[309] An astonishing statement; cf. Denton, England in the Fifteenth Century, p. 56, Neckham, De Natura Rerum, cap. clxvi. and above, p. 93.

[310] Whole Art of Husbandry (ed. 1635), i. 173.

[311] Whole Art of Husbandry (ed. 1635), ii. 144. and MS. accounts of Mr. Chevallier of Aspall Hall, Suffolk.

[312] Thorold Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, v. 28.

[313] Farming and Account Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, 1641, Surtees Society, xxxiii. 157.

[314] Ibid. p. 99.

[315] Farming and Account Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, 1641. Surtees Society, xxxiii. 124. Many districts in the north of England were still much behind the rest of the country.

[316] Trevelyan, England under the Stuarts, 8 sq. Though, as we have seen, p. 157, the writer of the Fruiterer's Secrets recommends the gun for scaring birds in 1604.

[317] The Husbandry of Brabant and Flanders (ed. 1652), p. 18.

[318] Systema Agriculturae, p. 26.