February fl.J THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 285 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
w 
D 
FEBRUARY 6 — 12 , 1851 . 
Weather 
Barometer. 
near London 
Thermo. Wind. 
N 1850. 
Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef.Sun. 
Day of 
Year 
fi 
Th 
Butcher’s Broom flowers. 
29.250—28.911 
46—32 
N.W. 
34 a. 7 
55 a. 4 
10 27 
5 
14 
23 
37 
7 
E 
Wild Swan goes. 
■29.670—29.454 
46- 31 
W. 
— 
32 
57 
11 33 
f) 
14 
26 
38 
8 
S 
White-headcil Smew goes. 
29.722—29.675 
51—39 
W. 
— 
30 
59 
morn. 
7 
14 
29 
39 
9 
Son 
5 SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. 
29.699—29.428 
50—35 
S.W. 
0.10 
28 
V 
0 41 
3 
14 
31 
40 
10 
M 
Queen Victoria m., 1810. 
30.085—29.970 
48—31 
W. 
— 
2 <) 
3 
1 52 
9 
14 
32 
41 
11 
To 
29.927—29.412 
48—33 
S.W. 
0.11 
25 
5 
3 4 
10 
14 
33 
42 
12 
vv 
Yellow Bunting sings. 
29.404 — 29.254 
45—29 
w. 
0.04 
23 
6 
4 12 
11 
14 
32 
43 
On the 3rd of February, 1557, “ Imprinted at London in Fletc Stretc 
within Temple barre, at the sygne of the hand and starre, by Richard 
Tottel,” was published A hundreth good poyntes of husbandrie, “ Set 
forth by Thomas Tusser, gentleman; servant to the honorable Lord 
Paget of Beaudesert,” and having this motto :— 
A hundreth good pointes of good husbandry, 
maintaineth good household with liuswifry. 
House keeping and husbandry, if it be good, 
must love one another, as cousinnes in blood. 
The wife to, must husband as well as the man, 
or farewel thy husbandry, doe what thou can. 
Of this book, consisting of one hundred quarto pages, only one copy is 
known to exist, and that copy is in the British Museum; but we have 
not to consider it as a bibliographical rarity, but as the first book in 
English which details to us the culture of the soil as practised in this 
country. Tusser has left behind him, also, his autobiography in verse ; 
and from this and his Five Hundred points of Good Husbandry , which is 
only an enlarged edition of the rare work we have named, we will weave a 
mingled narrative. 
It came to pass, that born I was 
Of lineage good, of gentle blood, 
In Essex layer, in village fair, 
That Rivenhall hight: 
Which village lied by Banktree side; 
There spend did I mine infancy, 
There then my name, in honest fame, 
Remained in sight. 
But even in tradition it remains there no longer; and we question 
whether the very name of Tusser is not extinct. The village hight 
(called) Rivenhall is passed through by the high road between Witham 
and Kelvedon; but all that savours of Tusser is the “ good husbandry ” 
practised in its vicinity. That he was of “gentle blood” there is no 
room for doubt, or he would not have ventured, in those days of strict 
pedigree and precedence, to have written of his parents, that their “ pedi¬ 
gree^ who list may see, in herald’s book.” But Tusser was their younger 
son:— 
And now and then of gentlemen 
The younger son is driven to run, 
And glad to seek, from creek to creek, 
To come by thrift. 
And Tusser was one of the number, for his father observing his musical 
voice, determined that this should be his organ of success. 
So out I must, to song be thrust, 
Say what I would, do what I could, 
His mind was so. 
At a very early age—“ I yet but young ”—to be instructed in the art of 
choral singing he was sent to the collegiate chapel of Wallingford; and 
the severity of its discipline long lived on his memory, for even iu 
advanced manhood he exclaimed over its remembrance— 
What touzed ears, like baited bears ! 
What bobbed lips, what jerks, what nips ! 
WTiat bread how stale, what penny ale! 
However, no sooner had he received the necessary instruction than the 
excellency of his singing powers pointed him out for selection ; and he 
w'as pressed, as the despotic custom then prevailed, for the choir of 
St. Paul’s, in London. 
Then for my voice I must (no choice) 
Away of force, like posting horse, 
For sundry men had placards then, 
Such child to take. 
From St. Paul’s he was sent to Eton, becoming there a student “to 
learn straightways, the Latin phrase” under Udall, whose severity he 
deprecates. This was about the year 1534 ; and as he calls himself then 
“ a lad,” it is probable that those biographers are not far from the truth 
who place the time of his birth near to the year 1515. How long he 
remained at Eton does not appear, but “ to London hence, and to 
Cambridge thence,” he records as the course of his removal; and he 
rejoices— 
With thanks to thee, O Trinity, 
That to thy Hall, so passing all, 
I got at last. 
