THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FARMER loi 



one Pattynson 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 ourc 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, £s^, 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.^ 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 

 Tusscr, was sometimes wheat, sometimes rye, sometimes 

 * Description of Britain^ ii. 150. 



