A Short History of English AgricultureClarendon Press, 1909 - 371 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
acres arable land average barley better Black Death bread breed bushels cattle cent cheese clover common fields corn Corn Laws cottages cows crops Crown 8vo cultivation Cunningham CURTLER demesne Devon distress Domesday edition eighteenth century enclosed enclosure England export farm farmers freeholders grass harrow harvest Hasbach Hawsted Herefordshire hops horses husbandry Ibid imports improvement increased labourer landlord landowners large number leases Lincolnshire live stock lord manor manure meadow meat Middle Ages Norfolk oats owing owners oxen paid parish Parliamentary Reports pasture plough poor profit quarter R. A. S. E. Journal rent Royal Historical Society says seasons seed seventeenth century sheep Shorthorn Shropshire small holdings Society soil sold statute Suffolk tenant Thorold Rogers tillage tithe to-day turnips village villeins Vinogradoff wages waste wheat wool Worlidge worth Young
Popular passages
Page 222 - Dispensatory, the Complete Justice, and a book of Farriery. In the corner, by the fireside, stood a large wooden two-armed chair with a cushion ; and within the chimney corner were a couple of seats. Here, at Christmas, he entertained his tenants assembled round a glowing fire made of the roots of trees and other great logs, and told and heard the traditionary tales of the village respecting ghosts and witches, till fear made them afraid to move. In the mean time, the jorum of ale was in continual...
Page 222 - He was commonly followed by a couple of greyhounds and a pointer, and announced his arrival at a neighbour's house by smacking his whip or giving the view-halloo. His drink was generally ale, except...
Page 222 - Near the gate a horse-block, for the conveniency of mounting. The hall was furnished with flitches of bacon, and the mantel-piece with guns and fishing-rods of different dimensions, accompanied by the broad-sword, partisan, and dagger, borne by his ancestor in the Civil Wars. The vacant spaces were occupied by stags
Page 222 - Another character, now worn out and gone, was the country squire; I mean the little independent gentleman of three hundred pounds per annum, who commonly appeared in a plain drab or plush coat, large silver buttons, a jockey cap, and rarely without boots. His travels never exceeded the distance of the county town, and that only at" assize or session time, or to attend an election.
Page 157 - The frost continuing more and more severe, the Thames before London was still planted with booths in formal streets, all sorts of trades and shops furnished, and full of commodities, even to a printing-press, where the people and ladies took a fancy to have their names printed, and the day and year set down when printed on the Thames...
Page 121 - At Enfield, hardly out of sight of the smoke of the capital, was a region of five and twenty miles in circumference, which contained only three houses and scarcely any enclosed fields. Deer, as free as in an American forest, wandered there by thousands.
Page 31 - Besides a plough of oxen will go as far in a year as a plough of horses, because the malice of ploughmen will not allow the plough (of horses) to go beyond their pace, no more than the plough of oxen. Further, in very hard ground, where the plough of horses will stop, the plough of oxen will pass.