[E76] "To make whyte lethyre. Take halfe an unce of whyte coperose and di. ȝ. of alome, and salle-peter the mowntance of the yolke of an egge, and yf thou wolle have thy skynne thykke, take of whetmele ij handfulle, and that is sufficient for a galone of water; and if thou wolle have thy skynne rynnyng, take of ry mele ij handfulle, and grynd alle thyes saltes smale, and caste hem into lewke warme water, and let heme melt togedyre, and so alle in ewene warme water put therein thy skynne. And if hit be a velome skynne, lett hit be thereinne ix days and ix nyȝtes ... and if hit be a parchement skyne, let hit ly thereinne iv days and iv nyȝtes; ... thanne take coperose of the whyttest the quantité of ij benys for j skynne and the yolke of j egge, and breke hit into a dysse, and than put water over the fyre, and put thereinne thy coperas, and than put thy yolke in thy skyne, and rub hit alle abowte, and thanne ley thy skynne in the seyde water, and let hit ly, ut dictum est."—From the Porkington MS. 15th cent.
[E77] A Pannel and Ped have this difference, the one is much shorter than the other, and raised before and behind, and serves for small burdens; the other is longer and made for Burdens of Corn. These are fastened with a leathern Girt, called a Wantye.—T.R. Miss Mitford, in her "Recollections," writes that her father, who used to ride a favourite gentle blood-mare, had a pad constructed, perched and strapped upon which, and encircled by his arm, she used to accompany him.
[E78] A cart or wagon whose wheels are hooped and clouted with iron is called in Lincoln a shod-cart or shod-wain. In the Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, vol. ii. p. 245, we have "clot shon" = boots tipped with iron. "Clowte of a shoo, pictasium."—Prompt. Parv. Cf. Milton, Comus, l. 634:
"The dull swain
Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon."
In Lancashire a "Clout-nail" is a large nail used for fixing iron clouts on the wooden axle-trees of carts.
[E79] "Ten sacks," each holding a coome or four bushels, are only sufficient for a single load of wheat; but farms were not so large, nor the produce so great when Tusser wrote.
[E80] A pulling hook is a barbed iron for drawing firing from the wood stack.—M.
[E81] "A nads" = an adze, an instance (like a nall = an awl, above) of the n of the article being joined to the following vowel. Similarly we have "atte nale" = at the ale-house, a corruption of A.S. æt þan ale.—See Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, B. Text, Prologue, l. 43. So in Sir Thomas More's Workes, 1557, p. 709, we have "A verye nodypoll nydyote" for idiot. Other instances of the prefixed n are "nonce, a nother, nagares (= augers)." Cf. "One axe, a bill, iiij nagares, ij hatchettes, an ades," etc.—Shakspereana Genealogica, 1869, p. 472.
[E82] "A Douercourt beetle" is explained by Dr. Mavor as "one that is large (like the rood of Dover once so celebrated) and capable of making a great noise," and he adds that "there is an old proverb 'A Dover Court: all speakers and no hearers.'" But this explanation is entirely erroneous: there is no reference whatever to Dover, but, as the following extract will show, a Dovercourt beetle simply means one made of the wood of the elms of Dovercourt in Essex, which were celebrated for their soundness and lasting qualities: "Of all the elms that euer I saw, those in the south side of Douer court, in Essex neere Harwich, are the most notable, for they growe, I meane, in crooked maner, that they are almost apt for nothing else but nauie timber, great ordinance, and beetels; and such thereto is their naturall qualitie, that being vsed in the said behalfe, they continue longer, and more long than anie the like trees in whatsoeuer parcell else of this land, without cuphar [cracking], shaking or cleauing, as I find."—Harrison, Descr. of Eng. part i. p. 341.
[E83] In the Hist. of Hawsted, Suffolk, by Sir J. Cullum, 2nd ed. p. 216, we are told that there, in the 14th century, oxen were as much used as horses; and, in ploughing heavy land, would go forward where horses would stop. "A horse kept for labour ought to have every night the 6th part of a bushel of oats; for an ox, 3½ measures of oats, 10 of which make a bushel, are sufficient for a week."