THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FARMER 101 



one Patty nson was fined is. for allowing a ' scabbed ' horse 

 to go on the common; dead cattle were to be buried the 

 day after death, and all unwholesome meat was to be 

 buried. 



Harrison praises the farmer of his day highly : ' the soyle is 

 even now in these oure dayes growne to be much more fruit- 

 fulle ; the cause is that our country men are grown more skilful 

 and careful throwe recompense of gayne.' He was also doing 

 well by means of his skill and care ; and in spite of the raising 

 of rents by the much-abused landlords ; for in former times ' for 

 all their frugality they were scarcely able to live and pay their 

 rents on rent day without selling a cow or a horse '. Such also 

 used to be their poverty, that if a farmer went to the ale- 

 house, ' a thing greatly used in those days,' and there, ' in a 

 braverie to show what store he had, did caste downe his purse 

 and therein a noble or 6 shillings in silver unto them, it was 

 very likely that all the rest could not lay downe so much 

 against it.' And in Henry's time, though rents of 4 had 

 increased to 40, 50, or ;ioo, yet the farmer generally had 

 at the end of his term saved six or seven years' rent, besides 

 a ' fair garnish of pewter on his cupboard ', and odd vessels, 

 also ' three or four feather beds, so manie coverlids and carpets 

 of tapestry, a silver salt, a bowle for wine, and a dozzen of 

 spoones to furnish up the sute'. His food consisted princi- 

 pally of beef, and ' such food as the butcher selleth ', mutton, 

 veal, lamb, pork, besides souse, brawn, bacon, fruit, fruit pies, 

 cheese, butter, and eggs. 1 In feasting, the husbandman or 

 farmer exceeded, especially at bridals, purifications of women, 

 and such other meetings, where ' it is incredible to tell what 

 meat is consumed and spent '. But, besides these, there were 

 many poorer farmers who lived at home 'with hard and 

 pinching diet'. Wheaten bread was at this time a luxury 

 confined to the gentility, the farmer's loaf, according to 

 Tusser, was sometimes wheat, sometimes rye, sometimes 

 1 Description of Britain, ii. 150. 



