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mociie every garden is, how lonyc every alcy and cntre is, and how many dwelling 

 placis be therein, and whose they be, and how many cellars or tavernes there be and 

 howe many footes every of them be in length and brcde. And so to go from parishe 

 to parishe, tyll lie have viewed the ciiie and every stretc and lane wolde be remembered 

 what length and brede they be of. And also of every church and churche yard, and 

 other voyd places, tlie which would aske a great leysar, but yet it is possible to be 

 done. 



Fitzherbort's hooks on husbandn and sur\ i\ini;' were reprinted in 

 1767 by Dr. N'ansittart of All Souls College, Oxtorci, w illi (he following 

 remarks attatlied: 



These treatises are reprinted partly on account of their usefulness and partly for 

 the sake of their antiquity. The)' have become exceedingly scarce, have been much 

 sought after, and purchased sometimes at a high price. Ipon the whole, the\' all 

 very well deserved to be rescued from oblivion. 



THOMAS TUSSER. 



1524 — 1580 (aboil f). 



Thirty-four years after the publication of the hrst English work on 

 practical agriculture, there appeared in 1557 " A Hundreth Good 

 Pointes of Husbandrie," by Thomas Tusser. This celebrated book must 

 be regarded more as a series of good farming and domestic directions 

 and axioms, than as a regular treatise upon agriculture. His whole life 

 appears to have been full of adventure, for he had all the restlessness of 

 genius with the unsettled habits too commonly confirmed by continued 

 change of occupation. 



He was born in the year 1524 at Rivenliall, a \illage on the high road 

 between the towns of Witham and Kelvedon, in Essex, of a family allied 

 by marriage to the high ranks of society. The earliest records of the 

 familv is in the Herald's College, where it states that " Richard Tusser 

 was of Shyrborne in the county of Dorset, gentylman," and that he had a 

 son, William Tusser, Ryvenhall, in the counte of Essex, Esquyer. He 

 married the sister of Sir Clement Smyth, of Tofts of Little Baddow, in 

 the same couiitx , and who also was proprietor of Hoo Hall in Rivenhall. 



Sir Clement himself married Dorothy, daughter of Edward Seymour, 

 Duke of Somerset. The actual house in which Thomas Tiissir resided 

 was called Lanhams, and, I believe, is standing today. In wluitever 

 capacity he at various times lived he acted w ilh ability, yet iie\iT so as 

 to benefit his own fortune, 'ihat he excelled as ;i chorister, to which he 

 was origin;ill\- eiluealed, though, strangelv, ag;iiust his inclination, is 

 certain, for none but those with more than ordinary vocal powers are 

 admitted into the royal choir at St. Paul's. It seems he also went to 



