56 AGRICULTURE IN THE 



affirmatively and negatively with a full account of such hus- 

 bandry as was practised in England up the middle of Henry 

 the Eighth's reign, and because it does not in any way appear 

 from Fitzherbert that any material change was effected in the 

 economy of English agriculture from the thirteenth till the 

 middle of the sixteenth century. The work was frequently re- 

 printed, and was in fact the handy-book of agriculture for nearly 

 a century, when it was superseded to some extent by the more 

 elaborate treatise of Gervase Markham. Nor do Tusser's 1 Five 

 Hundred Points (born 1515; died 1580) indicate any change, 

 except in so far as the kitchen garden and orchard are con- 

 cerned, though even here there is not much reason to believe 

 that any great progress was made. Nor was it likely that 

 such a change would be effected at this crisis. England had 

 become poor. The extravagance of Henry, the rapacity of 

 Edward's counsellors, and the gloomy temper of Mary, had 

 wasted the resources of the country. One can see in the 

 accounts of the time how pinched and starved England was. 

 Abroad matters were even worse. France, under the last 

 princes of the house of Valois, was in such a state of anarchy 

 as almost justified the wars of religion. The Low Countries, 

 once the most prosperous region of medieval Europe, which 

 had finally become the prey of the Spanish dynasty, through the 

 unlucky marriage of Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian, were 

 in part ruined past recovery during the administrations of 

 Parma and Alva, while the residue were struggling against 

 overwhelming odds, in what seemed a desperate effort for in- 

 dependence, an independence which, once secured, made 

 Holland, small as it was, a foremost state in Europe, and, 

 which is most significant to my enquiries, the teacher of a new 

 system of agriculture to England. 



There was however one branch of agriculture which was 

 adopted after the time of Fitzherbert, and before the close of 

 the period contained in these volumes. The cultivation of 



1 It is to be regretted that the excellent and pious Tusser recommends that measled 

 pigs should be killed, salted, and shipped to the Flemings. 



