[E179] "For yoke or the paile:" whether intended for the yoke or for the dairy.
[E180] The strongest pigs are observed to suck foremost, because there they find milk in the greatest abundance.—M.
[E181] "Yoong fils." We should certainly read, as required by the rhythm of the line, fillies, which is found in the editions of 1573, 1577, and 1597.
[E182] "As concerning Arbors, Seats, etc., in Orchards and Gardens, I advise men to make them of Fruit trees, rather then of Privet, or other rambling stuffe, which yeelds no profit, but only for shade. If you make them of Cherry-trees, Plum-trees, or the like, there will be the same advantage for shade, and all the Fruits superadded. All that can be objected is, that Fruit-trees are longer in growing up then Privet, Virgine Bower, or the like, whereof arbors are commonly made. It is answered. Though Fruit-trees are something longer in covering an Arbor, then some other things, yet they make sufficient amends in their lasting and bearing fruits."—Austen's Treatise of Fruit Trees, 1657, p. 61.
[E183] Oats sown in January would be most likely to rise free from weeds, but it is not often that the season and the soil will admit of such early culture. The whole stanza is somewhat enigmatical. The earlier editions read uniformly: "by the hay," etc., but the more modern have: "buy thee hay," etc., which is probably the correct reading. The obvious meaning is, provide early what may be required, that you may escape risk of failure and dearth. If you buy your hay in May, you are prepared against the worst.
[E184] Plash here means to pleach down a hedge over the burrows; set means plant over the place where the burrows are, not to stop the rabbits from coming out, but to give them a means of escape from the dogs who might otherwise snap them up before they reached their holes.
[E185] A cage for moulting hawks was called a mewe. "For the better preservation of their health they strowed mint and sage about them; and for the speedier mewing of their feathers they gave them the slough of a snake, or a tortoise out of the shell, or a green lizard cut in pieces."—Aubrey's Wilts. MS. p. 341. Ducange (Glossary M. et I. Lat.) has "Muta, Accipitrum domuncula in qua includuntur falcones, cum plumas mutant; accipitres enim quotannis pennas mutant."
[E186] "All's fish they get," etc. See Gascoyne's Steele Glass, Arber's Reprint, p. 57.
[E187] "Feb, fill the dike." In Mr. Robinson's Whitby Glossary is given as a weather expression of Yorkshire: "February fill-dike, and March muck't out." Another form is in Hazlitt's Eng. Proverbs:
"February fill dike be it black or be it white:
But if it be white, it's better to like."