BIRTH OF AGRICULTURAL LITERATURE 89 



and asked whether the man-servant was " true and trustie . . . 

 gentle and quiett . . . addicted to company-keepinge or noe," or 

 whether the woman-servant was a good milker, not " of a sluggish 

 and sleepie disposition for dainger of fire." Then followed the 

 bargaining for wages. Sometimes the servant asked for a " gods- 

 penny " on striking the bargain, " or an old suite, a payre of breeches, 

 an olde hatte, or a payre of shoes ; and mayde servants to have an 

 apron, smocke, or both." Sometimes it was a condition to have so 

 many sheep wintered and summered with the master's flock, and to 

 have the twopence which was paid for the certificate refunded 

 before handing over the ticket to the new master. Once hired, 

 the servant could not leave the master, nor the master dismiss the 

 servant, without a quarter's warning. In Yorkshire a servant 

 liked to come to a new place on Tuesday or Thursday. Monday 

 was counted an unlucky day, and the proverb ran : 



" Monday flitte 

 Never sitte." 



Farming annals are comparatively silent as to the conditions in 

 which day-labourers for hire Hved in the reign of Elizabeth. But 

 in one respect, as has been said, they undoubtedly shared the 

 general prosperity. Though their wages remained low, and only 

 fitfully rose as the purchasing power of money declined, they were 

 more secure of employment. In the increased demand for labour 

 resulting from improved methods of agriculture lay their best 

 hopes for the future. It is probable that the decay and ultimate 

 dissolution of the monasteries had for the time inflicted a heavy 

 blow on the development of agriculture as an art. To English 

 farming in the early centuries the monks were what capitahst land- 

 lords became in the eighteenth century. They were the most 

 scientific farmers of the day : they had access to the practical 

 learning of the ancients ; their intercourse with their brethren 

 abroad gave them opportunities of benefiting by foreign experience 

 which were denied to their lay contemporaries. Already, however, 

 there were signs that their places as pioneers would be occupied. 

 Throughout Europe agricultural hterature was commencing, and 

 writers were at work urging upon farmers the improved methods 

 which enclosure revealed to them. In Italy Tarello and the 

 translators of Crescentius, in the Low Countries Heresbach, in France 

 Charles Estienne and Bernard Palissy, in England Fitzherbert and 

 Tusser, wrote upon farming. It was not long before the gentry 



