96 THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH 



verified that a full bullock yard makes a full stack-yard. On 

 horses and horse-dealing Fitzherbert is full of shrewdness. He 

 defines the horse-master, the " corser " and the " horse leche." 

 " And whan these three be mette," he dryly observes, " if yeh adde 

 a poty-carye to make the fourthe, ye myghte have suche foure, 

 that it were harde to truste the best of them." 



The times at which Fitzherbert and Tusser respectively wrote give 

 special interest to their championship of enclosures. As has been 

 already noticed, both wrote when the agitation against the progress 

 of the movement was at its height, and Tusser was familiar with 

 the eastern counties at the moment of Kett's insurrection in Norfolk. 

 As practical farmers both writers insist on the evils of the open- 

 field system ; but it fell within the province of neither to criticise 

 the tyrannical proceedings by which those evils were often remedied. 



* They rather dwell on the superior yield of enclosed lands, 1 and on 

 the obstacles to successful farming presented by open-fields the 

 perpetual disputes, the damage to crops, the waste of land by the 

 multitude of drift-ways, the cost of swineherds, cowherds, and 

 shepherds who were employed as human fences to the corn and 

 meadows. Incidentally also they reveal many practical difficulties 

 of the open-field farmer in ploughing and draining. During the 

 winter months, he was obliged to bring his live-stock in sooner, 

 keep them longer, and feed them at greater cost, than his neighbour 

 on enclosed land. For winter keep, when his hay and straw were 

 running out, he had nothing to rely on but " browse " or tree- 

 loppings. In rearing live-stock he was heavily handicapped. 



Unless he had pasture of his own, he was forced to time his lambs 

 to fall towards the middle of March. Hence the proverb : 



" At St. Luke's day (Oct. 18, Greg. Cal.) 

 Let tup have play." 



' Thus he risked losing lambs because the common shepherd had too 

 much on his hands at once ; his lambs lost a month on the meadow 

 before it was put up for hay ; and the owner missed the profits of 

 an early sale at Helenmas (May 21 ), and had to sell, if he sold 

 at all, at the same time as all other open-field farmers. The same 

 restrictions hampered him in rearing calves. He could not afford 

 to keep the cow and calf in the winter ; therefore he was obliged 

 to time the calf to come after Candlemas. 



These and other disadvantages convinced practical agriculturists 



1 See ch. iii. pp. 65-66. 



