My musick since hath been the plough,
Intangled with some care among;
The gain not great, the pain enough,
Hath made me sing another song.
Which song, if well I may avow,
I crave it judged be by you.

Your Servant, THOMAS TUSSER.

To the Right Honorable and my speciall good Lord and Master, the Lord Thomas Paget of Beaudesert, Son and Heir to his late Father deceased.

CHAP. II.

My Lord, your father loved me
And you, my Lord, have proved me,
And both your loves have moved me,
To write, as here is done.

Since God hath hence your father,
Such flowers as I gather

I dedicate now rather

To you, my Lord, his son.

Your father was my founder,
Till death became his wounder,
No subject ever sounder,

Whom prince advancement gave:
As God did here defend him,
And honor here did send him,
So will I here commend him,
As long as life I have.

His neighbours then did bless him,
His servants now do miss him,
The poor would gladly kiss him,
Alive again to be;

But God hath wrought his pleasure,
And blest him out of measure,
With heaven and earthly treasure,
So good a God is he.

His counsell had I used,
And CERES' art refused,
I need not thus have mused,
Nor droop, as now I do :
But I must play the farmer,
And yet no whit the warmer,
Although I had his armer,

And other comfort too.

The fox doth make me mind him,

Whose glory so did blind him,
Till tail cut off behind him,
No fare could him content.
Even so must I be proving,
Such glory I had in loving
Of things to plough behoving,
That makes me now repent.

Loiterers I kept so meany,
Both Philip, Hob, and Cheany,
That, that way nothing geany,
Was thought to make me thrive :
Like Jugurth, prince of Numid,
My gold away consumed,
With losses so perfumed,
Was never none alive.

Great fines so near did parc me,
Great rent so much did scare me,
Great charge so near did dare me,

That made me at length cry creak :
Much more of all such fleeces,
As oft I lost by pieces,
Among such wily geeses,

I list no longer speak.

Though country health long staid me,
Yet lease expiring fraid me,
And (ictus sapit) pray'd me,

To seek more steady stay.
New lessons then I noted,
And some of them I quoted,
Lest some should think I doted,
By bringing naught away.
Though PALLAS hath deny'd me,
Her learned pen to guide me,
For that she daily spy'd me,

With country how I stood;
Yet CERES So did bold me,
With her good lessons told me,
That rudeness cannot hold me,
From doing country good.

By practise and ill speeding,
These lessons had their breeding,
And not by hearsay or reading,

As some abroad have blown;
Who will not thus believe me,
So much the more they grieve me,
Because they grudge to give me,
What is of right mine own.

At first for want of teaching,
At first for trifles breaching,
At first for over-reaching,

And lack of taking heed,
Was cause that toil so tost me,
That practise so much cost me,
That rashness so much lost me,

Or hindred as it did.

Yet will I not despair,

Through God's good gift so fair,
Through friendship, gold, and prayer,
In country again to dwell:
Where rent, so shall not pain me,
But pains shall help to gain me,
And gains shall help maintain me,
New lessons more to tell.

For city seems a wringer,

The penny for to finger,

From such as there do linger,
Or for their pleasure lie.
Though country be more painfull,
And not so greedy gainfull;
Yet is it not so vainfull,

In following fancy's eye.

I have no labour wanted,
To prune this tree, thus planted,
Whose fruit to none is scanted,
In house, or yet in field:
Which fruit, the more ye taste of,
The more to eat, ye haste of,
The less this fruit ye waste of;
Such fruit this tree doth yield.

I SEEM but a drudge, yet I pass any king,
To such as can use me, great wealth I do bring.
Since ADAM first lived, I never did die;
When NOE was a shipman, there also was I.
The earth to sustain me, the sea for my fish,
Be ready to pleasure me, as I would wish.
What hath any life, but I help to preserve?
What wight without me, but is ready to sterve?
In woodland, in champion, city, or town,
If long I be absent, what falleth not down?
If long I be present, what goodness can want?
Though things, at my coming, were never so scant.
So many as love me, and use me aright,
With treasure and pleasure I richly requite.
Great kings I do succour, else wrong it would go,
The KING of all kings hath appointed it so.

THE DESCRIPTION OF HUSBANDRY.

CHAP. VIII.

Or husband, doth husbandry challenge that name, Of husbandry, husband doth likewise the same : Where huswife and huswifery joineth with these, There, wealth in abundance is gotten with ease.

The name of a husband, what is it to say?
Of wife and the houshold, the band and the stay :
Some husbandly thriveth that never had wife,
Yet scarce a good husband in goodness of life.

The husband is he, that to labour doth fall,
The labour of him I do husbandry call:
If thrift, by that labour, be any way caught,
Then is it good husbandry, else it is naught.

So houshold and housholdry I do define,

For folk and the goods, that in house be of thine:
House-keeping to them, as a refuge is set,
Which like as it is, so report it doth get.