Sickness he alleges, but we fear, rather, that love of change which kept 
him through life from taking root anywhere, induced him to visit London, 
and to become a retainer of Lord Paget, but in what capacity he has 
failed to record: probably a mere hanger-on, whose powers of song 
rendered a welcome guest at table, and for which he was requited “ with 
many a pound.” He tells us that here a life of revelling and dissipation 
he for “ ten years tried,” but 
When Court ’gan frown, and strife in town, 
And lords and knights saw heavy sights, 
Then took I wife, and led my life 
In Suffolk soil. 
These heavy sights were probably the execution of the Earl of Surrey, 
the arrest of the Duke of Norfolk, and other ferocities which characterized 
1547, the year of Henry the Eighth’s death. If so, Tusser was about 
thirty-two at the time of his first marriage; and he then settled at 
Catiwade, not far from Ipswich, and, as he says, began to acquire a 
knowledge of farming : — 
There was I fain, myself to train, 
To learn too long, the farmer’s song, 
For hope of pelf, like worldly elf, 
To moil and toil. 
On account of his wife’s ill health, he removed to Ipswich—“ A town 
of price, like Paradise ; ” but it was not health restoring, and the catas¬ 
trophe is told in the brief line—“ There left good wife, this present life ; ” 
and he then married a lady of the name of Moon, and settled, or rather 
paused, at East Dereham, in Norfolk. But it was only for awhile, and 
then, upon the inapplicable excuse, “That Lord with Lord, could not 
accord,” he flitted to Norwich, where under the patronage of Dr. Salis¬ 
bury—the “gentle Dean”—he appears to have become once more a 
chorister. But this was to be for no length of time his biding-placc, for 
disease, or fancied disease, hurried him “ From Norwich air, in grea 
despair ; ” and as he says, or sings— 
From thence so sent, away I wont, 
With sickness worn, as one forlorn, 
To house my head, at Fairsted, 
Where whiles I dwelt, 
And a short “ whiles” was it; for though close to his native place, yet 
because there were some disagreeables attendant upon the tithing, he 
adds— 
Once rid my hand, of parsonage land, 
Thence, by and by, away went I, 
To London straight, to hope and wait 
For better chance. 
In London he appears to have resided for some years, probably as a 
schoolmaster, and probably, for we have no certainty as to dates, until 
the year 1574, when the plague appeared within the city, and then— 
When gains were gone, and years grew on, 
And death did cry, From London fly, 
In Cambridge then, I found again, 
A resting plot. 
That “resting plot” was his old college, Trinity Hall, but whether 
as tutor or in what capacity is not revealed, but as a tutor it is 
probable, for he seems to recapitulate his successive vocations in these 
lines :— 
Let serving pains, yield forth her gains, 
Let courtly gifts, with wedding shifts, 
Help now to live ; 
Let music win, let stock come in, 
Let wisdom carve, let reason serve, 
For here I crave, such end to have 
As God shall give. 
This prayer seems to have been granted, for although he died in London 
he mentions no other place of removal, though his poetical memoir con¬ 
tinued to be printed in the editions of his work which appeared in 1577, 
1580, and 1585. We may conclude that he died between the two con¬ 
cluding dates, for he is spoken of as deceased on the title-page of the 
latter. The historian Stowe tells us that he was buried in the church of 
St. Mildred, in the Poultry; and this epitaph may be the concluding of 
his autobiography, for it savours of his rhyme :— 
Here Thomas Tusser clad in earth doth lie. 
That sometime made The pointes of Husbandrie : 
By him, then, learn thou maist; here learn we must, 
When all is done we sleep, and turn to dust: 
And yet through Christ, to heaven we hope to goe, 
Who reades his bookes shall find his faith was so. 
Tusser’s “ points ” arc chiefly those which require to be attended to by 
the farmer for the good management of his crops and live stock; but 
there are some “ points ” of gardening mentioned of which we will glean 
a few, as examples that his horticulture as well as his husbandry was 
“good.” Fruit was then especially prized, for we read that at some 
unusual season Henrv VII. gave two shillings for a red apple—a price 
equal to ten shillings at the present time: so Tusser directs especial care 
for the orchard:— 
At Christmas be mery, and thanke God of all: 
and feast thy pore neighbours, the great with the small. 
Yea, al the yeare long haue an eie to the poore : 
and God shall sende luck, to kepe open thy doore. 
Good fruite and good plenty, doth well in thy loft: 
then lay for an orcharde, and cherishe it oft. 
The profet is mickell, the pleasure is mutch: 
at pleasure with profet few wise men will grutch. 
No. CXXIII., Vol. V. 
