7 o^^ II o i y; // rox. i z 3 



^' Museum," two sucli hooks as the world never saw before ; aiul Sir 

 Huo-h Piatt's " Jewelhouse of Art and Nature." 



In trait Xo. 12 the learned Jolm l-]\eKn discoursrs on \arious 

 methods of hakino", and the inoiMiious Jolm Worlid^-e on the i^re'at 

 improvement of land 1)\- the eultivation of parslex- — the variety we 

 know as sheep's or plain-leaved parsley- In his notes he observes : 



That some sort of grasses do alter the taste of mutton, and that the sweetest is that 

 wliich has been fed on the finest grasses, as is experienced on the Peak in Derbyshire 

 and on the plains in W'ilt'^hire, Hampshire, \-c. ; and on the contrary, the crarsest 

 mutton is produced from the grossest meadows, marshes, cVc, and sheep fatted on 

 clover do not make such delicate meat as the heath croppers. 



An interesting ehapter on a method of fatting calves at Tring, in 

 Hartfordshire, and lambs for the London market at Hadley, near Barnet, 

 concludes the series. 



Although in those days they had a knowledge of the fattening of 

 stock for market, it was in the general management of animals that they 

 seemed lacking. Points of quality or symmetry had not any existence 

 among them, and when any mention happens to be made the com- 

 mendations are precisely what are now avoided. Large bones and 

 lowness of paunch were points of merit in those times, when the putting 

 on of beef or mutton had obtained little notice, and random observations 

 directed the practice of breeding stock. But at that time the advantages 

 did not exist which favour breeders now; green cropping was only just 

 beginning to be kno\\n, and the demands of consumption had scarcely 

 begun to operate. 



Here are some returns of the prices current for corn, &c., that 

 prevailed in various parts of the country in January, 1692 : 



The held cultivation of the potato began about this timt', and he 

 makes the first notice of it as an agricultural vegetable. " The potato," 

 says Houghton, " is a bacciferous herb with esculent roots, bearing 

 winged leaxcs, and a bell flower." 



This, I have been informed, was brought first out of \'irginia by Sir Walter 

 Raleigh; and he stopp'ng in Ireland, some was planted there, where it thrived very 

 well, and to good purpose; for in iheir succeeding wars, when all tne corn abo\e 

 ground was destroyed, this supported ihem ; for the soldiers, unless they had dug up 

 all the ground where tliey grew, and almost sifted it, could not extirpate them. They 

 are a pleasant food, boiled or roasted and eaten with butter and sugar. 



Although John Houghton was a man of education, having studied at 

 Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, he ultimately owned a business in 



