540 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS, TOOLS, ETC. 



for the purpose, or, the item not being of great importance, 

 that it was included under the sundries of necessary or small 

 expenses. 



I have found no trace of roller, or of harrow with iron teeth. 

 The clods were either broken by hand labour, or the roller, 

 made of the bole of a tree, was manufactured on the spot, and 

 therefore is not reckoned in the accounts. It is known to 

 Markham, and figured by him in the work alluded to above ; 

 and since the use of such a machine is obvious, it is possible 

 that it may be as old as the period before us. But we cannot 

 conceive that an article like a harrow, also figured by Markham, 

 could have escaped entry in the accounts, had it been in use ; 

 especially as it would have been, from the high price of iron, 

 costly. The ordinary means by which our forefathers covered 

 their seed was by bush-harrowing; and nothing is more com- 

 mon in the accounts which have come under my notice, than 

 the purchase of thorns, black and white, for the express purpose 

 of harrowing newly sown tilth. A rake, however, is found at 

 id. under the year 1394. The seed was watched, and birds 

 driven away by boys. Thus in 1334 a sling is bought for this 

 purpose, with which a boy is armed. 



Hoeing and weeding were performed, in the earlier part of 

 the period, chiefly by women. I have found eight entries of 

 hoes, five of which, before the Plague, are bought at the average 

 of nearly 3^., three afterwards at about 6\d. Six implements 

 too are expressly called mattocks: of these, four cost a little 

 more than %\d. ; two others are purchased in the later part of 

 the period at an average of is. id. 



It is observed elsewhere (p. 121), that no evidence exists of 

 the character of spade-husbandry at the time. The spade of the 

 Middle Ages appears to be known under the name of c vanga,' 

 and was generally a wooden frame tipped with iron; for it 

 seems that it was rarely made of this material through the whole 

 of the blade. Seven entries of this article are found in the 

 earlier part of the period, and are worth nearly i\d. each ; four 

 after that time, which forms so important a period for contrast, 



