40 AGRICULTURE IN THE 



the two agricultural treatises of Fitzherbert ; the work on 

 Surveying, of which an impression printed by Henry's printer, 

 Berthollet, in 1539, anc * the book of Husbandry, printed by 

 the same person in 1534, at his workshop in Fleet-street, near 

 * to the Condite at the signe of Lucreee,' are before me. Fitz- 

 herbert *, if he can be identified with the justice who is well 

 known for his treatises and compilations on Law, had prac- 

 tised the art of agriculture upon a considerable scale, for forty 

 years before he gave to the public the fruits of his experience. 

 The publisher informs us that he compiled it, and the work 

 bears evidence of the author's familiarity with the older work of 

 Henley. The book of Husbandry is ninety pages of small octavo 

 or duodecimo, and is divided into numerous short chapters. 

 It concludes significantly with the following : ' Be it known to 

 all men, bothe spirytuall and temporall, that I make protesta- 

 cion before God and man, that I intende not to wryte any 

 thynge that is or may be contrary to the faythe of Chryste and 

 al holy Churche. But I am redye to revoke my sayenge, if any 

 thyng have passed my mouthe for wante of lernynge, and to 

 submitte myselfe to correction, and my boke to reformacyon. 

 And as touchynge the poyntes of husbandry, and of other 

 artycles contayned in the present boke, I wyll not saye that it 

 is the beste waye and wyll serve beste in all places, but I saye 

 it is the beste waye that ever I coude prove by experyence, the 

 whiche have ben an householder this xl yeres and more, And 

 have assaied many and dyvers wayes, and done my dyligence 

 to prove by experyence which should be the beste waye.' So 

 orthodox and prudent a person was, one may conclude, safe in 

 the strife of tongues that was imminent and dangerous. 



The prologue of Fitzherbert's book, after referring to the 

 absolute necessity of husbandry, and to the service which the 

 husbandman does to the highest persons in the realm, to whom 

 it would be uncomely and not convenient for such estates to 



1 Fitzherbert was made a serjeant at law in 1511, was knighted in 1516, became one 

 of the justices of the Common Pleas, and died in 1538. His works on husbandry and 

 on surveying appear to have been first printed in 



