buttery, and kitchen, and furniture was scanty, but the plate cupboard was well filled.[236] A prosperous yeoman was often comparatively better off than the small squire. Richard Cust, of Pinchbeck in the same county, though his house was small, consisting only of a hall, parlour with chamber over, kitchen with chamber over, brew-house, milne-house (mill-house), and milk-house, was richer in furniture, possessing a folding-table, 4 chairs, 6 cushions, 27 pieces of pewter, 10 candlesticks, 4 basins, 1 laver, 6 beds, and other articles.[237] FOOTNOTES: [215] See table at end, and Thorold Rogers's prices in Vol. V. of his great work. [216] 'A perfite platforme of a Hoppegarden', in _Arte of Gardening_, by R. Scott, 1574. [217] Tusser recommends that the hopyard be dug. Thomas Tusser was born in Essex, about 1525, and died in 1580. He led a roving life, which included a good deal of farming; but the statement that he died poor appears to be inaccurate. Much of his advice is not very valuable. [218] Harrison, _Description of Britain_, p. 110. [219] Usually grown in gardens, until the middle of the seventeenth century. Tusser also mentions them. [220] _Description of Britain_, ii. 324 (Furnivall ed.). [221] Harrison, _Description of Britain_, ii. 329. [222] _State of the Poor_, i. 48-9. Blomefield's _Norfolk_, iv. 569, i. 51, i. 649. Dugdale, _Warwickshire_, p. 557. [223] _Description of Britain_, iii. 5. [224] _Description of Britain_ (ed. Furnivall), ii. 243. [225] Froude, _History of England_, v. III. [226] 'A compendious or brief examination of certain ordinary complaints', quoted by Eden, _State of the Poor_, 1. 119. [227a] _Transactions of the Royal Historical Society_ (New Series), xix. 103. [227b] Ibid. xi. 74 sq. [228] Nasse, _Agricultural Community of the Middle Ages_, p. 9. _Archaeologia_, xxxiii. 270. [229] In the still surviving open fields at Laxton, mentioned above, there are certain unploughed portions called 'sicks', or grassy patches, never cultivated.--Slater, _op. cit._ p. 9. [230] _Archaeologia_, xlvi. 374. [231] _Description of Britain_, ii. 150. [232] In the reign of Mary, 'the plain poor people did make very much of acorns.' Cullum, _Hawsted_, p. 181. [233] Eden, _State of the Poor_, i. 116. [234] _Itinerary_, iii. 140. [235] _Rutland Magazine_, i. 64. [236] _Victoria County History: Lincolnshire_, ii. 331. [237] See _Records of Cust Family_, i. 56. CHAPTER X 1540-1600 LIVE STOCK.--FLAX.--SAFFRON.--THE POTATO. THE ASSESSMENT OF WAGES