144 Autumn 



Troy? He sets you down these delightful things, 

 with hundreds more of the same minting. But 

 mostly it may be supposed the eighteenth century 

 bucolic would ponder the simple yet sage counsellings 

 with which Cardanus embellished his pages. As that 

 in January one must ' use meats that are moderately 

 hot, for the best physick is warm diet, warm clothes, 

 and a merry honest wife ; ' but in July ' Perfume your 

 chamber every morning with Tar upon a Chafing 

 Dish of Coals.' John Nutt, Cardanus his printer, 

 knew well that Farmer Giles was not likely to buy 

 more than one copy in a lifetime, so had the book 

 bound in strong brown leather, and it was still stout 

 and serviceable after twenty years of pocketing. 



It has been my luck to light upon a very inter- 

 esting copy of this work. A gentleman farmer in 

 Wiltshire, knowing me interested in such matters, 

 produced it to show the rate of agricultural wages a 

 hundred and fifty years ago. He found it under a 

 staircase pulled down for repairs. With a pair of 

 compasses, a foot-rule, and other pocket emptyings, it 

 had been left in a corner and the masons had built it 

 in ; cover and leaves are worm-eaten, and the ink is 

 faded, but enough remains decipherable to show that 

 it belonged to Henery Kemble, and how Henery 

 Kemble used it. Henery's house was a very different 

 affair from that one wherein his book was found. 

 Tenant after tenant has built and enlarged till the 

 cottage of 1700 is a goodly mansion. A filthy horse- 



