Notes and Illustrations. 249 
pounds of tar to a pound of pitch,” is a good composition for 
sheep marks.—M. ‘Every shepherd used to carry a /ar-dox, called 
a farre-boyste in the Chester Plays, p. 121, or a /erre-powghe (=tar 
pouch) in P. Pl. Crede,1. 618. It held a salve containing tar which 
was used for anointing sores in sheep. Compare 
‘* Heare is tarre in a potte 
To heale from the rotte.”—Chester Plays, p. 120. 
See also History of Agriculture and Prices in England, by J. E. 
Thorold Rogers, vol. i. p. 31. Note to P. Plowman, ed. Skeat, C. 
X. 262-264. 
17. 18. “Sealed and true,” ze. certified and stamped as correct. 
In Liber Albus, ed. Riley, p. 233, we read: ‘‘ No brewster or 
taverner shall sell from henceforth by any measure but the gallon, 
pottle, and quart; and that these shall be sealed with the seal of 
the Alderman,” etc. See also the Statute of Sealed Measures, zd. 
p- 290. 
16. 9. Streking is the last ploughing before the seed is com- 
mitted to the ground; previously to which the ridges are to be 
harrowed. 
16. 13. “‘Sowe barlie and dredge.” In the 13th century the 
grain crops chiefly cultivated in England were wheat, ‘‘ berecorn,” 
dragg, or a mixture of vetches and oats, beans and pease. The 
regulations for the brewers of Paris in 1254 prescribe that they 
shall brew only “‘ de grains, c’est a savoir d’orge de mestuel, et de 
drageée.” ‘* Dredge mault, malt made of oats, mixed with barley 
malt, of which they make an excellent quick sort of drink.”—Bp. 
Kennett’s Gloss. ‘‘A mixture of oates and barley ; and at present 
used very seldom in malting.”—T. R. ‘“ Dragée aux chevaux, pro- 
vender of divers sorts of pulse mixed together.”—Cotgrave. From 
Way’s Notes in Prompt. Parv. s. v. Dragge. 
16. 14. 17. 13. ‘* Mother, moether.” This word is derived by 
Sir H. Spelman from Danish moer=an unmarried girl. ‘‘ Puera, 
a woman chylde, callyd in Cambrydgeshyre a modder.” ‘‘ Pupa, 
a yonge wenche, a gyrle, a modder.’—Elyot’s Lat. Dict. 1538. 
“ Fille, a maid, girle, modder, lasse.’—Cotgrave. Ben Jonson uses 
the word in his ‘“ Alchymist”: ‘‘Away, you talk like a foolish 
mauther.”—Act iv. sc. 7. Richard Brome also has it in the Eng. 
Moor, Act iii. sc. 1.: 
P. ‘Il ama mother, that do want a service. 
Qu. O, thou’rt a Norfolk woman (cry thee mercy,) 
Where maids are mothers, and mothers are maids.” 
‘“‘T have been informed by an intelligent friend, who is a native of 
Norfolk, that on a certain trial in that county, it was asked who was 
the evidence of what had been stated. ‘The answer was, ‘A mather 
playing on a planchard.’ The Judge was nonplussed, till the 
meaning was explained, namely, ‘A girl playing on the floor.’”—M. 
16. 14. Forby (Vocab. 1830) says: ‘‘ Crow-keeper, a boy em- 
