ii. 12): 'The ploughman yoketh oxen to the plough, and he holdeth the

plough-stilt [_i.e._ principal hale or handle] in his left hand, and in his right hand the _ploughstaff_ to break the clods.' See plate 32 (vol. i.) in Strutt, and the picture of a plough at work prefixed to Mr. Wright's edition of Piers the Plowman, copied from MS. T. [MS. R. 3. 14, Trin. Coll. Camb.]."--Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, B. vi. 105.

[E85] "Moether" [and "mother", 16. 14.]. This word is derived by Sir H. Spelman from Danish _moer_ = an unmarried girl. "_Puera_, a woman chylde, callyd in Cambrydgeshyre a _modder_." "_Pupa_, a yonge wenche, a gyrle, a _modder_."--Elyot's Lat. Dict. 1538. "_Fille_, a maid, girle, _modder_, lasse."--Cotgrave. Ben Jonson uses the word in his "Alchymist": "Away, you talk like a foolish _mauther_."--Act iv. sc. 7. Richard Brome also has it in the Eng. Moor, Act iii. sc. i.:

_P._ "I am a _mother_, that do want a service.

_Qu._ O, thou'rt a Norfolk woman (cry thee mercy,) Where maids are _mothers_, and _mothers_ are maids."

"I have been informed by an intelligent friend, who is a native of Norfolk, that on a certain trial in that county, it was asked who was the evidence of what had been stated. The answer was, 'A _mather_ playing on a planchard.' The Judge was nonplussed, till the meaning was explained, namely, 'A girl playing on the floor.'"--M.

[E86] "Hoigh de la roy," that is, excellent or proper; but why, I cannot say.

[E87] A _cradle_ is a three-forked instrument of wood, on which the corn is caught as it falls from the scythe, and thus is laid in regular order. It is heavy to work with; but is extremely useful for cutting barley or oats, which are intended to be put into sheaves.--M.

[E88] Tar was the common salve for all sores in cattle. "Two pounds of tar to a pound of pitch," is a good composition for sheep marks.--M. "Every shepherd used to carry a _tar-box_, called a _tarre-boyste_ in the Chester Plays, p. 121, or a _terre-powghe_ (= tar pouch) in P. Pl. Crede, l. 618. It held a salve containing tar which was used for anointing sores in sheep. Compare

"Heare is tarre in a potte To heale from the rotte." --Chester Plays, p. 120.

See also History of Agriculture and Prices in England, by J. E. Thorold Rogers, vol. i. p. 31. Note to P. Plowman, ed. Skeat, C. x. 262-264.

[E89] "Sealed and true," _i.e._ certified and stamped as correct. In Liber Albus, ed. Riley, p. 233, we read: "No brewster or taverner shall sell from henceforth by any measure but the gallon, pottle, and quart; and that these shall be _sealed_ with the seal of the Alderman," etc. See also the Statute of Sealed Measures, _id._ p. 290.

[E90] _Striking_ is the last ploughing before the seed is committed to the ground; previously to which the ridges are to be harrowed.

[E91] "Sowe barlie and dredge." In the 13th century the grain crops chiefly cultivated in England were wheat, "berecorn," _dragg_, or a mixture of vetches and oats, beans and pease. The regulations for the brewers of Paris in 1254 prescribe that they shall brew only "de grains, c'est à savoir d'orge de mestuel, et de _dragèe_." "_Dredge_ mault, malt made of oats, mixed with barley malt, of which they make an excellent quick sort of drink."--Bp. Kennett's Gloss. "A mixture of oates and barley; and at present used very seldom in malting."--T.R. "_Dragée_ aux chevaux, provender of divers sorts of pulse mixed together."--Cotgrave. From Way's Notes in Prompt. Parv. s. v. Dragge.

[E92] Forby (Vocab. 1830) says: "Crow-keeper, a boy employed to scare crows from new sown land. Lear, in his madness, says: 'That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper.' Besides lustily whooping, he carries an old gun, from which he cracks a little powder, and sometimes puts in a few stones, but seldom hits, and still seldomer kills a crow." Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act i. sc. 4: "Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper."

[E93] A Marsh Wall is a Sea bank, made with considerable slope to sea-ward, which is called a Break or Breck; it is faced with Turf which sometimes is worn by the sea, or Holes made in it by Crabs, etc. The Foreland is a piece of Land that lies from the foot of the Bank to Sea-ward, and must be well look'd after, that it wear not away or come too near the Bank (as the Workmen term it).--T.R.

[E94] A brawner should be kept cool and hard, which encreaseth his shield, as the skin of the shoulder is called.--M.

[E95] Measles in hogs are small round globules or pustules that lie along the muscles; and are occasioned by uncleanness and want of water.--M.

[E96] The retting of hemp, as it is called, should be done with care. It should be taken out of the water as soon as it begins to swim. The smell left by hemp and flax is extremely unpleasant, as travellers in the flax districts of the North of Ireland well know.

[E97] "In time of plenty of mast, our red and fallow deere will not let to participat thereof with our hogs, more than our nete: yea, our common pultrie also, if they may come vnto them. But as this abundance dooth prooue verie pernicious vnto the first, so the egs which these latter doo bring foorth (beside blackenesse in color and bitternesse of tast,) haue not seldome beene found to breed diuerse diseases vnto such persons as haue eaten of the same."--Harrison, Descrip. of Eng. part i. p. 339.

[E98] If your dog sets chaunting (crying) these lawless hogs, haunting (or frequenting) your fields so often, he does you a benefit.

[E99] _Shaken_ timber is such as is full of clefts and cracks. _Bestowe_ and _stick_ it, is to lay the boards neatly on each other, with sticks between, to admit the air.

[E100] The _hook and line_ is a cord with a hook at its end to bind up anything with, and carry it away.--M.

[E101] "Flaies," probably a misprint in the edition of 1580 for _flails_, which is the reading of the other editions.

[E102] Cotgrave has: "Hastiveau, a _hasting_ apple or peare;" and "Hastivel, as Hastiveau; or a soon-ripe apple, called the St. John's apple." Lacroix (Manners, Customs, etc., during the Middle Ages, p. 116) mentions "hastiveau, an early sort of pear."

[E103] "Vergis and perie." "Verjuice is well known to be the juice of Crabs, but it is not so much taken notice of, that for strength and flavour it comes little short if not exceeds lime-juice."--T.R. "Verjuice, or green juice, which, with vinegar, formed the essential basis of sauces, and is now extracted from a species of green grape, which never ripens, was originally the juice of sorrel; another sort was extracted by pounding the green blades of wheat."--Lacroix, Manners, Customs and Dress, during the Middle Ages, p. 167.

[E104] Make up your hedges with brambles and holly. "Set no bar" = put no limit, do not leave off planting quicksets while the months have an R in their names. See chap. 35, stanza 6, p. 77, and note E112, for 19. 33.

[E105] Laying up here signifies the first plowing, for Barley it is often plow'd, so as that a Ridge-balk in the middle is covered by two opposite furrows.--T.R.

[E106] By Fallow is understood a Winter-fallow, or bringing Ground to a Barley Season.--T.R.

[E107] "Brantham" parish, in Essex, in which Cattiwade is situated, and the place where Tusser first commenced farming. The average yield of corn in his time was, on each acre well tilled and dressed, twenty bushels of wheat, thirty-two of barley, and forty of oats and pulse.

[E108] Wheat does not thrive well either on very poor or very rich land. If the land is _peeled_ or poor, the grain is _burnt_ or _steelie_, and if _proud_ (too heavily manured), the grain is apt to run to straw.

[E109] "There grows in several parts of Africa, Asia, and America, a kind of corn called Mays, and such as we commonly name _Turkey wheat_. They make bread of it, which is hard of digestion, heavy in the stomach, and does not agree with any but such as are of a robust and hail constitution."--A Treatise on Foods, by Mons. L. Lemery, London, 1704, p. 71.

[E110] _Breadcorne_ and _drinkcorn_ mean wheat and barley, the first being used for the making of bread, the second for malting purposes. Mr. Peacock, in his Glossary of Manley, etc., has: "_Breadcorn_, corn to be ground into _breadmeal_ (_i.e._ flour with only a portion of the bran taken out, from which brown bread is made); not to be used for finer purposes. It is a common custom of farmers, when they engage a bailiff, to give him a certain sum of money per annum, and to allow him also his _breadcorn_ at 40_s._ per quarter." Cf. Piers Plowman, C. Text, Passus ix. 61: "A boussel of _bredcorne_."

[E111] Hazlitt gives as a proverb: "To play the devil in the bulmong." An acre of bullimong land was worth 33_s._ 4_d._; see note E370.

[E112] According to Norden (Surveyor's Dialogue, 1607, p. 239) the best mode of making a quickset hedge is as follows: "The plants of whitethorne, mixed here and there with oke and ash"; if the plants are not easily procured, then "the berries of the white or hawthorne, acornes, ash keyes mixed together, and these wrought or wound up in a rope of straw, wil serve, but they will be somewhat longer in growing. Make a trench at the top or in the edge of the ditch, and lay into it some fat soyle, and then lay the rope all along the ditch, and cover it with good soile also, then cover it with the earth, and ever as any weedes or grasse begins to grow, pull it off and keepe it as cleane as may be from all hindrances, and when the seeds begin to come, keepe cattle from bruising them, and after some two or three yeares, cut the yong spring by the earth, and so will they branch and grow thick, and if occasion serve, cut them so again alwayes, preserving the oake and ashe to become trees." The best time to lay the berries in this manner is "in _September_ or _October_, if the berries be fully ripe."

[E113] A "porkling" was worth 28_d._ at the time. See note E370.

[E114] With reference to the "daintiness" of the Flemings, many of whom were settled on the East coast, compare the following:

"Now bere and _bacon_ bene fro Pruse ibrought Into Flaundres, as loved and fere isoughte; Osmonde [a kind of iron], coppre, bowstaffes, stile [steel], and wex, Peltre-ware [hides], and grey, pych, terre, borde, and flex, And Coleyne threde, fustiane, and canvase, Corde, bokeram; of olde tyme thus it wase. But the _Flemmyngis_, amonge these thinges dere, In comen lowen [love] beste _bacon_ and bere. Thus arre they hogges; and drynkyn wele ataunt [so much]; Farewel, Flemynge! hay, harys, hay, avaunt!" --Wright's Political Songs, ii. 171.

