90 THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH 



began to pay attention to agriculture. As Michel cle I'Hopital 

 solaced his exile with a farm at Etampes, so Sir E-ichard Weston 

 in the reign of Charles I., and Townshend in that of George II., 

 occupied their leisure in farming, and in their retirement conferred 

 greater benefits on the well-being of England than they had ever 

 done by their political activities. 



Up to the sixteenth century Walter of Henley's farmmg treatise 

 had held the field. Now it was superseded. In 1523 apjDcared the 

 Boke of Husbandrye, " compyled," as Berthelet says in his edition 

 of 1534, "sometyme by mayster FitzHerbarde, of Charytie and good 

 zele that he bare to the weale of this moost noble realme, whiche he 

 dydde not in his you the, but after he had exercysed husbandry with 

 greate experyence XL yeres." In the same year was also printed, 

 by the same author, the Boke of Surveyinge and Improvements. 

 The Book of Husbandry is a minutely practical work on farming, 

 written by a man familiar with the Peak of Derbyshire and by a 

 horsebreeder on a large scale who possessed " 60 mares or more." 

 The Book of Surveying is a treatise on the relations of landlord and 

 tenant and on the best methods of developing an estate. Only 

 an experienced farmer could have written the first ; the second 

 required no greater acquaintance with law than might be acquired 

 by a shrewd lando^vner in the administration of an estate. The 

 authorship of the two books has been claimed for Anthony Fitz- 

 herbert, who was knighted in 1521-2 on becoming a Justice of the 

 Common Pleas, and also for his elder brother John Fitzherbert.^ 

 It is difficult to credit the Judge — immersed in judicial and political 

 duties, and absorbed in the composition of legal works — with the 

 practical knowledge of farming displayed in the Book of Husbandry. 



1 The dispute as to the authorship of the Books of Husbandry and Surveying 

 is ancient. Professor Skeat (Introduction to the Book of Husbandry, English 

 Dialect Society, 1882), and Mr. Rigg (Dictionary of National Biography) 

 champion Sir Anthony : the Rev. Reginald Fitzherbert (English Historical 

 Review, April, 1897), Sir Ernest Clarke, whose knowledge of agricultural 

 bibliography is unrivalled (Transactions of Bibliog. Soc. 1896, p. 160), and 

 Mr. Gay (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1904) support the elder brother, 

 John. The Catalogue of the British Museum now attributes the authorship 

 of both books to John Fitzherbert. Berthelet, who printed the edition of 

 1534, speaks of the author, in the passage quoted in the text, as though he 

 were dead. This would be true of John Fitzherbert, who died in 1531, but 

 not of Sir Anthony, who lived till 1538. The "XL yeres " experience, from 

 which the author wrote, could not be claimed by Sir Anthony in 1523 ; it 

 might well have belonged to John, who was his elder brother. It is known 

 that John Fitzherbert was for four years a student at the Inns of Court, 

 where he might have laid the foundation of his legal knowledge. 



