Book I. AGRICULTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 43 



226. In Scotland the civil dissensions, and even anarchy, which prevailed until a late 

 period in the sixteenth century, operated as a harsh check on every improvement in 

 agriculture. Even the total expulsion of ecclesiastical landholders increased this evil ; 

 as the monks were easy landlords, and frequently not uninstructed in georgical know- 

 ledge. The tillers of the earth in Scotland had at least their full share of their country's 

 misfortunes, when private vengeance for private wrongs superseded the regular but timid 

 proceedings of public justice. A statute was then formed for their particular benefit, 

 whereby {Stat. 110. Pari. 7 Jac. 6.) '' the slayers and houchers (houghers) of horses 

 and uther cattel," with their employers and maintainers, are declared "to have incurred 

 the paine of death, and confiscation of alle their gudes raovvabil." A second act passed 

 in 1587 for the further protection of husbandmen, declaring all such as destroyed or 

 maimed horses, oxen, &c., cut or destroyed ploughs or plough-geers (in time of tilling), 

 or trees and corn, should suffer death. {Stat. 83. Pari. 2 Ja^. 6.) Several acts 

 of parliament were made to protect the farmers from petulant tithe-gatherers ; the proper 

 times of notice were herein pointed out, and liberty given to the tiller of the land to pro- 

 ceed in his work if this notice was neglected. The last {Stat. 84. Pari. 2 Jac. 6.) 

 confirmed and explained the others. {Andrew's Continuation of Henry s Hist. ii. 124.) 



227. Great attention was stUl paid to the breed of horses in England; but during 

 the reign of Elizabeth it was found necessary to lower the standard appointed by 

 Henry VIII. for stallions, from fourteen hands to thirteen. This modification, how- 

 ever, was only to take place in the counties of Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, 

 Lincoln, Norfolk, and Suffolk. {8 Eliz. cap. 8.) No stallion of less height could be 

 turned out on commons, forests, &c. for fear of diminishing the breed. Harrison extols 

 the height and strength of the English draught-horses ; five or six of them, he says, 

 will with ease draw three thousand weight of the greatest tale for a long journey. As 

 to the number of horses in the realm, some judgment may be formed from the quota 

 which Elizabeth, when she moved her place of residence, demanded from the country in 

 the neighborhood of her palace. This was 24,000 ; " a far less traine," says the reverend 

 writer, " than those of the kings of other nations." (Description of Britaine, p. 220. ) 



228. An English traveller , who visited Scotland in 1598, observed a great abundance of all 

 kind of cattle, and nmny horses ; not large, but high-spirited and patient of labor. {Mory- 

 son's Itin. part iii. p. 154.) Great care, indeed, was taken by the English, while the 

 kingdoms were separate, to prevent the Scots from improving their breed by southern 

 stallions; it was even made felony to export horses thither from England. (1 Eliz, 

 cap. 7.) This unneighborly prohibition was answered by a reciprocal restriction in 

 1567, as to the exportation of Scottish horses {Stat. 22. Pari. 1 Jac. 6.); but France, 

 rather than England, seems to be pointed out by that statute. One circumstance 

 pointed out by a curious antiquary {Paper apud Transactions of Sc. Aut. Soc. vol. i. 

 p. 171.), is a convincing proof of the modern improvement in the breed. For many 

 years past eight nails have been used to each horse's shoe in the north j six used to be the 

 number. 



229. The proper season for turning horses to grass was thought a consideration worthy the attention of 

 the Scottish government, avowedly to prevent the waste of corn. All horses were, therefore, ordered to 

 be put to grass from May 13 to Oct. 15, on pain of forfeiting each horse, or its value, to the king. Gen- 

 tlemen of 1000 marks, yearly rent, and all upwards, are excepted. {Stat. Wl. Pari. T Jac.6.)^ The 

 1st of June was substituted in a subsequent act (Stat. 56. Pari. 2 Jac. 6.) for the 15th of May. 



230. The vine in England continued to be cultivated for wine ; but not generally, for 

 the vineyards of the Lords Cobham and Williams of Thames, are pointed out by Bar- 

 naby Gooch as emimently productive. It is probable this branch of culture declined 

 with the suppression of the monasteries, and the more general culture of barley ; as far- 

 mers and others would soon find that good beer was a cheaper and better drink than any 

 wine that could be made in this country. Though the potatoe was introduced in this 

 reign by Capt. Hawkins from Santa F6 in 1 565^ yet it did not come into general use, 

 even in gardens, for nearly two centuries afterwards. 



23 1 . The jirincipal agricultural authors of Elizabeth's reign are, Tusser, Googe, and 

 Sir Hugh Piatt. Thomas Tusser was born at Rivenhall in Essex, in 1527. Having 

 a fine voice, he was impressed for the royal chapel, and sang in St. Paul's, under a 

 celebrated musician. " Afterwards he was a scholar at Eton, and next a student at 

 Cambridge. He next became, by turns, musician, farmer, grazier, and poet ; but al- 

 ways unsuccessfully, although guilty neither of vice nor extravagance. " His Five Hun- 

 dred Points of Husbandry was published in 1562, and has been recommended bv Lord 

 Molesworth to be taught in schools. {Some Considerations for the promoting of Agricul- 

 ture and employing the Poor, Dublin, 1 723. ) It is written in hobbling verse, and contains 

 some useful notices concerning the state of agriculture in different parts of England. 

 Hops, which had been introduced in the early part of the sixteenth century, and on the 

 culture of which a treatise was published, in 1574, by Reynolde Scott, are mentioned as 

 a well-known crop. Buck-wheat was sown after barley. It seems to have been the 

 practice then, in some places, to " geld fillies" as well as colts. Hemp and flax are 

 mentioned as common crops. Enclosures must have been numerous in several counties; 



