Book I. AGRICULTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 43 



230. The vine in England continued to be cultivated for wine ; but not generally, for 

 the vineyards of the Lords Cobham and Williams of Thames, are pointed out by Barnaby 

 Gooch as eminently productive. It is probable this branch of culture declined with the 

 suppression of the monasteries, and the more general culture of barley ; as farmers and 

 others would soon find that good beer was a cheaper and better drink, than any wine that 

 could be made in this country. Though in 1565, in this reign, the potato was intro- 

 duced from Santa Fe by Capt. Hawkins, yet it did not come into general use, even in 

 gardens, for nearly two centuries afterwards. 



23 1 . The principal agricultural authors of Elizabeth^ s reign are, Tusser, Googe, and 

 Sir Hugh Piatt. Thomas Tusser was born at Rivenhall in Essex, in 1 527. Having 

 a fine voice, he was impressed for the royal chapel, and sang in St. Paul's, under a 

 celebrated musician. " Afterwards he was a scholar at Eton, and next a student at 

 Cambridge. He next became, by turns, musician, farmer, grazier, and poet; but 

 always unsuccessfully, although guilty of neither vice nor extravagance." His Five 

 Hundred Points of Husbandry was published in 1562, and has been recommended by 

 Lord Molesworth to be taught in schools. (Some Considerations for the Promoting of 

 Agriculture and employing the Poor, Dublin, 1723.) It is written in hobbling verse, 

 and contains some useful notices concerning the state of agriculture in different parts of 

 England. Hops, which had been introduced in the early part of the sixteenth century, 

 and on the culture of which a treatise was published in 1574, by Reynolds Scott, are 

 mentioned as a well known crop. Buck- wheat was sown after barley. It seems to have 

 been the practice then, in some places, to " geld fillies " as well as colts. Hemp and flax 

 are mentioned as common crops. Enclosures must have been numerous in several 

 counties ; and there is a very good " comparison between champion (open fields) coun- 

 try, and severall." There is nothing to be found in Tusser about serfs or bondmen, as in 

 Fitzherbert's works. (Encyc. Brit., art. Agricul.) 



232. The next writer is Barnaby Googe, a Lincolnshire gentleman, whose Whole Art of Husbandry was 

 printed in 1578. It is, for the most part, made up of gleanings from all the ancient writers of Greece and 

 Rome, whose absurdities are faithfully retained ; with here and there some description of the practices of 

 the age, in which there is little novelty or importance. Googe mentions a number of English writers 

 who lived about the time of Fitzherbert, whose works have not been preserved. 



233. Sir Hugh PlatVs Jewel Houses of Art and Nature was printed in 1594. It is chiefly a compilation 

 from other writers. The author appears to have been a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn, but he had a seat in 

 Essex, and another in Middlesex, where he spent great part of his time. The Rev. William Harrison, 

 a contemporary of Piatt, and chaplain to Baron Cobham, wrote a description of Britain, and translated 

 'RoQth'wxs's History of Scotland. In the former work are many valuable hints on the progress of hus- 

 bandry in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth. Among other curious things he asserts that the 

 Spanish, or Merino sheep, was originally derived from England. 



234. The seventeenth century is distinguished by some important improvements in agricul- 

 ture, among which are the introduction of clovers and turnips in England ; of hedges 

 in Scotland and Ireland ; and the execution of extensive embankments and drainages. 

 Some useful writers also appeared, especially Norden, Gabriel Plattes, Sir Richard 

 Weston, Hartlib, and Blythe, to whom may be added Evelyn. 



235. For the adoption of the clover, as an agricultural plant, we are indebted to Sir 

 Richard Weston, who, in 1645, gives an account of its culture in Flanders, where he 

 says " he saw it cutting near Antwerp, on the 1st of June 1644, being then two feet 

 long, and very thick ; that he saw it cut again on the 29th of the same month, being 

 twenty inches long; and a third time in August, being eighteen inches long." Blythe, 

 in 1653, is copious in his directions for its cultivation ; and Lisle {Obs. on Husbandry), 

 in the beginning of the eighteenth century, speaks of it as commonly cultivated in Hamp- 

 shire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and other counties. 



236. Turnips were probably introduced as a field crop by the same patriotic author, 

 though they may probably have been grown in the gardens of the church establislunents 

 long before. They are cultivated, he observes, "for feeding kine in many parts of England ; 

 but there is as much difference between what groweth in Flanders and here, as is between 

 the same thing which groweth in a garden and that which groweth vdld in the fields." It is 

 probable the English turnips he alludes to were rape, which is mentioned by Googe in 

 1586 ; but, though Gerarde, in 1597, and Parkinson, in 1629, mention the turnip as a garden 

 vegetable, yet neither of these authors gives the least hint of their field culture : be that as 

 it may, Ray, in 1686, informs us, that they are sown every where in fields and gardens, 

 both in England and abroad, for the sake of their roots. Lisle also, in 1707, mentions 

 their being common in Norfolk, Hampshire, Berkshire, and various counties. The 

 common story, therefore, that their culture was first introduced by Charles Lord Viscount 

 Townsend, cannot be true ; but their culture was probably greatly improved by him, 

 when he retired from public business to Rainham in Norfolk, in 1730. 



237. Thefrst notices of sheep being fed on the ground uith turnips, is given in Houghton's 

 Collections on Husbandry and Trade, a periodical work begun in 1681. In 1684, Wor- 

 lidge, one of Houghton's correspondents, observes, " sheep fatten very well on turnips, 

 which prove an excellent nourishment for them in hard winters, when fodder is scarce ; 



