TUSSER, THOMAS. 



TUSSER, THOMAS. 



is certain ; for none but those of more than 

 ordinary powers are admitted into the royal 

 choir. As a courtier he was unfrowned upon 

 till the disgrace of his patron. As a farmer it 

 is evident that he possessed a correct know- 

 ledge, from his work upon the subject. The 

 same book testifies that, as an author and a 

 poet, he was far above mediocrity. Fuller, in 

 his Worthies of Essex, describes him, in his 

 usual quaint manner, as " a musician, school- 

 master, serving-man, husbandman, grazier, 

 poet; more skilful in all than thriving in any 

 vocation. He spread," he adds, " his bread 

 with all sorts of butter, yet none would stick 

 thereon." The testimony of Fuller to the ex- 

 cellent private character of Tusser is valuable 

 as coming from one who must have been the 

 contemporary of many persons who well re- 

 membered our author. "I hear," says Fuller, 

 " no man to charge him with any vicious ex- 

 travagancy or visible carelessness." The true 

 reason of his ill success in life is to be found, 

 perhaps, in the verses of a poet almost his con- 

 temporary. Peacham, in his Minerva, a book 

 of emblems, published in 1612, has a device of 

 a whetstone and a scythe, with this beneath: 



"They tell me. Tusser, when thou wert alive, 



And hadst for profit turned every stone, 

 Where'er thou earnest thou couldat never thrive, 

 Though hereto best couldst counsel every one ; 

 As it may in thy Husbandry appear, 

 Wherein afresh thou livest among us here. 

 Bo, like thyself, a number more are wont 

 To sharpen others with advice of wit, 

 When they themselves are like the whetstone blunt." 



Tusser's work first appeared in 1557, en- 

 titled "Jl Hwndreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie: 



"A hundreth good points of husbandry 

 Maintaineth good household, with huswifry. 

 Housekeeping and husbandry, if it be good, 

 Must love one another like cousinnes in blood. 

 The wife, too, must husband as well as the man, 

 Or farewel thy husbandry do what thou can. 



Imprinted at London, in Flete strete, within 

 Temple barre, at the sygne of the hand and 

 starre, by Richard Totell, the third day of Feb- 

 ruary, An. 1557. Cum priviligio ad imprimen- 

 dum solum." 



A copy of this edition, which Dr. Mavor con- 

 siders to be unique, is in the British Museum. 

 It consists of only 13 quarto leaves. 



The Book of Huswifry, it is supposed, was at 

 first printed by itself; it was afterwards added 

 to the editions of the Husbandry. 



Editions of this work appeared in 1561, 1562; 

 and another, "newly corrected and amplified," 

 1570, 1571 (Watts). To these succeeded an 

 enlarged edition and several reprints, the last 

 of which is that edited by Dr. W. Mavor in 

 1812, 4to and 8vo, with many notes and addi- 

 tions. 



To this Book of Husbandry, says Weston, is 

 often joined The Booke of Regarde, containing the 

 Castle of Delight, the Garden of Unthriftinesse, the 

 Arbour of Virtue, and the Castle of Repentance. 

 Another work is ascribed by Haller to the pen 

 of Tusser, viz. Tractatus de Agricultura Versibus 

 Anglicis. London, 1638-72. Both these last- 

 mentioned works are extremely rare. 



Tusser dedicated his book first to Lord Wil- 

 liam Paget, in an acrostic, and after his death 

 to " the Lord Paget of Beaudesert," his son and 



heir. From this we find that Tusser shared an 

 author's very common fate, for he tells us 



" By practice and ill speeding, 

 These lessons had their breeding, 

 And not by hearsay or reading, 



As some abroad have blown ; 

 Who will not thus believe me, 

 So much the more they grieve me, 

 Because they grudge to give me, 

 What is of right mine own." 



Its price, when first published, as described 

 in his prefatory address to the reader, was only 

 4rf. or Set. He says, 



" What is a groat 

 Or twain to note, 

 Once in the life, 

 For man or wife 1" 



The style in which Tusser wrote his book is 

 plain, and sometimes rather hobbling; but at 

 the same time it is a metre easily remembered; 

 and verse is well adapted to impress upon the 

 memory the mass of useful truths and rural 

 directions contained in the work. In the rhym- 

 ing preface, "to the buyer of this book" (for 

 Tusser seemed to do every thing in verse), he 

 says, 



" What look ye, I pray you shew what 1 

 Terms pointed with rhetorick fine 

 Good husbandry seeketh not that, 

 Nor is't any meaning of mine." 



His tenth chapter consists of a series of 63 

 excellent "Good Husbandry Lessons, worthy 

 to be followed of such as will thrive." He 

 omitted no opportunity to give occasion for 

 seasonable reflections : 



"As bud, by appearing, betok'neth the spring, 

 And leaf, by her falling, the contrary thing; 

 So youth bids us labour to get as we can, 

 For age is a burden to labouring man." 



He comments the system of moderate corn- 

 rents, and was evidently no enemy to the sports 

 of the field : 



" To hunters and hawkers take heed what ye say, 

 Mild answer with courtesy, drives them away ; 

 80 where a man's better will open a gap, 

 Resist not with rudeness, for fear of mishap." 



He begins his monthly husbandry with Sep- 

 tember, for that was then the period, as now in 

 England, when arable land was commonly en- 

 tered upon by the farmer. He says, in his 

 opening stanza, 



"At Michaelmas lightly, new farmer comes in, 

 New husbandry forceth him ; new to begin ; 

 Old farmer, still taking, the time to him given, 

 Makes August to last untill Michaelmas even." 



In furtherance of his object, that of giving 

 some very minute directions to the incoming 

 tenant, he even gives a catalogue of farming 

 implements in verse, in which he manages 

 with some adroitness to include several ap- 

 parently impracticable names, such as, 



"A hand-barrow, wheel-barrow, shovel, and spade, 

 A curry-comb, mane-comb, and whip for a jade." 



It was the approved practice in Tusser's 

 days to " sow timely thy white wheat, sow rye 

 in the dust." They were used also to put rye- 

 meal into their wheat-flour : 



" But sow it not mixed to grow so on land, 

 Lest rye tarry wheat till it shed as it stand." 



Thick and thin sowing had even then their 

 respective advocates : 



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