Be house or the furniture never so rude,
Of husband and husbandry,-thus I conclude,
That huswife and huswifery, if it be good,
Must pleasure together, as cousins in blood.

THE LADDER TO THRIFT.

CHAP. IX.

1. To take thy calling thankfully, And shun the path to beggary. 2. To grudge in youth no drudgery, To come by knowledge perfectly. 3. To count no travell slavery,

That brings in penny saverly. 4. To follow profit, earnestly,

6.

But méddle not with pilfery. 5. To get by honest practisy, And keep thy gettings covertly. To lash not out, too lashingly, For fear of pinching penury. 7. To get good plot, to occupy, And store and use it, husbandly. 8. To shew to landlord courtesy,

And keep thy covenants orderly. 9. To hold that thine is lawfully, For stoutness, or for flattery. 10. To wed good wife for company, And live in wedlock honestly. 11. To furnish house with housholdry,

And make provision skilfully. 12. To join to wife good family,

And none to keep for bravery. 13. To suffer none live idely,

For fear of idle knavery. 14. To courage wife in huswifery, And use well doers gentily. To keep no more but needfully, And count excess unsavoury. 16. To raise betimes the lubberly,

15.

Both snorting Hob and Margery. 17. To walk thy pastures usually,

To spy ill neighbour's subtilty. 18. To hate revengement hastily,

For losing love and amity. 19. To love thy neighbour, neighbourly, And shew him no discourtesy. 20. To answer stranger civilly,

But shew him not thy secresy.
21. To use no man deceitfully,
To offer no man villainy.
To learn how foe to pacify,
But trust him not too hastily.

22.

23. To keep thy touch substantially, And in thy word use constancy.

24. To make thy bands advisedly, And come not bound through suerty. 25. To meddle not with usury,

Nor lend thy money foolishly.

26. To hate to live in infamy,

Through craft, and living shiftingly. 27. To shun all kind of treachery, For treason endeth, horribly. 28. To learn to shun ill company, And such as live dishonestly.

29. To banish house of blasphemy,
Lest crosses cross, unluckily.
30. To stop mischance through policy,
For chancing too unhappily.
31. To bear thy crosses, patiently,

For worldly things are slippery. 32. To lay to keep from misery,

Age coming on, so creepingly. 33. To pray to God, continually,

For aid against thine enemy.

34. To spend thy Sabbath holily,

And help the needy poverty. 85. To live in conscience quietly,

And keep thyself from malady. 36. To ease thy sickness speedily,

Ere help be past recovery. 37. To seek to God for remedy, For witches prove unluckily.

These be the steps, unfeignedly, To climb to thrift by husbandry.

These steps both reach, and teach thee shall, To come by thrift, to shift withall.

¶ GOOD HUSBANDLY LESSONS,

WORTHY TO BE FOLLOWED OF SUCH AS WILL THRIVE.

CHAP. X.

1. God sendeth and giveth, both mouth and the meat,
And blesseth us all with his benefits great :
Then serve we the God, who so richly doth give,
Shew love to our neighbours, and lay for to live.

2. As bud, by appearing, betok'neth the spring,
And leaf, by her falling, the contrary thing;
So youth bids us labour, to get as we can,
For age is a burden to labouring man.

3. A competent living, and honestly had,

Makes such as are godly, both thankfull and glad: Life, never contented, with honest estate, Lamented is oft, and repented too late.

4. Count never well gotten, what naughty is got, Nor well to account of, which honest is not: Look long not to prosper, that weighest not this, Lest prospering faileth, and all go amiss.

5. True wedlock is best, for avoiding of sin;
The bed undefiled, much honour doth win:
Though love be in choosing, far better than gold,
Let love come with somewhat, the better to hold.

6. Where couples agree not, is rancour and strife, Where such be together, is seldom good life; Where couples in wedlock do lovely agree, There foison remaineth, if wisdom there be.

7. Who looketh to marry, must lay to keep house, For love may not alway, be playing with douse; If children increase, and no stay of thine own, What afterward follows is soon to be known.

8. Once charged with children, or likely to be,
Give over to sojourn, that thinkest to thee;
Lest grudging of hostess, and craving of nurse,
Be costly and noisome to thee and thy purse.

9. Good husbands that loveth good houses to keep, Are oftentimes careful when others do sleep: To spend as they may, or to stop at the first, For running in danger, or fear of the worst.

10. Go count with thy coffers, when harvest is in, Which way for thy profit to save or to win : Of t'one or them both, if a savour we smell, House-keeping is godly, wherever we dwell.

11. Son, think not thy money, purse bottom to burn,
But keep it for profit, to serve thine own turn:
A fool and his money be soon at debate,
Which after, with sorrow, repents him too late.

