"When th' fair is done, I to the Colledg come,
Or else I drinke with them at Trompington,
Craving their more acquaintance with my heart,
Till our next Sturbridg Fair; and so wee part."
—Brathwaite's Honest Ghost, 1658, p. 189.
[E373] "When it [the malt] hath gone, or beene turned, so long [21 days] vpon the floore, they carrie it to a kill, couered with haire cloth, where they giue it gentle heats (after they haue spread it there verie thin abroad) till it be drie, and in the meane while they turne it often, that it may be vniformelie dried."—Harrison, Description of England, ed. F. J. Furnivall, Part I. p. 156.
[E374] Cf. September's Husbandry, [ch. 16 st. 1].
[E375] One part in ten is far below the present average value of land. If the whole produce will clear four rents, the industrious farmer would have no reason to complain, though he is now subject to heavy taxes, which, it is to be remarked are not included in the list of outgoings.—M.
[E376] "Well fare the plough." On a flyleaf of a MS. of Piers Plowman (MS. R. 3, 14, in Trinity Coll. Camb.) is written,
"God spede the plouȝ
& sende vs korne I-now."
See print in beginning of Wright's ed. of Piers Plowman.
[E377] The advice given in this short piece, the most difficult, perhaps, that Tusser had written, is very good, but he has strained alliteration to an extravagant pitch.
[E378] In the reign of Elizabeth an Act was passed, requiring a seven years' apprenticeship to enable a person to set up in business or trade; and hence the idea arose of dividing human life into periods of seven years.—M. The idea is much older; for, in Arnold's Chronicle (edition 1811), page 157, we find:—"The vij Ages of Mā liuing ī the World. The furst age is infance and lastith from ye byrth vnto vij yere of age. The ij is childhod and endurith vnto xv yere age. The iij age is adholocencye and endurith vnto xxv yere age. The iiij age is youth and endurith vnto xxxv yere age. The v age is manhod and endurith vnto l yere age. The vj age is [elde] and lasteth vnto lxx yere age. The vij age of mā is crepill and endurith vnto dethe."