[E115] _Light fire_, as it is termed, is still used in Norfolk.--M.

[E116] "Bowd eaten malt." "The more it be dried (yet must it be doone with soft fire) the sweeter and better the malt is, and the longer it will continue, whereas if it be not dried downe (as they call it), but slackelie handled, it will breed a kind of worme, called a _wiuell_, which groweth in the floure of the corne, and in processe of time will so eat out it selfe, that nothing shall remaine of the graine but euen the verie rind or huske."--Harrison, Description of England, part i. pp. 156-7. R. Holme says that "the Wievell eateth and devoureth corn in the garners; they are of some people called _bowds_."--Acad. of Arm. Bk. ii. p. 467. "Bruk is a maner of flye, short and brodissh, and in a sad husc, blak hed, in shap mykel toward a golde _bowde_, and mykhede [size] of twyis and þryis atte moste of a gold _bowde_, a chouere, oþer vulgal can y non þerfore."--Arundel MS. 42, f. 64. The name _gold bowde_ probably denotes a species of _Chrysomela_, Linn. Way, in Prompt. Parv.

[E117] See note E5 on "A Medicine for the Cowlaske." Sloes gently baked in an oven are best preserved. They are an excellent and cheap remedy for laxity of the bowels, in men or cattle, if judiciously used.--M.

[E118] Dr. Mavor suggests that as Tusser is pretty correct in his rhymes, he probably wrote _beasty_ originally. In Pegge's Forme of Cury, 1780, p. 111, are given two recipes for the prevention of _Restyng_ in Venisoun.

[E119] "Stouer." _Stover_ is the term now applied to the coarser hay made of clover and artificial grasses, which is kept for the winter feed of cattle. But in Shakespeare's time the artificial grasses were not known in England, and were not introduced till about the middle of the seventeenth century. In Cambridgeshire I am informed that hay made in this manner is not called "stover" till the seeds have been threshed out. In the sixteenth century the word was apparently used to denote any kind of winter fodder except grass hay. Compare

"Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, And flat meads thatch'd with _stover_, them to keep." --Shakspere, Tempest, Act iv. sc. I;

and Drayton, Polyolbion, xxv. 145,

"And others from their Carres, are busily about, To draw out Sedge and Reed, for Thatch and _Stover_ fit."

"Stover" is enumerated by Ray among the South-and East-Country words as used in Essex, and is to be found in Moor's Suffolk Words and Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia.

[E120] See note E61.

[E121] In cleaning corn for _seed, casting_ or throwing it with a _casting shovel_ (see 17. 1) from one heap to another, in order to select the heaviest grains, which will always go farthest, is an excellent practice: but in _malting_, this is not necessary, as the light grains and seeds of weeds may be skimmed off in the cistern.--M.

[E122] Wheat is well known to work better in grinding and baking after it has undergone a natural heat in the rick or mow. Wheat that is threshed early keeps with difficulty.--M.

[E123] "Rauening curres" seem to have been as great a nuisance in Tusser's time as at present, in spite of what Dr. Mavor terms one of the "few patriotic taxes which we have to boast of."

[E124] St. Edmund's Day (20th November) may probably be the proper time for planting garlic and beans; but why the moon should be "in the wane" we are not informed, though, according to Tusser, "thereon hangeth a thing." The moon was formerly supposed to extend her power over all nature, and not over the tides and weather only.

[E125] The farmer who "looks to thrive" must "have an eye," not only to his barn, but also to the cruel habits or tricks of his servants; otherwise he may find his cattle maimed or otherwise injured, and his poultry made "to plaie tapple vp taile," a cant expression, meaning to tumble head over heels. Cf. the Scotch phrase, "coup your creels." Cotgrave, _s.v. Laisser_ and _Houseau_, has an exactly parallel expression: "_Il a laissé ses houseaux_, he hath tipped up the heeles, or is ready to doe it; he hath got him to his last bed; he is even as good as gone; he is no better then a dead man." The Catholicon Anglicum also gives "Top ouer tayle, _precipitanter_: to cast tope ouer tayle, _precipitari_."

[E126] The leathern bottle, from its size, must have been a most convenient vehicle for the removal of corn and other stolen property.

[E127] Our author does not appear to have had any idea of the use of soot as a top-dressing to land, but its value is now well understood, as one of the greatest improvers of cold, mossy grasslands.

[E128] It is leanness and ill-dressing that occasion nits and lice, not the state of the weather when they are taken to house.

[E129] The rack ought to be accessible on all sides, and perhaps high enough for small cattle to escape under it from their more powerful adversaries.--M.

[E130] "_Barth_." Wedgwood includes this under _berth_, the seaman's term for snug anchorage for themselves or their vessels. See Glossary.

[E131] "A _fires-bird_, for that she sat continually by the fire side."--Tom Tell-Trothe's New Yeare's Gift, New Shakspere Soc. ed. Furnivall, p. 12.

[E132] "Beath." Bathing at the Fire, as it is commonly called, when the wood is yet unseasoned, sets it to what purpose you think fit.--T.R.

[E133] "Camping." "Goals were pitched 150 or 200 yards apart, formed of the thrown-off clothes of the competitors." Each party had two goals 10 or 15 yards apart. The parties, 10 to 15 aside, stand in line facing their own goals and each other, at 10 yards distance, midway between the goals and nearest that of their adversaries. An indifferent spectator throws up the ball--the size of a cricket ball--midway between the confronted players, whose object is to seize and convey it between their own goals. The shock of the first onset to catch the falling ball is very great, and the player who seizes it speeds home pursued by his opponents, through whom he has to make his way, aided by the jostlings of his own sidesmen. If caught and held, or in imminent danger of it, he _throws_ the ball, but must in no case _give_ it, to a comrade, who, if it be not arrested in its course, or he be jostled away by his eager foes, catches it, and hurries home, winning the game or _snotch_ if he contrive to _carry, not throw_, it between the goals. A holder of the ball caught with it in his possession loses a _snotch_. At the loss of each of these the game recommences after a breathing time. Seven or nine _snotches_ are the game, and these it will sometimes take two or three hours to win. Sometimes a large football was used, and the game was then called "_kicking camp_," and if played with the shoes on, "_savage camp_."--Abridged from Major Moor's Description.

Ray says it prevailed, in his time, most in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. It was new to Sir T. Browne on his settling in Norfolk, and is not mentioned by Strutt amongst the "Sports and Pastimes of the English People."

Mr. Spurdens, in his Supplement to Forby's Vocabulary, remarks: "The contests were not unfrequently fatal to many of the combatants. I have heard old persons speak of a celebrated _Camping_, Norfolk against Suffolk, on Diss Common, with 300 on each side. Before the ball was thrown up, the Norfolk men inquired tauntingly of the Suffolk men if they had brought their coffins. The Suffolk men after fourteen hours were the victors. Nine deaths were the result of the contest within a fortnight. These were called _fighting camps_, for much boxing was practised in them." Cf.

"This faire floure of womanheed Hath two pappys also smalle, Bolsteryd out of lenghth and breed, Lyche a large _Campyng ball_." --Lydgate.

_Camping Land_ was a piece of ground set apart for the game. A field abutting on the churchyard at Swaffham was willed for the purpose by the Rector in 1472. At East Bilney and Stowmarket are pieces of ground still called _Camping land_. Sir John Cullum, in his "History of Hawstead, Suffolk," describes the _Camping-pightle_ as mentioned A.D. 1466. "_Campar_ or _pleyar_ at foott balle, _campyon_ or _champyon_."--Prompt. Parv. "Camping is Foot Ball playing, at which they are very dextrous in Norfolk; and so many People running up and down a piece of ground, without doubt evens and saddens it, so that the Root of the Grass lies firm.... The trampling of so many People drives also the Mole away."--T.R.

[E134] "All quickly forgot as a play on a stage." Comp. Shakspere, As you Like it, Act ii. sc. 7: "All the world's a stage," etc., and Merchant of Venice, Act i. sc. 1, where Antonio calls the world "A stage where every man must play a part." "Totus mundus agit histrionem," from a fragment of Petronius, is said to have been the motto on the Globe Theatre. Calderon wrote a play called El Teatro del Mundo (The Theatre of the World). It is remarkable for containing the lines:

"En el teatro del mundo Todos son representantes,"

_i.e._ in the stage of the world all men are players.--W. W. S. In the old play of Damon and Pythias (Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, iv. 31) the following occurs:

"Pythagoras said that this world was like a stage, Where many play their parts: the lookers on, the sage Philosophers are, said he, whose part is to learn The manners of all nations, and the good from the bad to discern."

The same comparison occurs also in Don Quixote, part ii. cap. 12. See note E378.

[E135] Psalm cxliv. 4.

[E136] "Atrop." "The fatall sisters," Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, daughters of Erebus and the Night, were supposed to spin out the life of man as it were a long thread, which they drew out in length, till his fatal hour had arrived; but if by any other casualty his days were shortened, then _Atropos_ was said to have cut the thread in two. Hence the old verse: "Clotho colum bajulat, Lachesis trahit, Atropos occat."

[E137] "Euer among," an expression of frequent occurrence in Early English, meaning "constantly, continually." Compare the Mod. Eng. "all the while." In a Carol of the fifteenth century, we read:

"Thys endus nyȝth I saw a syȝth, A stare as bryȝt as day; And _ever among_ A mayden song Lullay, by by, lullay."

And in another:

"Our der Lady she stod hym by, And wepe water ful bytterly, And terys of blod _ever among_."

[E138] "As onely of whom our comfort is had." The expression is obscure, but the meaning is clear: as the only one from whom our comfort (or strength) is derived.

[E139] "Good husbands," that is, good husbandmen or farmers.

[E140] "Then lightly," an old form of expression. Tusser means that poor people are then _probably_ or _generally_ most sorely oppressed. Cf. "Short summer _lightly_ has a forward spring."--Shakspere, Richard III. Act iii. sc. 1.

[E141] "Few Capons are cut now except about Dorking in Surrey; they have been excluded by the turkey, a more magnificent, but perhaps not a better fowl."--Pegge's Forme of Cury, ed. 1780, p. 19.

