72 RURAL ECONOMY IN YORKSHIRE IN 1G41. 



(after the takinge of of the first fleece) to bee very snodde and 

 fine. Riggons iieaver goe well of but att one time of the yeare, 

 viz. ; aboute the Lady-day es in harvest ; unlesse it bee with 

 such as have good succoiu' for thern, and can take them from the 

 ewes and feede them att any time. When our hogges are 

 drawne from the sheepe and putte into the Can-e, then our 

 shepheard lyeth his sheepe on nights aboute Hugill hill, or some 

 of the dale bottomes ; or howsoever beyond the Spellowe, be- 

 cause they shoulde not gette haunt of the wheate and rye. 



Other shorte Remembrances. 

 If your markinge bee all spente, exceptinge a little or a fewe 

 dregges in the bottome of the potte, your best way will bee to 

 heate it and wash it cleane out with wann water ; otherwise it 

 will rise up like a froth or scumme, and bee a meanes to spoyle 

 the next markinge. In buyinge of tarre, yow shoulde allwayes 

 make choise of the tliickest, and that which is most ropinge, 

 for many putte water amongst their tarre, and othere lette theire 

 tarre stande without the shop})e that the raine may light into 

 it ; and yow may knowe this when yow come to poore in the 

 tarre, for the water will runne thinne by itselfe. In buyinge of 

 pitch, yow are to make choise of that which (when it is broken) 

 shineth the most, and sheweth the brightest. Pitch and tarre 

 are both of them gotten out of the firre-tree. When the worst 

 of the flocke are drawne out, the shepheards caU this drapinge 

 out of sheepe, and some drape out a score to putte of, by reason 

 of theire age ; some because theire grownde is overstocked, and 

 therefore they will sell away the worst. 



For Fotheringe of Sheepe. 



If there chance to fall a light thinne snowe, which bee not 

 above two or three ynches thicke, yow neede not beginne to 

 fother for the space of three or fower dayes, till yow see fui-ther 

 alteration in the weather, for they will scrape away the snowe 

 with theire feete, and gette to the grasse ; and yow are allsoe 

 to have a care that yow beginne not to fother in wette weather; 

 for they will not fall freshly to theire fother att the first, but 

 treade it under foote and waste it ; l)ut rather, if 3'ow tloubt a 

 storme, bringe them out of the dale-bottomes and lye them in 

 the Spellowe, or some such like close, wheare they have shelter 

 against the storme, and allsoe some victualls for scrapinge for ; 

 tlien, if the weather breake not up, or if more snowe come, yow 

 are to brhige them hoame, and beginne to fother, if the weather 

 bee soe that it take them quite of the grownde ; otherwise, yow 



