146 Autumn 



variegated orthography you may discern a leaning to 

 the landward mode of utterance. As might be ex- 

 pected, his main concern is with his bestial. The mat- 

 ing of his black heifers and his red, of his ewes, and 

 mares, and swine, is set down with punctilious care ; 

 as is the cost of pasture and commonage for his ' pide ' 

 cows and his sheep. From the number of recipes 

 you would judge that he trusted little to the farrier. 

 Nearly all are compounded from such well-known 

 herbs asfoxwort and dandelion, comfreyand Solomon's 

 seal, wild carrots and stinging nettles. Here is an 

 exceptional one meant for human beings : ' Take a 

 new laid eg and rost until the yoke will come forth 

 whole and then open the eg then take as much burnt 

 alam as will lay upon the top of the nif put it into the 

 eg and bruse it together and straine it in a linen cloth 

 for sore eyes.' Now and then you get a glimpse of 

 the annotator from another point of view. He appears 

 to have been the moneyed man of the parish, and 

 certain entries show that at need he could stretch forth 

 a helping hand : 'July 7, 1711, 1 Henery Kemble lend 

 John Herring, the shopkeeper, fifty shillings.' Here 

 and there are hints of market-day frolics : as, ' I Henery 

 Kemble took up 2 pounds and 16 shillings of William 

 Kemble, and put 1 1 ginis down in the same glass ' : 

 a trick still practised in the neighbourhood. But 

 such incidents appear to have been rare and surpris- 

 ing excursions out of the jog-trot road of husbandry. 

 There are items the economist will consider with 