[E142] "Vpon the tune of King Salomon." Mar. 4, 1559, there is a receipt from Ralph Newberry for his licence for printing a ballad called "Kynge Saloman," Registr. Station. Comp. Lond. notat. A fol. 48a. Again in 1562, a licence to print "iij balletts, the one entituled 'Newes oute of Kent;' the other, a 'Newe ballat after the tune of Kynge Solomon;' and the third, 'Newes oute of Heaven and Hell.'"--_Ibid._ fol. 75a. Again, _ibid._ "Crestenmas Carowles auctorisshed by my lord of London." A ballad of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba is entered in 1567, _ibid._ fol. 166a.--Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, vol. iii. p. 428.

[E143] There is some confusion here, although the sense is clear; probably we should read, "and _flies_ from sinne," etc.

[E144] "Michel cries," _i.e._ to delay the operation of cutting, and therefore the cries of the animals, till Michaelmas, will have the effect of getting them into such condition as better to please the butchers' eyes.

[E145] "Bulchin," a double diminutive = _bull-ock-in_, cf. _man-ik-in_.

"For ten mark men sold a little _bulchin_; Litille less men tolde a bouke of a motoun; Men gaf fiveten schillynges for a goos or a hen." --R. de Brunne's Chronicle, ed. Hearne, i. 174.

See also Langtoft, p. 174, and Middleton, iii. 524.

[E146] "Apricot;" in Shakspere, and in other writers of that century, apricock; in older writers abricot and abrecocke; from L. _præcoqua_ or _præcocia_ = early, from the fruit having been considered to be an early peach. A passage in Pliny (Hist. Nat. xv. 12) explains its name: "Post autumnum maturescunt Persica, æstate _præcocia_, intra xxx annos reperta." Martial also refers to it in the following words:

"Vilia materius fueramus praecoqua ramis, Nunc in adoptivis persica cara sumus." --Liber xiii. Ep. 46.

The English, although they take their word from the French, at first restored the _k_, and afterwards adopted the French termination, _apricot_.--See a paper on the word in N.& Q. for November 23, 1850. "I account the _White peare-plum stocks_ the best to _Inoculate Aprecock buds upon_, although they may be done upon other _Plum-stocks_ with good successe, if they be good juycie stocks, able to give a good nourishment, for _Aprecock trees_ require much nourishment."--Austen's Treatise on Fruit Trees, 1657, p. 57. Cotgrave (Fr. Dict.) gives, "Abricot: m. The Abricot, or Apricocke plum." Minsheu (Span. Dict. 1599) has, "Albarcoque, or Alvarcoque, m. an apricocke." Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 1. 169: "Feed him with apricocks and dewberries"; and Rich. II. Act iii. sc. 4, 29: "Go bind you up yon dangling apricocks."

[E147] "Boollesse." In the Grete Herball _bolays_, in Prompt. Parv. _bolas_. Prunus communis, Huds.; var. insititia, L. In Bacon's Essays xlvi. the name is spelt "_bullises_."

[E148] "Cheries." Austen, in his Treatise on Fruit Trees, Oxford, 1657, p. 56, enumerates the following kinds of cherries: "The _Flanders Cherry_, most generally planted, is a great bearing fruit. The _May Cherries_ are tender, and the trees must be set in a warm place. The _Black-hart Cherry_, a very speciall fruit, and a great bearing fruit, and doubtlesse exceeding proper to presse for wine either to drink of itselfe, or to mix the juyce with _Cider_ to give it a _colour_ as _Clarret-wine_, it being of a deepe red, and a small quantity of it will colour a gallon of _Cider_ or _White wine_. There is a _Cherry_ we call the _great bearing Cherry_ of M. Milleu. It may very well be called the _great bearer_, for the trees seldome fayle of great store of fruits, although in a cold and sharp spring."

[E149] "Chestnuts." Often spelt, but improperly, _chesnut_, as though the _cheese_-like nut. From the O. Fr. _Chastaigne_, and the Ital. _Castagna_, we learn its true derivation, namely from _Castanæa_ in Thessaly, its native place.

[E150] "Cornet plums" = cornel plums; called also cornel cherry. O. Fr. _cornille_, now _cornouille_, L. Lat. _cornolium_, from Lat. _cornus_ = a cornel cherry tree.

[E151] "The _Damasco-plum_ is a good fruit and the trees beare well."--Austen's Treatise on Fruit Trees, 1657.

[E152] Andrew Boorde, in his Introduction of Knowledge, ed. Furnivall, p. 283, says: "_Fylberdes_ be better than hasell nuttes; yf they be newe, and taken from the tree, and the skyn or the pyth pulled of, they be nutrytyue, and doth increase fatnes."

[E153] "Goose beries." Dr. R. A. Prior says: "From the Flemish _kroes_ or _kruys berie_, Swed. _krusbär_, a word that bears the two meanings of 'cross-' and 'frizzle-berry,' but was given to this fruit with the first meaning, in reference to its triple spine, which not unfrequently presents the form of a cross. This equivocal word was misunderstood and taken in its other sense of 'frizzle-berry,' and translated into German and herbalist Latin as '_kraüsel-beere_,' and '_uva crispa_.' The Fr. _groseille_ and Span. _grosella_ are corruptions of Ger. _kraüsel_."

[E154] "Some Authors affirme that there have been _Vine-yards_ in England in former times, though they be all destroyed long since. Divers places retaine the name of Vine yards still, at _Bromwell Abby_ in _Norfolke_ and at Elie in Cambridgshiere which afforded _Wine_; what else is the meaning of these old Rimes?

"'Quatuor sunt Elie, Lanterna, Capella Marias Et molendinum, nec non dans Vinea vinum.'

"Englished thus:

"'Foure things of Elie Towne much spoken are, The Leaden Lanthorn, Maries Chappell rare, The mighty Mil-hill in the Minstre field, And fruitful _Vine-yards_ which sweet wine doe yeeld.'

"And doubtlesse men might plant Vines with good successe, to make good wine even with us. There are many kinds of Vines, but I know none so good, and fit for our climate as the _Parsley Vine_ or Canada Grape, we see by experience yearly it beares abundance of fruit unto perfection. And whosoever would plant Vines in England I think he cannot meet with a better kind than the _Parsley Vine_ both for _bearing_ and _goodnesse_. The _Fox grape_ is a faire _large Fruit_ and a very _great bearer_ although not of so much esteem as divers others. The _Frantiniack Grape_ is of great accompt with many, and is a speciall fruit where it comes to perfect ripenesse, which it hardly does, except the Vine be set upon the _South-wall_ where it may have _much sun_. The _Red_ and _White Muskadine Grape_ are speciall fruits and beare very well, and come to perfect ripenesse if the Vine grow upon the _South-wall_ or upon the _Easte-wall_ which is best next. There is the _Curran Grape, Cluster Grape_, and many other kinds of good grapes, and the fruits are _better_ or _worse_ according to the _place_ they grow in: If they have _much sun_, and be _well ordered_, the fruit will be _better_ and _sooner ripe_."--Austen's Treatise of Fruit Trees, 1657.

[E155] "There are very many kinds of _Plums_, many more than of Cherries. I esteeme the _Mustle Plum_ one of the best, being a faire large black plum, and of an excellent rellish, and the _trees beare abundantly_. The Damazeene also is an excellent fruit. The _Violet_ and _Premorden_ Plum-trees are very _great bearing trees_, and the fruits pleasant and good. The _White Peare-plum-stocks_ are accounted the best, and the _Damson-stocks_ the worst for grafting upon."--_Ibid._ p. 57.

[E156] "Hurtillberies (= Whortleberries) called 'Hurts' for shortness at Godalming. I suspect this may be connected with Hurtmoor, the name of a dale near Godalming."--Note by Rev. W. W. Skeat. "'Hurtilberries' for 'whortleberries,' itself a corruption for 'myrtleberries.'"--Dr. Prior, Popular Names of British Plants, 1870.

[E157] "Medlars, called in Normandy and Anjou _meslier_, from Lat. _mespilus_, but as the verb _mesler_ became in English _meddle_, so this fruit also, although a word of different origin, took a _d_ for an _s_ and became _medlar_."--_Ibid._

"The Kernells [of medlers] bruised to dust, and drunk in liquor (especially where Parsly roots have been steeped), doe mightily drive out stones and gravell from the kidneyes."--Austen, Treatise on Fruit Trees, 1657, p. 84.

[E158] "The _Iuyce of Mulberries_ is knowne by experience to be a good remedy for a sore mouth, or throat, such as are perfectly ripe relax the belly, but the unripe (especially dry'd) are said to bind exceedingly, and therefore are given to such as have _Lasks and Fluxes_."--_Ibid._ p. 84.

[E159] "Peach, in old works spelt Peske, Peesk, Peshe, and Peche, O. Fr. _pesche_, L. _Persica_, formerly called _malum persicum_ = Persian apple, from which the Arabs formed their name for it with the prefix _el_ or _al_, and thence the Spanish _alberchigo_."--Dr. R. A. Prior.

Austen, in his work already quoted, says (p. 58): "Of _Peaches_ there are divers kinds. I know by experience the _Nutmeg and Newington_ Peaches to be excellent fruits, especially the _Nutmeg_ Peach."

[E160] Evidently a misprint for Peare-plums, which is the reading of all the later editions. Austen, in his Treatise on Fruit Trees, recommends that Peaches be grafted on plum stocks, such as the _White Peare-plum-stock_.

[E161] The word "Quince" preserves only a single letter of its original form. A passage in the Romaunt of the Rose shows an early form of the word, and also exhibits _chestnut_ and _cherry_ in a transitional stage of adoption from the French. The author of the Romaunt writes:

"And many homely trees there were, That peaches, _coines_, and apples bere; Medlers, plummes, peeres, chesteines, Cherise, of which many one faine is."

It is evident that the English word is a corruption of the French _coing_, which we may trace through the Italian _cotogna_ to Lat. _cotonium_ or _cydonium malum_, the apple of Cydon, a town in Crete.--Taylor's Words and Places. In the Paston Letters, i. 245, occurs the word "chardequeyns," that is, a preserve made of quinces. See also the Babees Book, E.E.T. Soc. ed. Furnivall, p. 152. In the ordinances of the household of George, Duke of Clarence, p. 103, _charequynses_ occur under the head of spices, their price being 5 shillings "the boke," or £2 10_s._ for 10 lbs., A.D. 1468.

