xxviii Introdcution. 



men rips from the Earths wombe a well-pleasing lining, I 

 thinke it is most conuenient first to speake of the forme, 

 fashion, and making therof." 



The words italicised (except in the title) are all his own. 



The Glossarial Index, a very full one, was almost entirely- 

 prepared, in the first instance, by my eldest daughter, though 

 I have since added a few explanations in some cases, and 

 have revised the whole, at the same time verifying the refer- 

 ences. As to the meaning of a few terms, I am still uncertain. 



Fitzherbert's general style is plain, simple, and direct, and 

 he evidently has the welfare of his reader at heart, to whom 

 he offers kindly advice in a manner least calculated to give 

 offence. He is in general grave and practical, but there are 

 a few touches of quiet humour in his remarks upon horse- 

 dealing. " Howe be it I saye to my customers, and those 

 that bye any horses of me, and \if^ euer they wil trust any 

 hors-master or corser whyle they lyue, truste me." I would 

 have trusted him implicitly. 



The difficulties of his language arise almost entirely from 

 the presence of numerous technical terms ; and it is, indeed, 

 this fact that renders his book one of considerable philological 

 interest, and adapts it for publication by the English Dialect 

 Society. By way of a small contribution to English etymo- 

 logy, I beg leave to take a single instance, and to consider 

 what he has to tell us about the word peruse. 



The whole difficulty as to the etymology of this word 

 arises from the change of sense ; it is now used in such a way 

 that the derivation from per- and use is not obvious ; nor does 

 it commend itself to such as are unacquainted with historical 

 method. For this reason, some etymologists, including 

 Webster, have imagined that it arose from peruise ^^ pervise 

 to see thoroughly, the i being dropped, and the u (really v) 

 being mistaken for the vowel. This is one of those wholly 



