128 Notes (2. 1 6— 3. i). 



Zelcester. The old character ?, which had the force of y at the beginning of a 

 word, ' was often printed as Z, by confusion. Bishop Percy used to print such 

 ludicrous forms as zcrw, zour, instead of yow, your. I conclude that Zelcester = 

 Yelcester, i.e. Ilchester. The form occurs again in sect. 27, 1. 17. 



16. many other places. J. R. says — "in some parte of Hartford-shiere, Sussex, 

 and Cornwall." 



24. aslope'] I. R. has a flote. gyue out, i.e. spread out, are too obtuse. 



26. I. R. says — "In Cambridge-shiere, Huntington-shiere, Bedford-shiere, 

 and for the most part of Northamton-shiere, theyr Ploughes haue but one hale. 

 In Leister-shiere, Lankishiere, Yorkshiere, Lincolnshiere, and Notingham-shiere, 

 they haue two ; for all other Countries {counties'X vnnamed, there is none of them 

 but plow with some of these Ploughes before-mentioned." 



3. I. The parts of a plough are enumerated in Gervase Markham's Complete 

 Husbandman (1614), which is quoted at length in Rogers's Hist, of Agriculture 

 and Prices, vol. i. p. 534. It is probable that the plough, as described by 

 Fitzherbert, did not materially differ from that in use in 1614. 



The principal parts, according to Markham, are as follows. 



( I ). ' The ploughbeam, a large and long piece of timber, which forms an arch 

 for the other parts of the plough.' It is, says Fitzherbert, the long beam above, 

 which is slightly bent. The plough-sheath, the coulter, and the plough-foot, are 

 all mortised into it, pointing downwards. 



(2). ^'Y\vQ skeath (i.e. sheath), a piece of wood two and a half feet long, eight 

 inches broad, and two inches thick, which is mortised into the beam, and sloping 

 forwards below it. ' Fitzherbert says it is a thin piece of dry oak, fixed both in 

 the plough-beam and the share-beam, and is the chief 'band,' i.e. strengthening 

 piece or support, of the whole plough. By 'thin,' he must mean that it is thin 

 (2 inches) in proportion to its breadth (8 inches) ; it is necessary that it should 

 be very strong, as it holds the implement together. 



(3). 'The plough's principal hale on the left hand, a long bent piece of wood, 

 somewhat strong in the midst, and so slender at the upper end that a man may 

 easily gripe it.' This is Fitzherbert's plough-tail (1. 16), which he says is mortised 

 into the sharebeam behind, and pinned to the ploughbeam behind also. The 

 ploughman holds it in his iejt hand. It is also called the ploughstart ; where start 

 means tail, as in red-start. 



(4). ' The plough-head, which is fixed with the skeath and the hale, all at one 

 instant, into two several mortise-holes ; a fiat piece of timber, about three feet in 

 length, seven inches in breadth, and two and a half in thickness, and having two 

 nicks towards the head of the plough.' This is the same as what Fitzherbert calls 

 the sharebeam ; see the explanation in sect. 2, 1. 10. 



(5). 'The plough-spindles, two round pieces of wood which couple the hales 

 [handles] together.' These are what Fitzherbert calls the rough staves ; see 1. 35. 



(6). ' The right-hand hale, through which the other end of the spindles run, 

 much more slender than the left-hand hale, because no force is put on it.' This 

 is Fitzherbert's //fM^/i-x//// ; see 1. 21. 



(7). The plough-rest, a small piece of wood, fixed at one end in the further nick 



1 Such is the general rule ; but in Lowland Scotch, we have Dalziel, Menzies, pronounced 

 as Dalyell, Menyies, i.e. with z for y in the middle of a word, where it usually has the force 

 oi gh. 



