[E124] St. Edmund's Day (20th November) may probably be the proper time for planting garlic and beans; but why the moon should be "in the wane" we are not informed, though, according to Tusser, "thereon hangeth a thing." The moon was formerly supposed to extend her power over all nature, and not over the tides and weather only.
[E125] The farmer who "looks to thrive" must "have an eye," not only to his barn, but also to the cruel habits or tricks of his servants; otherwise he may find his cattle maimed or otherwise injured, and his poultry made "to plaie tapple vp taile," a cant expression, meaning to tumble head over heels. Cf. the Scotch phrase, "coup your creels." Cotgrave, s.v. Laisser and Houseau, has an exactly parallel expression: "Il a laissé ses houseaux, he hath tipped up the heeles, or is ready to doe it; he hath got him to his last bed; he is even as good as gone; he is no better then a dead man." The Catholicon Anglicum also gives "Top ouer tayle, precipitanter: to cast tope ouer tayle, precipitari."
[E126] The leathern bottle, from its size, must have been a most convenient vehicle for the removal of corn and other stolen property.
[E127] Our author does not appear to have had any idea of the use of soot as a top-dressing to land, but its value is now well understood, as one of the greatest improvers of cold, mossy grasslands.
[E128] It is leanness and ill-dressing that occasion nits and lice, not the state of the weather when they are taken to house.
[E129] The rack ought to be accessible on all sides, and perhaps high enough for small cattle to escape under it from their more powerful adversaries.—M.
[E130] "Barth." Wedgwood includes this under berth, the seaman's term for snug anchorage for themselves or their vessels. See Glossary: [Barth].
[E131] "A fires-bird, for that she sat continually by the fire side."—Tom Tell-Trothe's New Yeare's Gift, New Shakspere Soc. ed. Furnivall, p. 12.
[E132] "Beath." Bathing at the Fire, as it is commonly called, when the wood is yet unseasoned, sets it to what purpose you think fit.—T.R.