TUSSER, THOMAS. 



UDDER. 



" When harvest is ended, take shipping or ride, 

 Ling, salt-fish, and herring for Lent to provide ; 

 Get home that is bought, and go stack it up dry, 

 With pease-straw between it, the safer to lie." 



They had a rude way of measuring time, it 

 seems : 



" As huswives are teached, instead of a clock, 

 How winter nights passeth by crowing of cock." 



The care of the garden evidently fell to the 

 wife's share, who had also to see to the feeding 

 of the household. It seems that the labourers 

 had then a great fondness for porridge, for 

 Tusser tells us, 



"No spoon-meat, no bellyfull, labourers think." 



In other days, too, it is evident that spinning 

 was no mean part of the mistress's avocation, 

 for it is here said, 



"Wife, pluck fro thy seed hemp the fimble hemp clean ; 

 This looketh more yellow, the other more green. 

 Use t' one for thy spinning, Michel! the t'other, 

 For shoe-thread and halter, for rope and such other : 

 Now pluck up thy flax for the maidens to spin." 



Tusser never seems to have forgotten, on 

 any occasion, to recommend to the landholder 

 the payment of his just dues; even the ques- 

 tion of the tithes, once so obnoxious to the 

 farmer, was not overlooked by him. He ad- 

 vised his farming brethren to 



" Tithe duly and truly, w ith hearty good will, 

 That God and his blessing may dwell with thee still ; 

 Though parson neglecteth his duty for this, 

 Thank thou thy Lord God, and give ev'ry man his." 



The Points of Huswifery, united to the Comfort 

 of Husbandry, by Thomas Tusser, Gentleman, 

 was, it is concluded, first published with The 

 Husbandry in 1561 or 1562. It is written in 

 rather a more lively style than the former, and 

 has an epistle dedicatory, " to the right honour- 

 able, and my especiall good lady and mistress, 

 the Lady Paget," which he thus commences : 



'Though danger be mickle, 

 And favour BO fickle; 

 Yet duty doth tickle 



My fancy to write : 

 Concerning how pretty, 

 How fine and how netty, 

 Good huswife should jetty 



From morning to night." 



This work contains an abundance of direc- 

 tions, in his usual style of versification, for the 

 conduct of household duties. He directs the 

 servants, before breakfast, to be set to work : 



"Let some to peel hemp, or else rushes to twine, 

 To spin, or to card, or to seething of brine." 



At breakfast time the wife was, in those 

 days, the carver for the farm servants : 



"Let huswife be carver, let pottage be heat, 

 A mess to each one with a morsell of meat." 



In the cookery department the now nearly 

 extinct race of turnspits were indispensable 

 attendants upon the cook : 



"Good diligent turnbroche, and trusty withal." 

 In his washing section he is rather more 

 terse than gentle in his conclusion : 



"Maids, wash well, and wring well, but beat, ye wot 



how, 

 If any lack beating, I fear it be you. 



In his directions for malt-making he alludes 

 to the use of straw and wood, but does not 

 mention the modern fuel, coke, or cinders. 

 They used, it seems to dine at noon : 

 135 



" By noon, see your dinner be ready and neat ; 

 Let meat tarry servant, not servant his meat." 



The mistress of the house then made, as now 

 in some parts of England, her own candles, it 

 seems : 



" Provide for thy tallow, ere frost cometh in, 

 And make thine own candle, ere winter begin." 



Twice a week, Sundays and Thursdays, the 

 ploughmen were entitled to roast meat for sup- 

 per ; and to a harvest goose when the corn was 

 gathered in. At harvest-home the mistress was 

 enjoined, 



" Remember thou, therefore, though I do it not, 

 The seed-cake and pasties, and furmety pot." 



In Tusser's time a very unwholesome custom 

 prevailed, in the absence of carpets, of strew- 

 ing the citizens' houses with rushes, and those 

 of the country with flowers. He gives, there- 

 fore, a list of " strewing flowers of all sorts," 

 in which we find only the common sorts of 

 flowers now cultivated, such as cowslips, dai- 

 sies, lavender, roses, sage, tansy, violets, &c. 



Such were the works of Tusser, writings 

 which were long in the hand-book of the Eng- 

 lish country gentleman. That they were popu- 

 lar is evidenced by the rapid succession of 

 copious editions, which fell to their lot; that 

 they were read with delight is shown by the 

 way in which he is commonly quoted by the 

 farmer of all grades. If he had spoken in 

 prose, as has been sometimes suggested, he 

 might certainly have been more instructive to 

 the few, but he would not have been read by 

 the many. 



The popular details and histories of all na- 

 tions escaping from rudeness are commonly 

 written in verse ; and multitudes can learn 

 these by heart who never were taught to read. 

 Tusser, therefore, is deserving of the gratitude 

 of the English farmer, for his labours tended 

 to improve, to refine, to elevate the profession 

 he celebrated in his verses. The attempt at 

 any thing like a systematic treatise on farming 

 had not, when Tusser died, been deemed pos- 

 sible. (Quart. Journ. Agr. vol. xii. p. 69.) 



TWAYBLADE (Listera ; named in honour 

 of Martin Lister, M.D., a famous English phy- 

 sician and naturalist; best known as aconcho- 

 logist and entomologist). A genus of curious 

 little native plants, growing wild in shady 

 places. They may be grown in a mixture of 

 peat and loam, and are increased by divisions 

 of the roots. 



T W I G - R U S H (Cladium, from klados, a 

 branch or twig, referring to the appearance of 

 the plant). This is a genus of hard, harsh, 

 rushy, often prickly-edged plants, whose stems, 

 whether round or triangular, are more or less 

 clothed with alternate sheathing leaves or 

 scales. 



TWITCH. See COUCH. 



U. 



UDDER. The glandular organ of a cow, 

 mare, ewe, or other animal which is destined 

 for the secretion of milk. There are four teats, 

 each of which consists of two granular lobated 

 glands, comprehending bloodvessels, nerves, 

 4x2 1073 



