30 THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUKY 



the 'Government of Slieepe ' in 1605, warns shepherds 

 against plants grown ' on wet and marish grounds.' Tus- 

 ser is the poet of agriculture. He embodies his experiences 

 in doggerel verse, without any invocations of Pomona or 

 Ceres. In his own life he illustrated the difficulty of com- 

 bining the practical farmer with the contemplative poet. 

 ' He spread his bread,' says Fuller, ' with all sorts of but- 

 ter, 3^et none would stick thereon.' He was successively 

 * a musician, schoolmaster, serving-man, husbandman, 

 grazier, poet — more skilful in all than thriving in his voca- 

 tion.' His book was long recognised as a useful guide to 

 fai-mers. In 1723, Lord Molesworth proposed that schools 

 of agriculture should be established, in which ' Tusser's 

 work should be taught to tlie boys to read, to copy, and 

 get by heart.' Now it is only valuable as a storehouse of 

 information respecting the domestic economy and rural 

 life of our Elizabethan ancestors. Clover and artificial 

 grasses were unknown to Tusser and Fitzherbert : the 

 former mentions turnips as ' a kitchen-garden root to boil 

 or butter.' Both advocate enclosures, and instance Essex 

 and Suffolk to prove the superior cultivation under the 

 newer system. Tusser's testimony that, in these two 

 counties, beef and mutton were more plentiful, cheese and 

 butter better, and all classes wealthier than elsewhere, is 

 the more striking, as he was an Essex man and a Suffolk 

 farmer. The proverbial ' Suffolk stiles ' seem to point to 

 the early extinction of parish fields ; but both counties 

 ]5artly owed their pre-eminence to the possession of some 

 of the highways between the Netherlands and London. 

 Chaucer's merchant demands that the sea be kept clear 

 between Orewell and Middleburgh. Yet it is significant 

 that Fitzherbert and Tusser, representing the best theory 

 and practice of agriculture of their day, ignore draining 



