257 I WASHING. TAKE heed when ye wash, Else run in the lash. 1. Maids, wash well, and wring well, but beat, ye wot how, If any lack beating, I fear it be you'. 2. In washing by hand, have an eye to thy boll, For launders and millers, be quick of their toll. Dry sun, dry wind, Safe bind, safe find. 3. Go wash well, saith Summer, with sun I will dry; Go wring well, saith Winter, with wind so shall I. 4. To trust without heed, is to venture a joint, Give tale and take count, is a huswifely point. Where many be packing, Are many things lacking. 5. Where hens fall a cackling, take heed to their nest, When drabs fall a whispering, take heed to the rest. 6. Through negligent huswives, are many things lacking. And Gillet suspected, will quickly be packing. machines are but partially employed: they have the prejudices of the ladies of the tub to contend with, whose influence in families is not in. considerable. 1 Tusser inveighs against beating beetle, or a flat board. Washinglinen, which still, however, continues to be the practice in many parts of the kingdom, and, indeed, of the habitable globe. In some places, the feet are used; in others, the hands; and in others, on the contrary, a Malting. I MALTING'. ILL malting is theft; Wood dried hath a weft. 1. House may be so handsome, and skilfullness such, 2. Some drieth with straw, and some drieth with wood; Wood asketh more charge, and yet (b c) nothing so good. Take heed to the kell, Sing out as a bell. 3. Be suèr no chances, to fier can draw, The wood, or the furzen, the brake, or the straw. 4. Let Gillet be singing, it doth very well, To keep her from sleeping, and burning the kell. Best dry'd, best speeds: Ill kept, bowd breeds. 5. Malt being well speered, the more it will cast", VARIATION. (bc) want yet. Few, at this period, make their own malt. In the golden days of Tasser, excisemen were unknown. The cautions and directions, bow ever, here given, are very good. The sense seems to be "that the more malt is grown or shot, the farther it will measure." Speered, which comes from the verb, to spear, is a term used in malting, to express growing. 6. Long kept in ill soller (undoubted thou shalt,) Through bowds without number, lose quickly thy malt. 1 DINNER MATTERS. FOR hunger or thirst, Serve cattle well first. 1. By noon, see your dinner be ready and neat', Let meat tarry servant, not servant his meat. 2. Plough-cattle, a baiting, call servant to dinner, The thicker together, the charges the thinner. Together is best, For hostis and guest. 3. Due season is best, altogether is gay, Dispatch hath no fellow, make short and away. 4. Beware of Gill Laggoose disordering thy house, Mo dainties who catcheth, than crafty fed mouse! Among the peasantry, the alteration in the dinner hour, within the last three centuries, is less considerable than in many other points. If they do not dine exactly at noon, they seldom exceed one o'clock. Dinner-time. Let such have enough, That follow the plough. 5. Give servant no dainties, but give him enough, Too many chaps walking do beggar the plough'. 6. Poor seggons, half starved, work faintly and dull, And lubbers do loiter, their bellies too (a) full. Give never too much, 7. Feed lazy, that thresheth, a flap and a tap, Like slothfull, that alway be stopping a gap. 8. Some litherly lubber, more eateth than two, Yet leaveth undone, what another will do. Where nothing will last, Spare such as thou hast. 9. Some cutteth thy linen, some spoileth thy broth, Bare table to some, doth as well as a cloth. 10. Treen dishes be homely, and yet not to lack, Where stone is no laster, take tankard and jack. VARIATION. (a) to. I Though all the standard editions read," chaps walking," may it not be a misprint for chaps wagging, that is, mouths craving? At present, not less than formerly, plowing is performed at a great, and in many counties, an unnecessary expense. Knap boy on the thumbs, And save him his crumbs. 11. That pewter is never for mannerly feasts (a), That daily do serve so unmannerly beasts (a). 12. Some gnaweth and leaveth, some crusts and some Eat such their own leavings, or gnaw their own 12. At dinner, at supper, at morning, at night, Give thanks unto God, for his gifts so in sight'. 14. Good husband and huswife will sometimes, alone, Make shift with a morsell, and pick of a bone. Enough thou art told; . Too much will not hold. 15. Three dishes well dressed, and welcome with all, 16. Enough is a plenty, too much is a pride, Grace before and after meat. (a) feast. VARIATIONS. (a) doth serve an unmannerly beast. 'The principles of religion seem to have been deeply rooted in the mind of Tusser; and the advice which he gives in this distich, of constantly acknowledging a dependence on the Almighty, is the most effec. tual way to promote even our tem- |