Introduction. xxvii 



by the consideration of the necessitie of this worke, and 

 finding it almost cast into perpetual! obliuion, I haue purged 

 it from the first forme of missounding termes to our daintie 

 eares." This means, of course, that he has altered terms 

 which he did not understand, and occasionally turns sense 

 into nonsense ; yet he seems to have taken considerable pains 

 with his author, and his additions are frequently to the point. 

 Whether his discourses upon the keeping of poultry (p. 145, 

 note to sect. 144) were really due to his " owne experience 

 in byrds and foules," or whether he copied much of it from 

 some of his predecessors, I have not been curious to discover. 

 His references to Virgil, to the fable of Cynthia and Endy- 

 mion, the Cinyphian goats, and the rest, are in the worst 

 possible taste, and he was evidently far too staunch a Pro- 

 testant to be able to accept all Fitzherbert's religious views, 

 though modestly and unobtrusively introduced. After care- 

 fully reading his production, I infinitely prefer Fitzherbert's 

 " barbarisme " to I. R.'s pedantic mannerism, and I find the 

 patronising tone of his occasionally stupid amendments to 

 be almost insufferable ; but he may be forgiv^en for his zeal. 

 The art of sinking in poetry has rarely been so well exem- 

 plified as in the verses which are printed at pp. 145 and 

 148. 



The reader can best understand what I. R conceives to be 

 elegance of style by comparing the following extract with 

 section i at p. 9. 



" Chapter 2. ^ By wJiat a Husbandman cJieefely lineth. 



The most general! and commonest experietist lining that the 

 toyle-imbracing Husbandman liueth by, is either by plowing 

 and sowing of his Corne, or by rearing and breeding of 

 Cattell, and not the one without the other, because tJiey be 

 adjuncts, atid may not be disceuered. Then sithens that the 

 Plough is the first good instrument, by which the Husband- 



