96 WILF. OF RALPH FITZHERBERT. 



place than tlie south-east chapel only. May it be that when 

 Nicholas Fitzherhert built the south east chapel, and at the same 

 time built, or rebuilt, the north aisle, these two new parts of the 

 old Church of St. Mary the Virgin were dedicated together to this 

 unknown Saint Barlac or Burlok (?). Or, was the whole of Norbury 

 Parish Church, new and old, re-dedicated to Saint Barlac on the 

 completion of Nicholas Fitzherbert's extensive additions to the 

 fabric (?). There seems to be only one other possible supposition, 

 namely, that at some period prior to 1817, the tombs of Ralph 

 and Elizabeth his wife were removed from the south-east chapel, 

 where they had been first erected, and were re-erected where 

 Lysons found them. 



The next point worth notice is that the testator bequeaths 

 to his eldest son, John, not only some of the most valuable 

 of his household goods, but also his best wain, six oxen, six 

 cows, sixty ewes, and a ram. If from this bequest we may 

 draw the inference that John Fitzherbert was at that time (1483) 

 engaged, or likely to engage, in farming, we have in this fact 

 an important piece of evidence bearing on the hitherto undecided 

 question with respect to the authorship of the two books of 

 Husbandry and Surveying, famous as being the first treatises on 

 Agriculture in the English language, and the literary parents 

 of all subsequent works on that subject. Modern biographers 

 and bibliographers have, with hardly an exception, agreed in 

 assigning the authorship of these two books to Sir Anthony Fitz- 

 herbert, and every reason which can be urged in favour of this 

 view has been ably set forth by Professor Skeat in the Introduc- 

 tion to the Reprint of the Book of Husbandry edited by him, 

 and published by Triibner & Co. in 1882. As early as 1619, 

 however, a doubt was expressed upon this point, and the writer 

 of these two books was by some supposed to be John Fitzherbert, 

 Sir Anthony's elder brother — an opinion which receives support 

 from the terms of their father's Will. 



These two books, whose author's name was certainly Fitz- 

 herbert, were first printed in 1523, and the author himself says 

 that he had then ''been an householder this forty years and 



