AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS AND MATERIALS. 675 



classification is possible. Thus there are some entries which 

 can be referred to agriculture and cognate occupations, though 

 unfortunately evidence on this subject is scanty and early. 

 Next, there are prices of articles used in building, which are as 

 essential to finishing a house as the material of which it is con- 

 structed. Then there are the furniture and appliances of the 

 stable, of the kitchen, of the brewhouse, the hall or dining-room, 

 the library, and the chapel. There is also the furniture of the 

 bed-room, and of private apartments ; the price of such articles 

 of clothing as do not come under measured quantities of linen 

 and cloth, of household and kitchen necessaries, of arms, and 

 finally of residual articles, which cannot be conveniently 

 bought under any of these groups. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS AND MATERIALS. Some 

 few persons in the early part of the period cultivated their 

 own land. Such was the case with Shuttleworth at Gawthorp 

 Hall, perhaps with Lords Spencer and Pembroke, with Cran- 

 field and with D'Ewes. But such accounts, if they were kept, 

 which would give evidence as to how the yeomen and tenant 

 farmers cultivated their holdings, have absolutely vanished. I 

 know infinitely more about the details of agricultural opera- 

 tions in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries than I do of 

 those particulars in the seventeenth. 



In 1599 occurs an entry of a plough, bought by Lord 

 Pembroke at 2s. In 1588 the same personage bought one 

 share at i \d.> three others at is. each, and a dozen plough-tips 

 at i\d. each. In 1606 a plough-share is bought at zs. id. 

 These plough-tips, probably the same as the clouts of an 

 earlier age, are bought by the latter name in 1583 at $s. ^d. the 

 dozen, and under the name of tips at $s. the dozen in 1587, and 

 2s. ^d. in 1591. These articles, I believe, were pieces of iron 

 nailed on to those parts of the plough which were most ex- 

 posed to wear. In the same early period are two entries of 

 coulters at 2s. and is. 6d. In 1629 dung is bought at is. $d. 

 the load, and in 1649 pigeons' dung, a highly valued manure 

 in the seventeenth century, which is frequently commented 



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