Introduction. xvii 



beguiled a hundred times and more (p. 63) ; how he used to 

 say to his customers that, if ever they ventured to trust any 

 horse-dealer, they had better trust himself (p. 73) ; and how 

 he had in his possession at one time as many as sixty mares, 

 and five or six horses (p. 60). In this connection, it becomes 

 interesting to inquire if Sir Anthony Fitzherbert was fond 

 of horses likewise. 



It so happens that this question can certainly be answered 

 in the affirmative ; and I have here to acknowledge, with 

 pleasure and gratitude, the assistance which I have received 

 from one of the family,^ the Rev. Reginald Fitzherbert, of 

 Somersal Herbert, Derbyshire. He has been at the trouble 

 of transcribing Sir Anthony's will, a complete copy of which 

 he contributed to " The Reliquary," No. 84, vol. xxi. April, 

 1 88 1, p. 234. I here insert, by his kind permission, his 

 remarks upon the subject, together with such extracts from 

 the will as seem most material for our present purpose. 



"The following will of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, of Nor- 

 bury, is transcribed from the Office Copy at Somerset House 

 (Dingley, fol. 20), and is now printed, as I believe, for the 

 first time. The contractions have been written out in extettso. 



" Sir Anthony married, secondly, the co-heir of Richard 

 Cotton, and with her he acquired the estate of Hampstall 

 Ridware, which he probably kept in his own hands, and 

 farmed himself He succeeded his brother John at Norbury 

 in 1 531, and died there in 1538, aged 68. 



" Fuller, in his Worthies, says that Sir Anthony Fitz- 

 herbert's books are ' monuments which will longer continue 

 his Memory than the flat blew marble stone in Norbury 

 Church under which he lieth interred.' Camden (Gibson's 

 ed. 1753, vol. i. p. 271) calls him Chief Justice of the Common 



^ It is the family tradition (which should go for something), that the author 

 of the Book of Husbandry was Sir Anthony Fiuherbert, and no other. 



b 



