroitness 

 to include several apparently impracticable names, 

 such as— 