[E162] "Respis." In Turner's Herbal called _Raspis_ or _Raspices_, the latter of which is apparently a double plural. Probably from _resp_, a word that in the Eastern counties means a shoot, a sucker, a young stem, and especially the fruit-bearing stem of raspberries (Forby). This name it may owe to the fact that the fruit grows on the young shoots of the previous year.

[E163] "Reisons," most probably currants. "Raysouns of Coraunte."--Pegge's Forme of Cury, ed. 1780, p. 16.

Turner (Names of Herbes) says the currant tree is called "in some places of England a _Rasin_ tree."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E164] "Seruice trees." Dr. R. A. Prior, in his Popular Names of British Plants, 1870, p. 209, says: "Service-, or, as in Ph. Holland's Pliny more correctly spelt, Servise-tree, from L. _Cervisia_, its fruit having from ancient times been used for making a fermented liquor, a kind of beer:

"Et pocula læti Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea _sorbis_. --Virg. Georgics III. 379.

"Diefenbach remarks (Or. Eur. 102): 'bisweilen bedeutet cervisia einen nicht aus Getreide gebranten Trank;' and Evelyn tells us in his Sylva (ch. xv.), that 'ale and beer brewed with these berries, being ripe, is an incomparable drink.' The _Cerevisia_ of the ancients was made from malt, and took its name, we are told by Isidore of Seville, from _Ceres, Cereris_, but this has come to be used in a secondary sense without regard to its etymological meaning, just as in _Balm-tea_ we use tea in the sense of an infusion, without regard to its being properly the name of a different plant." Wild Service, the rowan tree; _Pyrus aucuiparia_, Gärt.

[E165] "Wallnuts are usually eaten after meales to close up the stomach, and help digestion. And according to _Avicen_ (Can. lib. 2, cap. 501), recentes sunt meliores stomacho (the newer the better for the stomach). Bread or Bisket may be made of the meale being dried. The young nuts peeled are preserved, and candied for Banquetting stuffe: and being ripe the Kernells may be crusted over with sugar, and kept long. _Avicen_ says (Can. lib. 2, cap. 501): 'Iuglans ficubus et Rutâ medicina omnibus venenis': Wallnuts with Figs and Rue is a preservative against all poison. Schol. Salern. reckons _Wallnuts_ for one of the six things that resist poyson:

'Allia, Nux, Ruta, Pyra, Raphanus cum Theriaca: Hæc sunt Antidotum contra mortale venenum.' Garlicke, Rue, Peares, Treacle and Nuts: Take these and then no deadly poyson hurts.

Mithridates the great: his preservative was (as is recorded by Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. 23, c. 18), '_Two Wallnuts_, two Figs, 20 leaves of Rue and a grain of salt stamped together,' which taken no poyson that day could hurt him. _Greene Wallnuts_ about Midsommer distilled and drunk with vineger, are accounted a certain preservative against the Pestilence."--Austen's Treatise of Fruit Trees, 1657. "_Walnuts_ be hurtful to the memory, and so are Onyons, because they annoy the eyes with dazeling dimnesse through a hoate vapour."--T. Newton, Touchstone, ed. 1581, f. 125_b_. The original prescription of the antidote of Mithridates, discovered by Pompey among the archives of the king, was very simple. Q. Serenus tells us that

"Magnus scrinia regis Cum raperet victor, vilem deprehendit in illis Synthesin, et vulgata satis medicamina risit: Bis denum rutæ folium, salis et breve granum, Juglandesque duas, terno cum corpore ficus."

Cf. Piers Plowman, C. Text, Pass. xiii. 143:

"As in a _walnote_ withoute ys a byter barke, And after þat biter barke be þe shele aweye, Ys a curnel of comfort kynde to restorie."

On which see Mr. Skeat's note.

[E166] "Warden appulles rosted, stued, or baken, be nutrytyue, and doth comfort the stomache, specyally yf they be eaten with comfettes."--Andrew Boorde's Dyetary, ed. Furnivall, E.E.T. Soc. p. 284. And again, _ibid._ p. 291, as a remedy for the Pestilence: "Let hym vse to eate stued or baken wardens, yf they can be goten; yf not, eate stued or baken peers, with comfettes: vse no grosse meates, but those the which be lyght of dygestyon."

[E167] "Froth" refers here to veal and pig and lamb, all three. Halliwell suggests tender as the meaning. It seems to mean _pulpy_ or _light_.

[E168] "Be greedie in spending," that is, he who is eager to spend and careless in saving, will soon become a beggar, and he who is ready to kill, and unskilful in storing, need look for no plenty.

[E169] There are certain wheels called Dredge Wheels, by the use of which loads may be carried thro' meadows, even if it be not a frost.--T.R.

[E170] "Doue houses." The Norfolk and Suffolk rebels, under Kett in 1549, say in their list of Grievances: "We p[r]ay that noman vnder the degre of a knyght or esquyer, kepe a _dowe-house_, except it hath byn of an ould aunchyent costome."--See Ballads from Manuscripts, ed. Furnivall, i. 149.

[E171] "To buie at the stub," that is, to buy on the ground or on the spot, and do the carriage oneself. A.S. _styb_, Dutch _stobbe_ = a stump; whence Eng. _stubborn, stubble_.

[E172] "Edder and stake;" still in common use in Kent, Sussex, etc. See Ray's Glossary, s.v. Yeather.

[E173] "So far as in lopping," etc., seems to imply that the tops will take root of themselves without planting.

[E174] Spenser uses "Prime" in the sense of "Spring-time." See Fairy Queene, Canto ii. st. 40, iv. 17, and vi. 13.

[E175] "Beliue" = in the night, according to Tusser Redivivus, but wrongly. See Mr. Skeat's note in Ray's Glossary, _s.v._ Beliue.

[E176] Hugh Prowler is our Author's name for a night walker.--T.R.

[E177] Harrison, ed. 1587, fo. 42, speaks of sheep, "such as bring foorth but one at a time," as _anelings_, from which it would seem that _twinlings_ mean sheep such as _bring forth twins_ and _not the twins_ themselves. Dr. Mavor says: "Twin lambs are supposed to perpetuate their prolific quality, and are therefore kept for breeders." In some parts of Norfolk and Lincoln they will keep none but _twinlins_, but then it is in rich land as Mershland and Holland.--T.R.

[E178] "Peccantem" should be _peccavi_, which is the reading of the editions of 1573, 1585, and 1597.

[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."

"Fevrier remplit les fosses: Mars les seche."--Fr. Provb.

See also Swainson's Weather Folklore, pp. 40-42.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E188] "Leaue iobbing," _i.e._ leave off jobbing, or pecking, with their beaks. See Prompt. Parv. p. 36. "Bollyn, or _jowin_ wythe the bvlle as byrdys (byllen or _iobbyn_ as bryddys K. _iobbyn_ with the byl H.P.). _Rostro_."

[E189] See note E112.

[E190] Moles, for the trapping of which each parish used to maintain a sapper and miner, are found to be excellent husbandmen, the little heaps of friable soil which they throw up furnishing, when spread abroad, the best of top dressings. "It may be novel to some to be informed that moles may be taken with dogs, properly trained. This may serve to diversify the life of a professed hunter."--M.

[E191] As for _mole-hills_ forming a warm and dry station for lambs, the same may be said with much greater propriety of _ant-hills_; yet neither would be suffered to remain on a well-managed farm.

[E192] Lease, a small enclosure near the homestall.--M. A name used in some countries for a small piece of ground of 2 or 3 acres.--T.R.

[E193] "Mestlen." "Years ago in Norfolk thousands of acres yeelded no better grain crop than rye, of which the bread of farm households was made. _Meslin_ bread made of wheat and rye in equal quantity was for the master's table alone."--Forby. "And there at the manor of Marlingford, and at the mill loaded both carts with _Mestlyon_ and Wheat."--Paston Letters, iii. p. 294. "For they were neither hogs nor devils, nor devilish hogs, nor hoggish devils, but a _mesling_ of the two."--Fairfax. The mixed grain, meslin, was used in France in the concoction of beer, as appears by the regulations for the brewers of Paris, 1254, who were to use "grains, c'est à savoir, d'orge, de_ mestuel, _et de_ dragée."--Reglements t. Louis IX. ed. Depping, p. 29. At a dinner given in 1561 to the Duke of Norfolk by the Mayor of Norwich, there were provided: "xvj loves white bread iv_d._, xviij loves wheaten bread, ix_d._, iij loves _mislin_ bread iij_d._"--Leland, Itin. vi. xvii. Plot (Hist. of Oxford, p. 242) says that the Oxfordshire land termed sour is good for wheat and "miscellan," namely wheat and rye mixed.

[E194] It is to be regretted, both on the score of policy and health, that in reforming false principles, we renounced salutary practices. Days of abstinence from flesh-meat, if not prescribed by authority, should be voluntarily imposed on ourselves. If the fisherman purchases bread of the farmer, the farmer in his turn ought to encourage the fisherman, who in peace and war has the highest claims to support.--M.

[E195] "Auens." "Avence herbe, Avancia, Sanamunda."--Prompt. Parv. By some called _harefoot_. It was used in cookery; see Pegge's Forme of Cury, ed. 1780, p. 13.

[E196] "Betanie." Lat. _betonica_, said by Pliny to have been first called _Vettonica_, from the Vettones, a people of Spain.

[E197] "Bleets." The name of some pot-herb which Evelyn in Acetaria takes to be the "Good Henry," and remarks of it that, "'tis insipid enough." βλιτον [Greek: bliton] = insipid. In Lyte's Dodoens, p. 547, are given three kinds of Blitte or Bleet, and the French name is said to be _Pourrée rouge_. "_Suæda maritima_, or sea-blite, belongs to the goose-foot tribe; the good-king-Henry, or _Chenopodium bonus-Henricus_, is of the same tribe. See Flowers of the Field, by C. A. Johns."--Note by Rev. W. W. Skeat.

"Beets," although joined here with "bleets," no doubt refers to the common beetroot, _Beta vulgaris_, Linn. Gerard had the "White or Yellow Beete" in his garden.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E198] "Bloodwoort," called also Bloody-dock, from its red veins and stems. _Rumex sanguineus_, L. Called also _Walwort_ and Danewort in Lyte's Dodoens, 1578, p. 380, who says that the "fumes of Walwort burned, driueth away Serpentes and other venemous beastes."

