381 



JO'0'P.1<(AL OF HOKtlCOLTUKE AND COTTAGE GABDENES. 



[ May U, 1874. 



good deal resembliiif! th>it of Caladium (or Colocasia) odorum. 

 It appears easy of cultivation, and flowered in March." 



Then within the last two or three years we have had Aris- 

 tolochias Diichartrei and tricattdata, both very showy, and the 

 last devoid of any oiiensive smell. Lastly, we have Aristo- 

 lochia rialeata, of which we publish a portrait and description 

 from Mr. W. Bull's catalogue : — " A free-growing stove climber, 

 introduced from Bogota. The stems are terete, and furnished 

 with heart-shaped leaves, abrunt at the apex, and havmg a 

 broad open sinus at the base. The flowers are axillary, cream- 

 coloured, reticulated with purplish veins; tho tube ovate, ven- 

 tricose, and abruptly curved, expanding into a two-lobed limb, 

 which is 6 to 7 inches long, the upper lip shorter and rounder 

 at the extremity." 



THOMAS TUSSEB.— No. 2. 

 Althodgh Tusser bad been to Wallingford College, and 

 under Kedford at St. Paul's, they were only " song schools;" 

 and when the time arrived that he might ia the usual course 

 proceed from the choir to the University, he must have been 

 deficient in the needful classical actiuirements. To remove 

 this disqualifying deficiency he tells — 



*' From Paul's I went, to Eton sent, 

 To learn strtiitways the LaLin plirage. 

 Where lUty-three stripes glvela to mo 



At once I had, 

 For fault but tmall, or cone at oil. 

 It (jaiiie to pass, thus beat I was ; 

 bee, Udall, see, the mercy of thee 



To me, poor lal." 



This determines the date of his being at Eton, for Nicholas 

 Udall was head master only for eight years — from 1534 to 1542. 

 Subsequently, by a curious hut unimportant coincidence, he 

 became vicar of Braintree. Ha wrote the first known English 

 comedy, " Ealph Koyster Doyster," and he wrote it to be per- 

 formed by his Etonian pupils. It was printed in 1545, but was 

 not known to us moderns until a copy was discovered in 1840. 



It requires no forced imagination to believe that one of tho 

 boys Udall had in view when he wrote it was Tusser, and that 

 the part of " Timothy Trusty " was the part he played. 

 There may be no support to this opinion that the initials are 

 the same, and that a song had to bo sung by someone capable, 

 which we know was a qualification of Tusser. The song 

 deserves to be reprinted as one ot tho three earliest specimens 

 of such popular vocal performances. 



" W1)0 so to marry a minion wyfo 

 Hath hadde good chaimce and happe, 

 Must love hir and cheiisbe hir all his life, 

 And dandle hlr iu iiiy lappe. 

 If she will fare well, yf she wyll go gay, 

 A ^ood husbande ever styll. 

 Whatever she lust to doe, or to say, 

 Must lette hir have hii* owne will. 

 About what aiXaires s'cver he {;oe. 

 He mut-te shewe hir ail his inyiide ; 

 i<one bt hys ccunscll phe may be kept free, 

 Else is he a man uuLynde." 



An election takes places annually from Eton to King's 

 OoUcge, Cambridge, and whether he was fo elected, or whether 

 be was sent thither as a superannuate of the Koyal Choir we 

 have failed to diFfover; but after an intermediate sojourn 

 thilher he went, if Coles the antiquary, quoting from Hatcher's 

 MS., be correct. There is a donbt on this, however, for the 

 Kev. T. F. C. Huddlcston, Bursar of King's College, informs 

 us that " Willi.am, not Thomas, Tuster was elected a scholar 

 there in 1543, being at the time (Augu.st 10th), sixteen years 

 of age, and born 'in villa Euynhall, com. Essex.' He was 

 subsequently admitted Fellow of the college, after the ex- 

 piration of his three years' probation, on August IGth, 1546." 

 That William Tusser, according to the pedigi'ee we have, was 

 the next and youngest brother of Thomas. If Thomas Tusser 

 was even temporarily a scholar of King's College, for some 

 unexplained cause — probably the dissipation — he rejoiced to 

 leave it and become fixed at Trinity Hall. All this he told in 

 these eight lines — 



*' To LcDdcn hence,* fo Cambi-idgc tbencc, 

 With tharks to thee, O Trinity, 

 Xhat to thy Ball, eo pasBing all, 



I gat at last. 

