[E339] "Of late yeares also we haue found and taken vp a great trade in planting of hops, whereof our moorie hitherto and vnprofitable grounds doo yeeld such plentie and increase that there are few farmers or occupiers in the countrie, which haue not gardens and hops growing of their owne, and those farre better than doo come from Flanders vnto vs. Certes the corruptions vsed by the Flemings, and forgerie dailie practised in this kind of ware, gaue vs occasion to plant them here at home; so that now we may spare and send manie ouer vnto them. And this I know by experience that some one man by conuersion of his moorie grounds into hopyards, wherof before he had no commoditie, dooth raise yearelie by so little as twelue acres in compasse two hundred markes; all charges borne toward the maintenance of his familie. Which Industrie God continue! Though some secret freends of Flemings let not to exclaime against this commoditie, as a spoile of wood, by reason of the poles, which neuerthelesse after three yeares doo also come to the fire, and spare their other fewell."—Harrison, Descript. of Eng., 1587, p. 206. "Lowe and spungie grounds trenched is good for hopps, as Suffolke, Essex, and Surrie, and other places doe find to their profit."—Norden, p. 206. Evelyn, Sylva, pp. 201, 469, ed. Hunter, asserts that there was a petition against them temp. Henry VI., but no record of it appears on the rolls of Parliament. Brewing with hops was not introduced here till the reign of King Henry VIII. (Stow, Hist. p. 1038.) Bere, however, is mentioned in 1504. (Leland, Coll. vi. p. 30, and see Dr. Percy on Northumberland Book, p. 414.)—Pegge's Forme of Cury, ed. 1780, p. xxiii. See a long note in Prompt. Parv., s.v. Hoppe; and also "Pharmacographia," p. 496.
[E340] For wanting at will = for fear of having none when you really want it.
[E341] Hay for neat cattle may be made with less labour, and more expeditiously than for horses; because, if it is a little mow burnt, it will not be the less acceptable to them; and besides, the fermentation it undergoes, if not carried too far, has a natural tendency to mellow coarse grass.—M.
[E342] Avise auouse is French jargon for take precautions. Ill-made hay is apt to take fire; if much wetted with rain, to become mouldy. Hard and fine hay is best for horses; soft and coarse hay will be more acceptable to cattle; while short hay is coveted by sheep.—M.
[E343] Thry fallowing, or the third plowing, should be performed pretty early in the summer, in order that the ground may acquire sufficient hardness to resist the seeds of thistles and other weeds, even at the risk of requiring another stirring.—M.
[E344] This can only refer to garden beans, but the practice is now obsolete.
[E346] "Wormwood, a word corrupted from A.S. wermod, Ger. wermuth, O.S. weremede, words which seem to be compounded with Ger. wehren, A.S. werian = to keep off, and mod or made = maggot, but which, by an accidental coincidence of sound, have been understood as though the first syllable were worm. L. Diefenbach would prefer to derive it from a Celtic root that means "bitter," Welsh chwerw, Cornish wherow. Be its origin what it may, it was understood in the Middle Ages as meaning a herb obnoxious to maggots, and used to preserve things from them, and was also given as an anthelmintic or worm medicine. Artemisia Absinthium, L."—Dr. R. A. Prior, Pop. Names of Brit. Plants. "Two sorts of Wormewood are well knowen of many, that is, our common Wormewood, and that which is called Ponticum, now sowen in many gardens, and commonly called French-wormewood. And while it is yong, it is eaten in Salats with other herbes, to the great commoditie of the stomacke and Liuer. For it strengthneth a weake stomacke, and openeth the Liuer and Splene. For which purpose there is to be had in the Stilliard at London a kind of wine named Worme-wood wine, which I would wish to be much used of all such Students as be weake of stomacke. They may easily haue a rundlet of three or foure gallons or lesse, which they may draw within their owne chambers as need requireth. I was woont when appetite failed to steepe a branch or two of common Wormewood in halfe a pint of good white wine, close couered in some pot all night, and in the morning to straine it through a clean linnen cloth, and put in a little sugar and warme it, and so drinke it. Or sometime to burne a little quantitie of wine with sugar, and a branch or two of Wormewood put into it. Wherein I have found many times marvellous commoditie, and who so shall vse it now and then, shal be sure of a good stomacke to meat, and be free from wormes."—Cogan's Haven of Health, p. 55. "Wormwood, centaury, pennyroyal, are likewise magnified and much prescribed, especially in hypochondrian melancholy, daily to be used, sod in whey."—Burton, Anat. of Melancholy, p. 432.
[E347] "As many doo more," i.e. as many others do. Cf. [63. 18].
[E348] There is a proverb: "One scabb'd sheep's enough to spoil a flock."