Notes and [llustrations. 263 
matical. The earlier editions read uniformly: “by the hay,” etc., 
but the more modern have: “buy thee hay,” etc., which is probably 
the correct reading. The obvious meaning is, provide early what 
may be required, that you may escape risk of failure and dearth. 
If you buy your hay in May, you are prepared against the worst. 
36. 25. Plash here means to pleach down a hedge over the 
burrows; se¢f means plant over the place where the burrows are, not 
to stop the rabbits from coming out, but to give them a means of 
escape from the dogs who might otherwise szap them up before 
they reached their holes. 
36. 26. A cage for moulting hawks was called a mewe. ‘For 
the better preservation of their health they strowed mint and sage 
about them; and for the speedier mewzmg of their feathers they 
gave them the slough of a snake, or a tortoise out of the shell, or 
a green lizard cut in pieces.”—Aubrey’s Wilts. MS. p. 341. Du- 
cange (Glossary M. et I. Lat.) has ‘‘d/ufa, Accipitram domuncula 
in gua includuntur falcones, cum plumas mutant ; accipitres enim 
quotannis pennas mutant.” 
36. 31. “‘ All’s fish they get,” etc. See Gascoyne’s Steele Glass, 
Arber’s Reprint, p. 57. 
87. 1. ‘“ Feb. fill the dike.” In Mr. Robinson’s Whitby Glossary 
is given as a weather expression of Yorkshire: ‘‘ February fill-dike, 
and March muck’t out.”’ Another form is in Hazlitt’s Eng. Proverbs: 
‘February fill dike be it black or be it white: 
But if it be white, it’s better to like.” 
“‘ Fevrier remplit les fosses: Mars les seche.”—Fr. Provb. 
37. 12. ‘ Leaue iobbing,” 7z.e. leave off jobbing, or pecking, with 
their beaks. See Prompt. Parv. p. 36. ‘‘Bollyn, or jowzn wythe 
the bylle as byrdys (byllen or zobbyn as bryddys K. zoddyn with the 
byl .P.). Rostro.” 
37. 13. See note to ch. 19, stanza 33. 
87. 16. Moles, for the trapping of which each parish used to 
maintain a sapper and miner, are found to be excellent husband- 
men, the little heaps of friable soil which they throw up furnishing, 
when spread abroad, the best of top dressings. ‘‘ It may be novel 
to some to be informed that moles may be taken with dogs, properly 
trained. This may serve to diversify the life of a professed hunter.” 
—M. 2 
37. 18. As for mole-hills forming a warm and dry station for lambs, 
the same may be said with much greater propriety of ant-hills ; 
yet neither would be suffered to remain on a well-managed farm. 
87. 19. Lease, a small enclosure near the homestall—M. A 
name used in some countries for a small piece of ground of 2 or 3 
acres.—T. R. 
37. 21. ‘“ Mestlen.” ‘Years ago in Norfolk thousands of acres 
yeelded no better grain crop than rye, of which the bread of farm 
households was made. JZes/in bread made of wheat and rye in 
