Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie

by Thomas Tusser

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CONTENTS.

		PAGE
	[Preface]	v
	[Biographical Sketch of the Author]	xi
	[Tusser's will]	xxix
	[Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie]	1
	[A lesson how to confer euery abstract with his month, &c].	2
	[A Table of the Pointes of Husbandrie]	3
[1.]	Epistle to Lord W. Paget	5
[2.]	Epistle to Lord T. Paget	7
[3.]	To the Reader	11
[4.]	Introduction to the Booke of Husbandrie	13
[5.]	Preface to the Buier of this Booke	14
[6.]	The Commodities of Husbandrie	15
[7.]	A Riddle	15
[8.]	The Description of Husbandrie	16
[9.]	The Ladder to thrift	17
[10.]	Good husbandlie lessons	18
[11.]	An habitation inforced better late than neuer	27
[12.]	The fermers dailie diet	27
[13.]	Description of the properties of windes at all seasons	29
[14.]	Of the Planets	30
[15.]	Septembers Abstract	31
[16.]	Septembers husbandrie	34
[17.]	A digression to husbandlie furniture	35
[18.]	Octobers abstract	43
[19.]	Octobers husbandrie	47
[20.]	Nouembers abstract	53
[21.]	Nouembers husbandrie	55
[22.]	Decembers abstract	59
[23.]	Decembers husbandrie	61
[24.]	A digression to hospitalitie	65
[25.]	Description of time and the yeare	65
[26.]	Description of life and riches	66
[27.]	Description of housekeeping	67
[28.]	Description of Christmas	67
[29.]	Description of apt time to spend	68
[30.]	Against fantasticall scruplenes	69
[31.]	Christmas husbandlie fare	69
[32.]	A Christmas Caroll	70
[33.]	Januaries abstract	72
[34.]	Of trees or fruites to be set or remooued	76
[35.]	Januaries husbandrie	76
[36.]	Februaries abstract	85
[37.]	Februaries husbandrie	87
[38.]	Marches abstract	91
[39.]	Seedes and herbes for the Kitchen	93
[40.]	Herbes and rootes for sallets and sauce	94
[41.]	Herbes and rootes to boile or to butter	95
[42.]	Strowing herbes of all sortes	95
[43.]	Herbes, branches, and flowers, for windowes and pots	95
[44.]	Herbes to still in Sommer	96
[45.]	Herbes for Physick, etc.	97
[46.]	Marches husbandrie	97
[47.]	Aprils abstract	102
[48.]	Aprils husbandrie	103
[49.]	A lesson for dairie maid Cisley	107
[50.]	Maies abstract	109
[51.]	Maies husbandrie	111
[52.]	Junes abstract	116
[53.]	Junes husbandrie	117
[54.]	Julies abstract	121
[55.]	Julies husbandrie	122
[56.]	Augusts abstract	124
[57.]	Augusts husbandrie	128
[58.]	Corne Haruest equally deuided into ten partes	136
[59.]	A briefe conclusion, each word beginning with the letter T	137
[60.]	Mans age deuided into twelue seauens	138
[61.]	Another diuision of mans age	138
[62.]	Comparison between good and bad husband	139
[63.]	Comparison betweene Champion countrie and seuerall	140
[64.]	Description of an enuious neighbour	146
[64.*]	To light a candell before the Deuill	148
[65.]	A sonet against a slanderous tongue	150
[66.]	Sonet upon the Authors first seuen yeeres seruice	151
[67.]	Dialogue on wiuing and thriuing	152
[68.]	The Authors Epistle to the Ladie Paget	159
[69.]	The Authors Epistle to the Reader	161
[70.]	The Author's Preface to his booke of Huswiferie	162
[71.]	The praise of Huswiferie	163
[72.]	A description of Huswife and Huswiferie	163
[73.]	Instructions to Huswiferie	163
[74.]	A digression to cockcrowing	165
[75.]	Huswiferie morning workes	167
[76.]	Huswifelie breakefast workes	168
[77.]	Huswifelie admonitions or lessons	168
[78.]	Brewing	170
[79.]	Baking	171
[80.]	Cookerie	171
[81.]	Dairie	172
[82.]	Scouring	172
[83.]	Washing	173
[84.]	Malting	173
[85.]	Dinner time huswiferie	174
[86.]	Huswifelie afternoone workes	175
[87.]	Huswifelie euening workes	177
[88.]	Supper time huswiferie	178
[89.]	After Supper workes of huswiferie	179
[90.]	The ploughmans feasting daies	180
[91.]	The good huswifelie Physicke	182
[92.]	The good motherlie nurserie	183
[93.]	A precept of thinking on the poore	183
[94.]	A comparison betweene good huswiferie and euill	184
[95.]	The meanes for children to attaine to learning	185
[96.]	A description of womans age	187
[97.]	The Inholders posie	187
[98.]	Certain Table Lessons	188
[99.]	Lessons for waiting seruants	189
[100.]	Husbandly posies for the hall	190
[101.]	Posies for the parler	190
[102.]	Posies for the gests chamber	191
[103.]	Posies for thine owne bed chamber	192
[104.]	A Sonet to the Ladie Paget	193
[105.]	Principall points of Religion	193
[106.]	The Authors beleefe	194
[107.]	Of the omnipotencie of God and debilitie of man	199
[108.]	Of Almes deedes	200
[109.]	Of malus homo	201
[110.]	Of two sortes of people	201
[111.]	Of what force the deuill is if he be resisted	201
[112.]	Eight of Saint Barnards verses in Latine and English	202
[113.]	Of the Authors departing from the Court	204
[114.]	The Authors life of his own penning	205
[115.]	Of Fortune	216
	[A hundreth good pointes of husbandrie]	219
	[Epistle to Lord Paget (1557)]	220
	[Concordia parvæ res crescunt]	221
	[Augusts husbandrie]	222
	[Septembers husbandrie]	223
	[Octobers husbandrie]	223
	[Nouembers husbandrie]	224
	[Decembers husbandrie]	225
	[On Christmas]	225
	[Januaries husbandrie]	226
	[Februarys husbandrie]	228
	[Marches husbandrie]	229
	[A digression to huswifrie]	229
	[Aprils husbandrie]	229
	[Mays husbandrie]	230
	[Junes husbandrie]	231
	[Julys husbandrie]	232
	[Notes and Illustrations]	235
	[Glossary]	319