12. Good bargain adoing, make privy but few,
In selling, refrain not, abroad it to shew:
In making, make haste, and away to thy pouch,
In selling, no haste, if ye dare it avouch.

13. Good landlord, who findeth, is blessed of God,—
A cumbersome landlord is husbandman's rod;
He noyeth, destroyeth, and all to this drift,
To strip his poor tenant of farm and of thrift.

14. Rent-corn, whoso payeth, (as worldlings would have,

So much for an acre) must live like a slave;
Rent-corn to be paid, for a reas'nable rent,
At reas'nable prices, is not to lament.

15. Once placed for profit, look never for ease, Except ye beware of such michers as these,Unthriftiness, Slothfulness, Careless and Rash, That thrusteth thee headlong, to run in the lash.

16. Make Money thy drudge, for to follow thy work, Make Wisdom comptroller, and Order thy clerk : Provision cater, and Skill to be cook,

Make Steward of all, pen, ink, and thy book.

17. Make hunger thy sauce, as a med'cine for health, Make thirst to be butler, as physic for wealth: Make eye to be usher, good usage to have, Make bolt to be porter, to keep out a knave.

18. Make husbandry bailiff, abroad to provide, Make huswifery daily, at home for to guide : Make coffer, fast locked, thy treasure to keep, Make house to be suer, the safer to sleep.

19. Make bandog thy scoutwatch, to bark at a thief, Make courage for life, to be capitain chief: Make trap-door thy bulwark, make bell to be gin, Make gunstone and arrow, shew who is within.

20. The credit of master, to brothel his man,
And also of mistress, to minikin Nan,
Be causers of opening a number of gaps,
That letteth in mischief, and many mishaps.

21. Good husband he trudgeth to bring in the gains, Good huswife she drudgeth, refusing no pains. Though husband at home, be to count, ye wot what,

Yet huswife, within, is as needful as that.

22. What helpeth in store, to have never so much, Half lost by ill usage, ill huswives and such? So, twenty load bushes, cut down at a clap, Such heed may be taken, shall stop but a gap.

23. A retcheless servant, a mistress that scowls, A ravening mastiff, and hogs that eat fowls, A giddy brain master, and stroyall his knave, Brings ruling to ruin, and thrift to her grave.

24. With some upon Sundays, their tables do reck, And half the week after, their dinners do seek,

Not often exceeding, but always enough,
Is husbandly fare, and the guise of the plough.

25. Each day to be feasted, what husbandry worse,
Each day for to feast, is as ill for the purse;
Yet measurely feasting, with neighbours among,
Shall make thee beloved, and live the more long.

26. Things husbandly handsome, let workman contrive,

But build not for glory, that thinkest to thrive;
Who fondly in doing, consumeth his stock,
In the end for his folly, doth get but a mock.

27. Spend none but your own, howsoever ye spend, For bribing and shifting have seldom good end: In substance although ye have never so much, Delight not in parasites, harlots, and such.

28. Be süerty seldom, (but never for much)

For fear of purse, pennyless, hanging by such;
Or Scarborow warning, as ill I believe,
When, (Sir, I arrest ye!) gets hold of thy sleeve.

29. Use (legem pone) to pay at thy day,

But use not (oremus) for often delay :
Yet (præsta quæsumus) out of a grate,
Of all other collects, the lender doth hate.

30. Be pinched by lending, for kiffe nor for kin,
Nor also by spending, by such as come in;
Nor put to thine hand, betwixt bark and the tree,
Lest through thine own folly, so pinched thou be.

31. As lending to neighbour, in time of his need, Wins love of thy neighbour, and credit doth breed ;

So never to crave, but to live of thine own,
Brings comforts a thousand, to many unknown.

32. Who living but lends? and be lent to they must. Else buying and selling must lie in the dust: But shameless and crafty that desperate are, Make many, full honest, the worser to fare.

33. At some time to borrow, account it no shame, If justly thou keepest thy touch for the same: Who quick be to borrow, and slow be to pay, Their credit is naught, go they never so gay.

34. By shifting and borrowing, who so as lives, Not well to be thought on, occasion gives: Then lay to live warily, and wisely to spend ; For prodigall livers have seldom good end.

48. Who seeketh revengement of every wrong,
In quiet nor safety, continueth long:
So he that of wilfulness, trieth the law,
Shall strive for a coxcomb, and thrive as a daw.

49. To hunters and hawkers take heed what ye say,
Mild answer with courtesy, drives them away;
So where a man's better will open a gap,
Resist not with rudeness, for fear of mishap.

50. A man in this world, for a churl that is known, Shall hardly in quiet, keep that is his own: Where lowly, and such as of courtesy smells, Finds favour and friendship, wherever he dwells.

51. Keep truly thy Sabbath, the better to speed; Keep servant from gadding, but when it is need: Keep fish-day and fasting-day, as they do fall, What custom thou keepest, let others keep all.