[E199] "The rootes of Borage and _Buglosse_ soden tender and made in a Succade, doth ingender good blode, and doth set a man in a temporaunce."--A. Boorde's Dyetary, E.E.T. Soc. ed. Furnivall, p. 278.

[E200] "Burnet, a term formerly applied to a brown cloth, Fr. _brunette_, It. _brunetta_, and given to the plant so called from its brown flowers."--Dr. Prior, Popular Names of British Plants, 1870. Called also _Pimpinell_.--Lyte's Dodoens, 1578, p. 138.

[E201] "Burrage." Fr. _bourache_, M. Lat. _borago_. Apuleius says that its original name was "_corrago_, quia cordis affectibus medetur," a word that the herbalists suppose to have become, by change of _c_ to _b, borrago_. See A. Boorde's Dyetary, ed. Furnivall, pp. 278-280.

[E202] "Clarie." M. Lat. _sclarea_, from _clarus_ = clear, and prefix _ex_. Called by the apothecaries _clear-eye_, translated into _Oculus Christi, Godes-eie_, and _See-bright_, and eye-salves made of it. _Salvia Sclarea_, Linn. "Called in French _Ornale_ or _Fonte-bonne_; it maketh men dronke and causeth headache, and therefore some Brewers do boyle it with their Bier in steede of Hoppes."--Lyte's Dodoens, ed. 1578, p. 253.

[E203] "Coleworts." Dioscorides (quoted in Cogan's Haven of Health, p. 49) says (lib. 2, cap. 113) that "if they be eaten last after meats, they preserue the stomacke from surfetting, and the head from drunkennesse. Yea some write, that if one would drinke much wine for a wager, and not be drunke, but to haue also a good stomacke to meate, that he should eate before the banquet raw Cabage leaues with Vinegar so much as he list, and after the banquet to eate againe foure or fiue raw leaues, which practice is much vsed in Germanie.... The Vine and the Coleworts be so contrarie by nature that if you plant Coleworts neere to the rootes of the Vine, of it selfe it will flee from them. Therefore it is no maruaile if Colewortes be of such force against drunkennesse; But I trust no student will prooue this experiment, whether he may be drunken or not, if he eate Coleworte leaues before and after a feast."

[E204] The numerous virtues of this herb are thus summed up in the King's Coll. MS. of the Promptorium:

"Bis duo dat maratrum, febres fugat atque venenum, Et purgat stomacum, sic reddit lumen acutum."

Macer gives a detailed account, in which the following remarkable passages occur: "þe edderes wole ete fenel, when her yen dasnyþ, and so she getiþ ayene her clere sighte; and þer þoroghe it is founde and preved þat fenel doþ profit to mannis yene: þe yen þat ben dusked, and dasniþ, shul be anoynted with þe ius of fenelle rotis medeled with hony; and þis oynement shalle put a-way alle þe dasewenesse of hem, and make hem bryȝt." The virtue of fennel in restoring youth, was a discovery attributed by Macer to serpents; "Þis prouiþ auctours and filisoferis, for serpentis whan men _(sic)_ olde, and willeth to wexe stronge, myghty, and yongly a-yean, þei gon and eten ofte fenel, and þei become yongliche and myghty."--MS. in the possession of H. W. Diamond, Esq. This herb is called in German _Fenchel_, Dutch _Venckel_. In Piers Plowman mention occurs of: "A ferthyng worth of fynkel-sede for fastinge daies;" C. vii. 360; spelt fenel in the other texts. "Fenkylle or fenelle, _feniculum_."--Prompt. Parv. "Fenelle or fenkelle, _feniculum, maratrum_."--Catholicon Anglicum.

[E205] "Andreas the Herborist writeth that the root of the Langdebeefe tyed or bounde to the diseased place, swageth the ache of the veynes (called _Varix_) being to muche opened or enlarged and fylled with grosse blood."--Lyte's Dodoens, 1578, p. 568. See also Gerard's Herbal, 1633.

This is no doubt _Helminthia echioides_, Linn., of which Parkinson (_Paradisus_) gives a good description and figure under this name, and says, "The leaves are onely used ... for an herbe for the pot among others." Lyte's reference is to some other plant which has "a purple flower."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E206] "Leek." A remnant of A.S. _porleac_, from Lat. _porrum_ and _leac_ = a plant, Ger. _lauch_.

[E207] "Longwort," called in Lyte's Dodoens, p. 125, Sage of Jerusalem, "whiche herbe hath no particular vse in Physicke, but it is much vsed in Meates and Salades with egges, as is also Cowslippes and Prymeroses, whervnto in temperature it is much like." See also Gerard's Herbal, 1633, where it is called "Cowslips of Jerusalem."

[E208] "Liuerwort," so called from the liver shape of the thallus, and its supposed effects in disease of the liver. O. L. Ger. _Steenleuerwnyt_. According to Lyte's Dodoens, p. 59, "a soueraigne medicine against the heate and inflammation of the Lyuer, and all hoate Feuers or Agues." _Anemone Hepatica_, Linn.

The first portion of this note refers to a Cryptogam called Liverwort, having nothing to do with the plant meant by Tusser.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E209] "Marigolds are hote and drye, an herbe well knowen and as vsual in the kitchin as in the hal: the nature whereof is to open at the Sunne rising, and to close vp at the Sunne setting. It hath one good propertie and very profitable for Students, that is by the vse thereof the sight is sharpened. And againe the water distilled of Marigolds when it flowreth, doth help the rednesse and inflammation of the eyes if it be dropped into them, or if a linnen cloth wet in the water be laid upon them. Also the powder of Marigolds dried, being put into the hollownesse of the teeth, easeth toothach. And the juice of the herbe mingled with a little salt, and rubbed often times vpon Warts, at length weareth them away."--Cogan's Haven of Health, ch. 63. Called in the Grete Herbal _Mary Gowles_, a name that seems to have originated in the A.S. _mersc-mear-gealla_ = marsh-horse-gowl, the marsh marigold, or _caltha_, transferred to the exotic plant of our gardens and misunderstood as _Mary Gold_. It is often mentioned as Gold simply by our older poets:

"That she sprunge up out of the molde Into a floure was named _golde_." --Gower, ed. 1554, f. 120.

"The yellow marigold, the sunne's own flower," says Heywood in Marriage Triumphe, and "so called," says Hyll (Art of Gard. ch. xxx.), "for that after the rising of the sun unto noon, this flower openeth larger and larger; but after the noontime unto the setting of the sun the flower closeth more and more, so that after the setting thereof it is wholly shut up."

"The marigold observes the sun, More than my subjects me have done." --K. Charles I.

[E210] "Mercurie." A name rather vaguely applied in old works, probably the "Good Henry, _Chenopodium Bonus Henricus_." Called also "Allgood," Dutch _algoede_, Ger. _allgut_, from Lat. _tota bona_, Cotgrave and Palsgrave _toutte bonne_, on account of its excellent qualities as a remedy and as an esculent; hence the proverb: "Be thou sick or whole, put _Mercury_ in thy koale."--Cogan, Haven of Health, ch. 28. "The Barons Mercury, or male Phyllon dronken, causeth to engender male children, and the Mayden Mercurie, or gyrles Phyllon dronken, causeth to engender Gyrles or Daughters."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 78.

It is still much grown in some districts, as in Lincolnshire (where it is called "Marquerry"), being boiled and eaten as spinach.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E211] "Nep," common Cat-mint. "Dronken with honied water is good for them that haue fallen from a lofte, and haue some bruse or squat, and bursting, for it digesteth the congeled and clotted bloud, and is good for the payne of the bowels, the shortnesse of breath, the oppillation or stopping of the breast, and against the Jaundice."--Lyte, p. 148. See also Gerard's Herbal, 1633. "Nepe, herbe, _Coloquintida, cucurbita_."--Prompt. Parv. "Neppe, an herbe, _herbe du chat_."--Palsgrave. Forby gives the Norfolk simile "as white as _nep_," in allusion to the white down which covers this plant.

The plant referred to in the quotation from the Prompt. Parv. is not that meant by Tusser.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E212] "Orach," _Atriplex hortensis_, or _sativa_, formerly _Arach_, Prompt. Parv. _Arage_, in MS. Harl. 979 _Arasches_, Fr. _arroche_, from Low Lat. _aurago_ from _aurum_ = gold, by the addition to it of _ago_ = wort, as in plantago, lappago, etc. At the same time its use in the cure of jaundice, _aurugo_, may have fixed upon the plant the name of the disease.

"_Atriplicem_ tritam cum nitro, melle, et aceto, Dicunt appositam calidam sedare podagram: _Ictericis_ dicitque Galenus tollere morbum Illius semen cum vino sæpius haustum." --Macer, cap. xxviii. l. 7, quoted by Dr. Prior.

[E213] "Patience," called in Lyte's Dodoens, p. 559, "Wild Docke," and stated to be a remedy for jaundice, the "bitinges and stinginges of Scorpions," and the tooth ache, and if "hanged about the necke it doth helpe the kinges euill or swelling in the throte."

[E214] If the virtues of Penny Royal, as stated in Lyte's Dodoens, p. 232, be true, the use of it might now be advantageously adopted by the consumers of London drinking water. He says: "If at any time men be constrayned to drinke _corrupt, naughtie, stinking,_ or salte water, throw Penny royal into it, or strow the pouder thereof into it, and it shall not hurte any bodie." It is sometimes called Pudding-grass, from its being used to make stuffings for meat, formerly called _puddings_. It is recommended by Andrew Boorde (Dyetary, ed. E.E.T. Soc. p. 281) as a remedy for melancholy, and to comfort the spirits of men.

[E215] "Primerose," from _Pryme rolles_, the name it bears in old books and MSS. The Grete Herball, ch. cccl. says: "It is called _Pryme Rolles_ of _pryme tyme_, because it beareth the first floure in _pryme tyme_." It is also so called in Frere Randolph's Catalogue. Chaucer writes it in one word _primerole_. (See also MS. Addit. 11, 307, f. 37:

"He shal ben lyk the lytel bee That seketh the blosme on the tre, And souketh on the _prumorole_.")