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[BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.]

Thomas Tusser, the Author of the "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," was born at Rivenhall,[1] near Kelvedon and Witham, in the County of Essex, about the year 1525. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, Warton[2] placing it in 1523, and Dr. Mavor in 1515, in which he is supported by the inscription on the mural tablet erected to the memory of Tusser in the church of Manningtree, where he is stated to have been sixty-five years of age at the time of his death, which took place in 1580.

Tusser, however, appears to have been elected to King's College, Cambridge, in 1543, and as he would have become ineligible at nineteen, his birth cannot have taken place earlier than 1523, and, most probably, did not take place before 1524 or 1525.

It appears from the pedigree recorded by his nephew, John Tusser, the son of his eldest brother Clement, at the Herald's Visitation of Essex in 1570, which is the only record we have of the family, that "William Tusser, the father, had five sons, Clement, Andrew, John, Thomas, and William, and four daughters; the marriages of the daughters are set down, but no wives assigned to the sons, except to Clement, who married Ursula Petts, and had issue John (who entered the pedigree), Edward, and Jane, all three unmarried in 1570. The mother of Thomas was [Isabella], a daughter of Thomas Smith, of Rivenhall, in Essex, Esq., whose elder brother, Hugh, was ancestor of Smith, Lord Carrington (not the present lord), sister of Sir Clement Smith, who married a sister of the Protector Somerset, and first cousin of Sir John Smith, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in the reign of Edward the Sixth. This match with Smith I take to have been the chief foundation of gentility in the Tussers, for I can find no traces of them or their arms before this connexion."[3]