[253] About 1684, John Worlidge wrote to Houghton that sheep fatted on clover were not such delicate meat as the heath croppers, and that sheep fatten very well on turnips. Houghton, Collection for Improvement of Husbandry, iv. 142. This is said to be the first notice of turnips being given to sheep.
[254] R.A.S.E. Journal, 1896, p. 77. One of the proofs of the rarity of vegetables among the poorer classes of England, especially in the Middle Ages, is the fact that rents paid in kind never included them.
[255] R.A.S.E. Journal, 1892, p. 19.
[256] Chapple, Review of Risdon's Survey of Devon (1785), p. 17 n. Victoria County History: Devonshire, Agriculture.
[257] Blyth was a great advocate of enclosure. 'Live the commoners do indeed', he says, 'very many in a mean, low condition, with hunger and ease. Better do these in Bridewell. What they get they spend. And can they make even at the year's rent?'
[258] Rymer, Foedera (Orig. ed.), xix. 512.
[259] Manydown Manor Rolls, Hampshire Record Society, p. 172.
[260] Thorold Rogers, Work and Wages, p. 459.
[261] Houghton, Collections, &c., ii. 448.
[262] Thorold Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, v. p. vii. Cf. p. 139 infra.