_Primerole_ is an abbreviation of Fr. _primeverole_, It. _primaverola_, dimin. of _prima vera_, from _fior di prima vera_ = the first spring flower. Primerole, as an outlandish unintelligible word, was soon familiarized into _prime rolles_, and this into _primrose_. This is explained in popular works as meaning the first rose of the spring, a name that never could have been given to a plant that in form and colour is so unlike a rose. But the rightful claimant is, strange to say, the _daisy_, which in the South of Europe is a common and conspicuous flower in early spring, while the _primrose_ is an extremely rare one, and it is the _daisy_ that bears the name in all the old books. See Fuchs, Hist. Stirpium, 1542, p. 145, where there is an excellent figure of it, titled _primula veris_; and the Ortus Sanitatis, ed. Augsb. 1486, ch. cccxxxiii., where we have a very good woodcut of a daisy titled "masslieben, _Premula veris_, Latine." Brunfelsius, Novum Herbarium, ed. 1531, speaking of the Herba paralysis, the cowslip, says, p. 1590, expressly, "Sye würt von etlichen Doctores _Primula veris_ genaunt, das doch falsch ist wann _Primula veris_ ist matsomen oder zeitlosen." Brunschwygk (De Arte Distillandi, 1500, book ii. c. viii.) uses the same words. The Zeitlose is the daisy. Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 531) assigns the name to both the daisy and the primrose. Matthioli (ed. Frankfort, 1586, p. 653) calls his Bellis Major "_Primo fiore maggiore_, seu _Fiore di prima vera_, nonnullis _Primula veris major_" and figures the moon-daisy. His Bellis minor, which seems to be our daisy, he calls "_Primo fiore minore, Fior di primavera_, Gallis _Marguerites_, Germanis _Masslieben_." At p. 883, he figures the cowslip, and calls that also "_Primula veris_, Italis _Fiore di primavera_, Gallis _primevere_."--Dr. Prior's Pop. Names of British Plants. "_Petie Mulleyn_ (whiche we call _Cowslippe_ and _Primerose_) is of two sortes. The smaller sorte, which we call Primerose, _Herbasculum minus_, is of diuers kindes, as yellow and greene, single and dubble."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 122.

Lupton (Book of Notable Things, v. 89) speaks of "Primroses, which some take to be Daisies."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E216] "Rosemary," Lat. _rosmarinus_, sea-spray, from its usually growing on the sea-coast and its odour, is recommended by Lyte for fastening loose teeth. "Take of rewe a grete quantite, and sawge halfe als mekille, and _rosemaryne_ the same quantitee."--MS. Linc. Med. f. 283. According to Andrew Boorde it is a remedy for "palses and for the fallynge syckenes, and for the cowghe, and good agaynst colde."

[E217] "Safron," Sp. _azafran_, from Arabic _al zahafaran_. On the cultivation, etc., of Saffron in England, there is a long account in Harrison's Description of England, book iii. cap. 24. See note E354.

[E218] "Spinage." "Called in Arabic _Hispanach_; 'Arabicæ factionis principes _Hispanach_, hoc est, Hispanicum olus nominant.'--Fuchs, Hist. Stirp. p. 668. Dodoens (bk. v. 1. 5) tells us, '_Spinachiam_ nostra ætas appellat, nonnulli _spinacheum_ olus. Ab Arabibus et Serapione _Hispanac_ dicitur.' Brunfelsius (ed. 1531) says expressly at p. 16, 'Quæ vulgo _spinachia_ hodie, Atriplex _Hispaniensis_ dicta est quondam; eo quod ab Hispania primum allata est ad alias exteras nationes.' Tragus also calls it _Olus Hispanicum_; Cotgrave, _Herbe d'Espaigne_; and the modern Greeks σπαναχιον [Greek: spanachion]."--Dr. R. A. Prior.

[E219] Lyte, p. 642, says: "_Cyues_ or Rushe onions: this kinde of Leekes is called in English Cyues, and of Turner in Latine, _Cepa pallacana_, and in Greke Gethyun, which he Englisheth by al these names, a Cyue, a Civet, a Chyue, or _Sweth_."

[E220] "Tanzie," Fr. _athanasie_, contracted to _tanacée_ and _tanaisie_. Lyte says, p. 18, that it was sold in the shops under the name of _Athanasia_, the Greek word for immortality, and that it was so called, "quod non cito flos inarexat." A cake used to be made in which tansy was one of the ingredients, and which was called Tansay-Cake. The following recipe for it is given in MS. Sloane 1986, f. 100:

"Breke egges in bassyn, and swynge hem sone, Do powder of peper therto anone, Then grynde _tansay_, tho juse owte wrynge, To blynde with tho egges, withowte lesynge. In pan or skelet thou shalt hit frye, In buttur well skymm et wyturly, Or white grece thou may take therto, Geder hit on acake, thenne hase thou do, With platere of tre, and frye hit browne, On brodeleches serve hit thou schalle, With fraunche-mele* or other metis withalle."

* A dish composed chiefly of eggs and sheeps' fat.

In Halliwell's Dict. is also given a recipe for a dish called _Tansie_. Cogan, in his Haven of Health, p. 65, says: "It is much vsed among vs in England about Easter, with fried egs, not without good cause, to purge away the fleame engendred of fish in Lent season, whereof wormes are soone bred in them that be thereto disposed, though the common people vnderstand not the cause, why _Tansies_ are more vsed after Lent, than at any other time of the yeare." "To prevent being Bug-bitten. Put a sprig or two of _Tansy_ at the bed head, or as near the pillow as the smell may be agreeable."--T. Cosnett's Footman's Directory, p. 292. "For to dystroy a Wrang Nayle, othewyse callyd a Corne. Take wylde _tansey_, and grynde yt, and make yt neshe, and ley it therto, and it wyl bryng yt owght."--Lambeth MS. 306, f. 65, quoted in Political, Relig. and Love Poems (E. E. Text Soc. ed. Furnivall), p. 36.

The wild tansey is not Tusser's plant.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E221] "Blessed Thistle." "So worthily named for the singular vertues that it hath.... It sharpneth the wit and memorie, strengthneth all the principall parts of the bodie, quickneth all the senses, comforteth the stomacke, procureth appetite, and hath a speciall vertue against poyson, and preserueth from the Pestilence, and is excellent good against any kinde of Feuer, being vsed in this manner: Take a dramme of the powder, put it into a good draught of ale or wine, warme it and drink it a quarter of an hour before the fit doth come, then goe to bed, couer you well with clothes and procure sweate, which by the force of the herbe will easily come foorth, and so continue vntill the fit be past.... For which notable effects this herbe may worthily be called _Benedictus_ or _Omnimorbia_, that is a salue for euery sore, not knowen to Physitians of old time, but lately reuealed by the speciall providence of Almighty God."--Cogan's Haven of Health, p. 545.

[E222] "Purslane," in Turner's Herball _Purcellaine_, in the Grete Herball _Porcelayne_, in Dodoens _Purcelayne_. "It is good against St. Antonies fier, called _erysipelas_."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 576. "Purslain in Latin is called _Portulaca, a portula_ = a little gate, because they fancied it to be like one."--Lemery's Treatise on Foods, 1704, p. 92.

[E223] "Rampions," Fr. _raiponce_, "a word mistaken as in the case of _cerise_ and _pease_, for a plural, and the _m_ inserted for euphony."--Dr. Prior, Popular Names of British Plants.

[E224] "Men say that who so taketh the seede of Rockat before he be beaten or whipt, shalbe so hardened that he shall easily endure the payne, according as Plinie writeth."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 622. What a pity Tusser did not know of this property of the Rocket! from his own account he had plenty of opportunities of testing it at Eton.

[E225] "Sage causeth wemen to be fertill, wherefore in times past the people of Egypt, after a great mortalite and pestilence, constreyned their wemen to drinke the iuyce therof, to cause them the sooner to conceyue, and to bring foorth store of children."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 252.

[E226] "Sea holie." _Eryngium maritimum_, Linn. "The leaves are good to be eaten in sallads."--Langham's Garden of Health. "The young and tender shoots are eaten of divers either raw or pickled."--Parkinson, Theatrum Botanicum, 1640, p. 988.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E227] "Sampere is a weede growing neare the sea-side, and is very plentifull about the Ile of Man, from whence it is brought to diuers parts of England, preserved in Brine, and is no lesse wholesome than Capers."--Cogan's Haven of Health, p. 64. The Eng. Samphire is a corruption of the Fr. Herbe de _Saint Pierre_, from its growing on the rocks on the sea-shore. The leaves are used in the form of a pickle as an article of diet.

[E228] "The _Ionians_ had so much Veneration for them that they swore by _Cabbages_, and were therein as superstitious as the _Egyptians_, who gave divine Honours to _Leeks_ and _Onions_, for the great Benefits which they said they received from them."--Lemery's "Treatise on Foods," 1704, p. 73.

[E229] "Citrons," according to Lyte, p. 704, will cure "tremblynge of the hart and pensiue heavinesse, wamblynges, vomitinges, and lothsomnesse of the stomache." The citron was probably introduced into Europe with the orange by the Arab conquerors of Spain, and first received in England from that country. By a MS. in the Tower it appears that in 1290, 18 Edw. I., a large Spanish ship came to Portsmouth, and that from her cargo Queen Eleanor purchased Seville figs, dates, pomegranates, 15 _Citrons_, and 7 _poma de orenge_.--Way in Prompt. Parv.

[E230] "The garden Basill is called in English _Basill Royall_ or _Basill gentle_, and the smaller kinde is called _Bushse_ (sic) _Basill_. The herbe brused with vineger and holden to the nose of suche as are faynt and fallen into a sound bringeth them againe to themselues, and the seede therof giuen to be smelled upon causeth the sternutation or niesing."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 241. "One thing I read in Hollerius (Lib. i. cap. i.) of Basill, which is wonderfull. 'A certaine Italian, by often smelling to Basill, had a scorpion bred in his braine, and after vehement and long paines he died thereof.'"--Cogan's Haven of Health, p. 50. See also 51. 34.

[E231] "Costmary, L. _Costus amarus_, Fr. _coste amere_, misunderstood as _Costus Mariæ_, an error that has very naturally arisen from this plant having been dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, and called after her, _Maudlin_, either in allusion to her box of scented ointment, or to its use in the uterine affections over which she presided. In old authors it occurs as _Herba sanctæ_ or _divæ Mariæ_."--Dr. R. Prior, Popular Names of Brit. Plants. Called also Alecost from its having formerly been esteemed an agreeable aromatic bitter, and much used for flavouring ale: "If you list to make a pleasant drinke, and comfortable to the stomache, put certaine handfuls of this herbe in the bottome of a vesselle, and tunne up new Ale vpon it."--Cogan, Haven of Health, ch. 69.