 There )■ y I felt, lh<ro trim T dwelt, 

 There lifavin (n m hell. 1 chiftedwell, 

 With himiul nun.n unmbtr then, 

 Iho lime 1 post." 



Wli.Ht extent of classical leainirg ho attained we do not 

 That is from Eton. 



know, but his published translations from St. Augustine and 

 St. Barnard testify his knowledge of Latin. 



What was the date of his entry at Trinity Hall we cannot 

 tell, for a letter now before us states that the oldest of its 

 existing Begisters goes no further back than 1581. 



Whilst he was at Trinity Hall the well-known Stephen Gar- 

 diner, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor ot the University, 

 was its Master, but Tusser, unlike that Master, was not a 

 Eoman Catholic. Luckily for his bodily welfare he was a 

 scholar after the dietary was reformed. The founder of the 

 Hall, William Bateman, had so restricted the diet of tho 

 students, that rather less than half a century before Tusser 

 entered it, when Dr. Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, made 

 his metropolitan visitation, he gave permission to the Fellows 

 to spend " two-pence for the week days and a groat for tha 

 Lord's day." If this was an enlargement, what could have 

 been the commoners' allowance? Certainly too spare, though 

 a fat capon then sold for i^d., and a lamb for id., and though, 

 as Fuller adds, " scholars, like hawks, fly beat when sharp, and 

 not full gorged." 



How long Tusser remained at Cambridge we have no certain 

 information, but continued ill-health compelled him to leave, 

 and he did so without intending to return, for he tells — 



'* Tjong sickoess had, then was I glad. 

 To leave my book, to prove and look. 

 In Court what jliain, by taking pain, 

 Might well be found." 



This was the early manifestation of his predominant charac- 

 teristics — energy to commence, readiness to fail, and willing- 

 ness to seek success elsewhere. It is probable that he left 

 Cambridge about the year 1545, for he remained afterwards 

 ten years in London, then went to Catiwade, and whilst there, 

 in 1557, published his first book on husbandry. 



Lord William Paget aided him whilst in Lon.don, or, as 

 Tusser teUs it, 



" That same was he, enriched me 

 With many a pound." 



During these ten years of Court-dangling both his parents died ; 

 there was the struggle for Protestant ascendency ; there was 

 the usurpation of Lady Jane Grey, and there was the succes- 

 sion of Queen Mary. Koman Catholicism was then predomi- 

 nant; the Pagets swam with the stream, but Tusser was a 

 Protestant. 



" Then Court gan frown, and strife in town, 



And lords and kniijhts saw heavy sights. 



Then took I wife, and led my life 

 In Suffolk soil." 



In other words he, who had no experience in farming, sought 

 to obtain from it a livini?, and he rented a farm formed by tho 

 union of many small holdings, such as caused his contem- 

 porary Bishop Latimer's complaint — " Where have been many 

 householders and inhabitants, there is now but a shepherd 

 and his dog." 



The farm taken by Tusser was Br.-.ham Hall, in the parish 

 of Erantham, near Catiwade, in Suffolk, a few miles fromMan- 

 ingtree, in Essex. There is no record of him in the parish 

 books ; the church registers extend no further back than 

 about 1C24. Braham Hall was moated, and had to be reached 

 by passing over a drawbridge ; but all those are things of tho 

 past. The old house was pulled down, and the present house 

 erected about fifty years since. 



Though Tusser had had no practical acquaintance with 

 farming, he had lived chiefly in the country ; his father 

 probably cultivated tho land appended to his residence at 

 EivenhaU, and during these opportunities Tusser had been a 

 close observer of the times and practices then de(;med best for 

 successful farming. Evidence of this ia his first published 

 work, and we believe him to say only the truth when ho 

 wrote — 



"By practise and ill- speeding 



these lessons had thtir bteo.iing, 



and not by hcarcsay or reeding 



as seme abiode have blowne." 



It is entitled, " A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie." 

 " A hundredth good pointes, of good husbandry, 

 maintainetli ^ood household, with huswifiy. 

 Housekeping and hnhandi7, if it be good, 

 must love one another, as cousinnes in blood. 

 The wife to. must hushotid as well as the man: 

 or farewtl tly husboudiy, doe what thou cat?." 

 'Jbat is all that is printed on the title-pngo; and on the last of 

 tho tweuty-i-ix fmall quarto p.apes which comprife the entire 

 work is, "Impiinted at London in flete strete within Tfmplo 

 barre, at the tjngno of the hand mid staire, by Eichard Toltel 

 the third day of Pebmary, An. 1567. Cum ptivilegio ad iin- 



