ke out his tables
& wryte the defautes; & when he commeth home to dinner, supper, or at
nyght, then let him call his bayley, & soo shewe him the defautes. For
this," says he, "used I to doo x or xi yeres or more; & yf he cannot
wryte, lette him nycke the defautes uppon a stycke."

Sir Anthony is gracious to the wife, but he is not tender; and it may be
encouraging to country-housewives nowadays to see what service was
expected of their mothers in the days of Henry VIII.

"It is a wives occupacion to winow al maner of cornes, to make malte,
wash & wring, to make hey, to shere corne, & in time of neede to helpe
her husbande to fyll the mucke wayne or donge carte, dryve the plough,
to lode hay corne & such other. Also to go or ride to the market to sell
butter, chese, mylke, egges, chekens, kapons, hennes, pygges, gees & al
maner of corne. And also to bye al maner of necessary thinges belonging
to a household, & to make a true rekening & accompt to her husband what
she hath receyved & what she hathe payed. And yf the husband go to
market to bye or sell as they ofte do, he then to shew his wife in lyke
maner. For if one of them should use to disceive the other, he
disceyveth himselfe, & he is not lyke to thryve, & therfore they must be
true ether to other."

* * * * *

I come next to Master Tusser,--poet, farmer, chorister, vagabond,
happily dead at last, and with a tomb whereon some wag wrote this:--

"Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive,
Thou teaching thrift, thyself could never thrive;
So, like the whetstone, many men are wont
To sharpen others when themselves are blunt."

I cannot help considering poor Tusser's example one of warning to all
poetically inclined farmers.

He was born at a little village in the County of Essex. Having a good
voice, he came early in life to be installed as singer at Wallingford
College; and showing here a great proficiency, he was shortly after
impressed for the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral. Afterward he was for
some time at Eton, where he had the ill-luck to receive some fifty-four
stripes for his shortcomings in Latin; thence he goes to Trinity
College, Cambridge, where he lives "in clover." It appears that he had
some connections at Court, through whose influence he was induced to go
up to London, where he remained some ten years,--possibly as
singer,--but finally left in great disgust at the vices of the town, and
commenced