[E232] "Paggles," spelt also Paigle, Pagle, Pagel, Peagle, Pegyll and Pygil, a name now confined to the Eastern Counties, and generally assigned to the Cowslip, but by Ray and Moor to the _Ranunculus bulbosus_. The derivation is uncertain. "Blake (yellow) as a paigle."--Ray. In Suffolk the name is applied to the Crowfoot, the _Cuckoo-flower_.

[E233] "Our common germander or thistle benet is found and knowne to bee so wholesome and of so great power in medicine, as anie other hearbe, if they be vsed accordinglie."--Harrison, Descript. of Eng., ed. Furnivall, pt. i. p. 326. "The iuyce of the leaues mengled with oyle, and straked vpon the eyes, driueth away the white cloude, called the Hawe or Pearle in the eye, and all manner dimness of the same."--Lyte's Dodoens, p. 25.

[E234] "That which is commonly called Sothernewood is the male kinde of this herbe, and that which we doe call _Lauender-cotten_ is the female, named in Latine _Cypressus_ or _Santolina_. The setting of _Lauender-cotten_ within the house in floure pots must needes be very wholesome, for it driveth away venemous wormes, both by strawing, and by the sauour of it, and being drunke in wine it is a remedie against poyson."--Cogan's Haven of Health, p. 56.

[E235] "Mawdelin," spelt also _Maudlin, Mawdeleyn_ and _Maudeline_, appears to have derived its name similarly to _Costmary_, q.v., and to have been applied to the same uses.

[E236] "Baies," Bays, from French _baie_, which is formed from Lat. _bacca_ = a berry. In old writers _bay_ is used for a _berry_ generally, as "the bayes of ivyne," but in time the term came to be applied to the berries of the _sweet bay_, called by Virgil _lauri baccas_, from their being an article of commerce; from the berry the term was extended to the tree itself.

[E237] "Bachelor's Buttons." So called, according to Johnson's Gerarde, p. 472, "from their similitude to the jagged cloathe buttons anciently worne in this kingdom," but according to others from "a habit of country fellows to carry them in their pockets to divine their success with their sweethearts." Called by Lyte (Dodoens, p. 421), _Goldcup_ or _Gold knoppe_, and described as a double variety of the flower now known so well as the Butterflower, or Buttercup, the Fr. _bouton d'or_.

[E238] "Columbine," called Colourbine in Lincoln, _Aquilegia vulgaris_, used for making stuffed chine.

"There are many sorts of Colombines, as well differing in forme as colour of the flowers, and of them both single and double carefully noursed up in our gardens, for the delight both of their forme and colours."--Parkinson, _Paradisus_, 1629, p. 271.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E239] "Daffadowndilly, Daffodilly, Affodilly, and Daffodil, Lat. _asphodelus_, from which was formed Affodilly, the name of it in all the older writers, but subsequently confused with that of another flower, the so-called _sapharoun_ or saffron _lily_:

"'The thyrde _lylye_ ȝyt there ys, That ys called felde lylye, y wys, Hys levys be lyke to _sapharoun_, Men know yt therby many one.' --MS. Sloane, 1571.

"With the taste for alliteration that is shown in popular names, the _Sapharoun-lily_, upon blending with _affodilly_, became, by a sort of mutual compromise, _daffadowndilly_, whence our _daffodilly_ and _daffodil_."--Dr. R. A. Prior, Popular Names of British Plants. "Strew me the ground with daffadowndillies."--Spenser, Shep. Cal. 140.

[E240] "Eglantine," a word of doubtful origin. Chaucer writes it _eglatere_ and _eglentere_. Fr. _aiglantier_, Prov. _aiglentina_ = wild rose. Diez derives it from Lat. _aculeus_ = a prickle, through the adj. _aculentus_.

[E241] Feverfew (_Pyrethrum parthenium_), a genus of Composite plants, common in our gardens, and deriving its name from having long been employed as a popular remedy in ague and other fevers, and as an emmenagogue. It appears to possess stimulant and tonic properties. It is a perennial plant, and may attain a height of one or two feet. Its leaves are flat and broad, its flowers small. It is nearly allied to Camomile. The variety grown in gardens is well known under the name of "golden feather."

[E242] "Flower armor," evidently the _Floramor_, Fr. _fleur d'amour_, from a misconception of its Latin name _Amaranthus_, as though a compound of _Amor_, love, and _anthus_, a flower.

[E243] "Flower de luce," the _flos deliciarum_ of the Middle Ages. Ducange, quoting from the history of the Harcourts, says:--"Thomas, Dux Exoniæ habet comitatum de Harcourt ... per homagium ac reddendum _florem deliciarum_ apud Castrum de Rouen," etc. (A.D. 1423). Another derivation is as follows:--"Louis VII. dit le Jeune, prit le premier des _fleurs de lis_, par allusion à son nom de Loys (comme on l'écrivait alors). On a dit dans ce temps-là _Fleur de Loys_, puis _Fleur de Louis_, enfin, _Fleur de Lis_." (Grandmaison, Dict. Heraldique.) The flower that he chose seems to have been a _white_ one, for Chaucer says:

"His nekke was white as is the flour de lis."

In E. K.'s Glossary to Spenser's Shep. Cal. April, we read "_Flower delice_, that which they use to misterme _Flowre deluce_ being in the Latine called _Flos delitiarum_."

[E244] According to Lyte the Flower Gentle is identical with the Floramor (see above). Various species of _Amaranthus_, including the Flower amor (43. 10), and what we now call _Celosia cristata_, or Cockscomb, were included under this name. Parkinson (Paradisus, p. 370) says: "We have foure or five sorts of Flower-gentle to trimme up this our Garden withall."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E245] "Gilliflower, formerly spelt _gyllofer_ and _gilofre_ with the _o_ long, from Fr. _giroflée_, ltal. _garofalo_, in Douglas's Virgil _jereflouris_, words formed from M. Lat. _garoffolum, gariofilum_, or, as in Albert Magn. (lib. vi. cap. 22), _gariofilus_, corrupted from Lat. _caryophyllum_ = a clove, and referring to the spicy odour of the flower, which seems to have been used in flavouring wines to replace the more costly clove of India. The name was originally given in India to plants of the Pink tribe, especially the carnation, but has in England been transferred of late years to several Cruciferous plants. That of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakspere was, as in Italy, _Dianthus caryophyllus_, Linn., that of later writers and gardeners _Matthiola_ and _Cheiranthus_, Linn. Much of the confusion in the names of plants has arisen from the vague use of the French terms _Giroflée, Oeillet_, and _Violette_, which were, all three of them, applied to flowers of the Pink tribe, but subsequently extended, and finally restricted in English to very different plants. _Giroflée_ has become _Gilliflower_, and passed over to the _Cruciferæ, Oeillet_ has been restricted to the _Sweet Williams_, and _Violette_ has been appropriated to one of the numerous claimants of its name, the genus to which the pansy belongs."--Dr. R. A. Prior.

[E246] "Holiokes," in Huloet's Dict. Holy Hoke. Wedgwood (Etym. Dict.) derives it from A.S. _hoc_, Welsh _hocys_ = a mallow, and says that it obtained the title of _Holy_ from its being brought from the Holy Land, where it is indigenous.

[E247] "Indian Eie." This was probably a _Dianthus_ of some kind (French _œillet_), the same perhaps which is now grown in our gardens as Indian or Chinese Pink.

[E248] _Laus tibi_, "a narcissus with white flowers. It groweth plenteously in my Lorde's garden in Syon and it is called of divers White Laus tibi."--Turner's Herball, pt. ii. b. 2. "It is very difficult to ascertain what plant was meant by this name, which is also mentioned by Turner in his 'Names of Herbes' (1548), and in his 'Libellus' (1538), where there is a long disquisition concerning it. It may be _Narcissus poeticus_, L., as Mr. B. D. Jackson supposes in his reprint of the 'Libellus' or possibly _N. biflorus_, L."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E249] "Lillium cum vallium," the "Lily of the Valley," in Lyte _Lyllie Conuall_, and also termed _May Blossoms, May Lyllies_, and _Lyryconfancy_.

[E250] "Nigella Romana." The _Nigella Damascena_, Linn., a favourite old-fashioned garden annual, still to be met with in gardens under the names of "Love-in-a-mist," or "Devil-in-a-bush."

[E251] "Pansy," or Paunce, Fr. _pensée_, thought. According to Dr. Johnson the name is derived from Lat. _panacea_, but there is no evidence of the plant ever having been so called, or having been regarded as a panacea. It has received more popular names perhaps than any other plant, both in our own and in foreign languages. The following are some of the quaint titles given to it: "Cull me to you," or "Cuddle me to you," "Love and Idle," "Live in Idleness," "Love in Idleness" (originally "Love in idle," _i.e._ in vain); "Love in idle Pances," "Tittle my fancy," "Kiss me, ere I rise," "Jump up and kiss me," "Kiss me at the garden gate," "Pink of my John," "Herb Trinity," and "Three faces under one hood," from the three colours combined in one flower. It was also called "Hearts-ease," and "Flame flower" (M. Lat. _Viola flammea_).

_Heartsease_, a term meaning "_a cordial_," as in Sir W. Scott's Antiquary, ch. xi., "Buy a dram to be eilding and claise, and a supper and _hearts-ease_ into the bargain," given to certain plants supposed to be cardiac: at present [applied] to the _pansy_ alone, but by Lyte, Bulleyn, and W. Turner, to the _Wallflower_ equally.--Dr. R. A. Prior's Popular Names of British Plants, which see for an account of the origin of the name.

[E252] "Sops-in-Wine," the Clove Gilliflower, _Dianthus caryophyllus_, L., so called from the flowers being used to flavour wine or ale. Cf. Chaucer's Rime of Sir Thopas, B. 1950:

"Ther springen herbes grete and smale, The lycorys and cetewale, And many a clowe gilofre, And notemuge to putte in ale, Whether it be moyste or stale."

"Bring Coronations and _Sops in wine_ worne of Paramoures." ---Spenser, Shep. Cal. April.

