8 



By him then learn thou may'st. Here learn we must, 

 When all is done, we sleep and turn to dust. 

 And yet, through Christ, to heaven we hope to go: 

 Who reads his books, shall find his faith was so. 



His book exhibits an authentic picture of the state of hor- 

 ticulture during the time of Mary, and Elizabeth; and, as 

 Mr. Warton observes, his work " is valuable as a genuine 

 picture of the agriculture, the rural arts, and the domestic 

 ceconomy and customs of our industrious ancestors." 



Walter Blith says of him: " As for Master Tusser, who 

 rimeth out of his experience, if thou delightest therein, thou 

 mayst find things worthy thy observation." 



Sir John Hawkins, in his History of Music, thus writes: 

 " The life of this poor man was a series of misfortunes; and is a 

 proof of the truth of that saying in Holy Scripture, that ' the 

 battle is not to the strong, nor the race to the swift.' As to the 

 Points of Husbandry, it is written in familiar verse, and abounds 

 with many curious particulars, that bespeak the manners, the 

 customs, and the modes of living in the country, from the year 

 1520 to about half a century after; besides which, it discovers 

 such a degree of ceconomical wisdom in the author, such a se- 

 dulous attention to the honest arts of thriving, such a general 

 love of mankind, such a regard to justice, and a reverence for 

 religion, that we do not only lament his misfortunes, but won- 

 der at them; and are at a loss to account for his dying poor, 

 who understood so well the method to become rich." 



From the " Literary Life and Select Works of Benjamin 

 Stillingfleet," I select a small part of what that worthy man 

 says of Tusser: "He seems to have been a good-natured 

 cheerful man, and though a lover of ceconomy, far from 

 meanness, as appears in many of his precepts, wherein he 



