156 STAINED GLASS Ail NORBURY MANOR HOUSE. 
easy to make out. He appears to be plucking up bull-rushes 
by the roots, and uses for the purpose a yery ingenious 
instrument, constructed in such a manner as to obviate much 
stooping and bending of the back. There is a valuable paper 
in Archeologia, vol. xliv., on ‘* Medizeval Representations of 
the Months and Seasons,” hy James Fowler, Esq., F.S.A., from 
Note 29 appended to which we quote the following—Speaking 
of weeding implements he describes them as “a staff, terminating 
in a small fork, with which the weeds are pressed down and 
fixed, was held in one hand, and another staff of equal length, 
terminating in a small sickle-shaped hook, with which they 
were cut off close to the ground was held in the other.” 
Mr. Fowler then further gives a quotation from Palladius 
(lib. i. sub. fin.) where he speaks of “ Falcicule,...... quibus 
solemus abscindere,”’ and also of Runcones. Besides the hoeing 
of corn in the blade, grain crops are weeded, he says, just 
before the time of flowering, either by hand or by means of 
a Runcus (see also Pliny, xvii. 21). Tusser (edit. 1599, xi. 10) 
evidently refers to the same implements under the name of a 
“* weedhooke.” 
‘In May get a weedhooke, a crotch and a glove.” 
In the edition of 1557 (79-80), we have— 
‘“In June get thy weedhoke, thy knife, and thy glove: 
and wede out such wede as the corn doth not love. 
Slack no time thy weding, for darth nor for cheape : 
Thy corn shall reward it, or ever thou reape. 
The maywede doth burne, and the thistle doth freate: 
the Tine pulleth downe both the rye and the wheate. 
The dock and the brake noijeth corn very much: 
but bodle for barley, no weede there is such.” 
It was on account of the weeds which grow so freely in 
this month that, according to Bede (De temp. rat) it was called 
by the Anglo-Saxons—Weyd-monath, or, “ Mensis zizaniorum, 
quod ea tempestate maxime abundant.” ‘‘ Whether this inter- 
pretation is correct or not, it is valuable as being the earliest 
with which we are acquainted, and the one which, probably, was 
generally received subsequently.” For the rest he wears a dress 
similar to those in January and March, only that we should 