"Garlands of Roses and _Sopps in Wine_."--Ibid. May. E. K., in his Glossary, says: "_Sops in Wine_, a flowre in colour much like a _coronation_ (carnation), but differing in smel and quantitye."

[E253] "Sweete Williams,"from Fr. _œillet_, Lat. _ocellus_, a little eye, corrupted to _Willy_, and thence to _William_, "in reference, perhaps, to a popular ballad, 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William,' [printed in Ritson's Early Songs and Ballads, ed. Hazlitt, 1877] a name assigned by W. Bulleyn (f. 48) to the Wallflower, but by later herbalists and modern gardeners, as here, to a species of pink, _Dianthus barbatus_, Linn. According to an article in the Quarterly Review (No. 227), it formerly bore the name of 'Sweet Saint William'; but the writer gives no reference, and probably had no authority for saying so."--Dr. R. A. Prior, pp. 228 and 250.

[E254] "Sweete Johns." Apparently a variety of Sweet William. See Parkinson's "Paradisus," pp. 319, 321, for descriptions and figures: "The chiefe differences betweene them are, that [Sweet Williams] have broader, and darker greene leaues, somewhat brownish, especially towards the points, and that the flowers stand thicker and closer, and more in number together, in the head or tuft."--Note by Mr. J. Britten,, F.L.S.

[E255] "Star of Jerusalem." This is usually _Tragopogon pratensis_, L., as in Gerard, p. 736, but some other plant is likely to be meant here.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E256] "Tuft gilleflowers." Probably some low-growing _Dianthus_, such as that figured as "Matted Pinkes" by Parkinson (Paradisus, p. 315).--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E257] "Veluet flowers," according to Dr. Prior, the "love-lies-bleeding," _Amaranthus caudatus_, Linn., from its crimson velvety tassels; according to Lyte, the same as the Flower Gentle, or Floramor, Fr. _passevelours, A. tricolor_, Linn.

[E258] "Eyebright." "Divers Authours write that goldfinches, linnets, and some other Birds make use of this Herb for the repairing of their own and their young ones sight."--Coles, "Adam in Eden," 1657, p. 46. It is the "Euphrasy" of Milton, P. L. xi. 414. A similar story is told of the Hawk-weed. See Pliny (lib. xx. c. 7).

[E259] "Fumetorie," Fr. _fume terre_, Lat. _fumus terræ_, earth-smoke, it being believed to be produced without seed from vapours arising from the earth, as stated by Platearius: "Dicitur _fumus terræ_, quod generatur a quadam fumositate grossâ, a terrâ resolutâ, et circa superficiem terræ adherente." Pliny (lib. xxv. c. 13) says that it takes its name from causing the eyes to water when applied to them, as smoke does;

"Take youre laxatives Of lauriol, centaure, and _fumytere_." --Chaucer, Nonnes Prestes Tale, 143.

See Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pp. 432-3 and 438, ed. 1845.

[E260] "Woodrofe," spelt according to an old distich thus:

"Double U, double O, double D, E, R, O, double U, double F, E."

It derives its name originally from the Fr. _roue_ = a wheel, dimin. _rouelle_, the leaves being set on the stems so as to resemble the large _rowels_ of ancient spurs.

[E261] "Archangel." This is _Archangelica officinalis_, the stalks of which "were formerly blanched and eaten as Celeri.... The gardeners near London, who have ditches of water running through their gardens, propagate great quantities of this plant, for which they have a great demand from the confectioners, who make a sweetmeat with the tender stalks of it cut in May."--Martyn's ed. of Miller's Gardener's Dictionary. It is still sometimes grown in gardens for use in the above-mentioned manner. According to Cogan (Haven of Health, p. 71), it will cure the bite of a mad dog.

[E262] According to Cogan "Cummin" was extensively used for washing the face, it having the effect, if not used too often, of making the complexion clear; if used to excess, it caused paleness. He continues, "In Matthiolus (lib. 3, cap. 60) I reade a practise to be wrought with _Cummine_ seedes, and (as I thinke) hath been vsed in time past of Monkes and Friers. They that counterfait holinesse and leannesse of bodie, doe often vse Cummine seedes in their meates, and be perfumed therewith."--Haven of Health, p. 47.

[E263] "Detanie." Dittany (_Origanum onites_, Linn.) was commonly cultivated in gardens at this period. Gerard, p. 795, says it is "a hot and sharpe hearbe," and speaks of it as biting the tongue.

[E264] Gromell, Grummel, or Gray myle, as Turner says it should be written, from _granum solis_ and _milium solis_ together. "That is al one," says the Grete Herbal, "_granum solis_ and _milium solis_." The common _gromwell_ or gray millet, _Lithospermum officinale_, Linn., was formerly esteemed as a remedy for the stone and other diseases. In a treatise on the virtues of plants, written in the 15th century, Roy. MS. 18 A. vi. f. 766, the following description is given: "_Granum solis_ ys an herbe þat me clepyþ _gromel_, or lyþewale: thys herbe haþ leuys þat be euelong, and a lytyl white flour, and he haþ whyte seede ischape as a ston that me clepyþ margery perl." Cotgrave gives "Gremil, grenil, the hearb _gromill, grummell_, or _graymill_, peare-plant, lichewall." The word is derived by Skinner "_a granis sc. lapideis, quæ pro seminibus habet, q.d. granile._"--Way, in Prompt. Parv. "Grumelle, _milium, gramen solis_."--Catholicon Anglicum.

[E265] "Louage," spelt in Prompt. Parv. and in Holland's Trans. of Pliny, _love-ache_, as though it were love-parsley. French _levesche_, A.S. _lufestice, Levisticum officinale_, Koch.

[E266] "Mandrake." Matthioli (lib. iv. c. 61) tells us that Italian ladies in his own time had been known to pay as much as 25 and 30 ducats for one of the artificial mandrakes (common white bryony) of itinerant quacks, and describes the process of their manufacture. They were supposed to remove sterility; hence Rachel's anxiety to obtain them (Genesis xxx. 14). There were numerous other superstitions regarding this plant; amongst others it was said to shriek when torn up. See Gerard's Herbal, 1597, p. 280, and Peacock's Glossary of Manley, etc., E. D. Soc. Lupton (Book of Notable Things, iii. 39) gives instructions for the manufacture of Mandrakes from bryony roots. The true Mandrake is _Atropa Mandragora_, Linn.

[E267] Mogwort. "Mugwort, a name that corresponds in meaning with its synonym _wyrmwyrt_, wormwood, from O.E. _mough, moghe_, or _moughte_, a maggot or moth.

'And wormes and _moghes_ on þe same manere Sal þat day be in wittenes broght;' --Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, l. 5572;

and Wycliffe (Matt. vi. 20):

'Where neþer ruste ne _moughte_ destruyeþ.'

The name was given to this plant from its having been recommended by Dioscorides to ward off the attacks of these insects. 'Mogwort, al on as seyn some, modirwort: lewed folk þat in manye wordes conne no rygt sownynge, but ofte shortyn wordys, and changyn lettrys and silablys, þey corruptyn þe _o_ into _u_, and _d_ into _g_, and syncopyn _i_, smytyn awey _i_ and _r_, and seyn mugwort.'--MS. Arundel, 42, f. 35. It is unnecessary to have recourse to this singular process. The plant was known both as a _moth-wort_ and as a _mother-wort_, but while it was used almost exclusively as a _mother-wort_, it still retained, at the same time, the name of _mugwort_, a synonym of _moth-wort_. In Ælfric's glossary it is called _matrum herba_--Dr. R. A. Prior. See Brand's Pop. Antiq. for an account of the superstitious custom of seeking under the root of this plant on Midsummer-eve for a coal, to serve as a talisman against many disasters.

[E268] "Rew." Shakspere, Hamlet, iv. 5. 181: "There's rue for you; and here's some for me: we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays." And Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 74:

"For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep Seeming and savour all the winter long: Grace and remembrance be to you both."

Some suppose it to have been called "herb of grace" on account of the many excellent properties it was held to possess, being a specific against poison, the bites of venomous creatures, etc.; but probably it was so called because "rue" means "repent." Cf. also Richard II. Act iii. sc. 4. 105:

"Here in this place I'll set a bank of _rue_, sour herb of grace."

[E269] "Bots." "Pease an beanes are as danke here as a dog, and this is the next way to give poor jades the _bottes_."--Shakspere King Henry IV. Act ii. sc. 1. "Begnawne with _bots_."--Taming of Shrew, Act iii. sc. 2.

"Sauin." "It is often put into horses' drenches, to helpe to cure them of the bots, and other diseases."--Parkinson, Paradisus, p. 607.

[E270] "Stitchwort," spelt _Stich-wurt_ in Mayer and Wright, Nat. Antiquities, 1857, and given from a thirteenth century MS. as the translation of "Valeriane." Supposed to possess the power of curing a pain or _stitch_ in the sides.--See Gerard's Herbal, 1597, p. 43. _Stellaria Holostea_, Linn.

[E271] "Woodbine," not a _bine_ that _grows in woods_, but a creeper that binds or entwines trees, the honeysuckle. A.S. _wudu-winde_ and _wudu-bind_, from _wudu_ = a tree, and _windan, bindan_ = to entwine. In Shakspere (Mids. Night Dr. Act iv. sc. 1) it seems to mean the bittersweet:

"So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle Gently entwist."

[E272] "Gregorie." "This day (12th March) seems to have been much used as a date for agricultural observances: cf. 37. 3. In connexion with this it is worth while to note the Suabian saying, 'Säe Erbsen Gregori' (sow cabbage on St. Gregory's Day). See Swainson's Weather Folklore, p. 168."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.

[E273] "Mastiues and Mungrels." Although the influence of a very patriotic sumptuary tax has diminished the number of dogs, we have still 'thousands too manie.' [This may with truth be said even still.] However, as Lent now makes little difference in the mode of living, which it certainly did in the earlier period of the Reformation, our dogs are not driven by our meagre fare to prey on the lambs; and therefore need not be particularly watched on this account.--M. Mastif is derived from O. Fr. _mestif_ = a mongrel (Cotgrave). In the Craven dialect a great dog is still called a _masty_. See note E35.

[E274] By "hooke or by crooke" occurs in Spenser, Faery Queene, Bk. v.