[265] _Manydown Manor Rolls_, Hampshire Record Society, pp. 178 et seq. [266] Rawl. A. 170, No. 101. [267] McPherson, _Annals of Commerce_, ii. 483. [268] Ibid. ii. 630. [269] Ibid. iii. 147. The rental of the lands in England in 1600 was estimated by Davenant at L6,000,000, in 1688 at L14,000,000; and in 1726 by Phillips at L20,000,000. Ibid. iii. 133. In 1850, Caird estimated it at L37,412,000. [270] With what horror would those legislators have contemplated England's position to-day, when a temporary loss of the command of the sea would probably ruin the country. [271] 21 Jac. 1, c. 28. [272] _Transactions of the Royal Historical Society_ (New Series), xix. 116. [273] _Transactions of the Royal Historical Society_ (New Series), xix. 127. [274] Ibid. 130. [275] See article in _Transactions of the Royal Historical Society_ (New Series), xix. [276] Macaulay, _History of England_, ch. iii. [277] _Quarterly Journal of Economics_, xvii. 587. Considering that the legislature of the sixteenth century was against enclosure and depopulation, it is hard to understand 31 Eliz., c. 7, which forbade cottages to be erected unless 4 acres of land were attached thereto, in order to avoid the great inconvenience caused by the 'buyldinge of great nombers and multitude of cottages, which are daylie more and more increased in many partes of this realme'. How was it that cottages had increased so much in rural districts, which are of course alluded to, in spite of enclosure? [278] Harwood, _Erdeswick_. [279] Hasbach, _op. cit._ p. 44. [280] Cunningham, _Industry and Commerce_, i. 187. [281] _General View of Hunts._, p. 8. [282] _General View of Lincoln_, p. 29. [283] _Farming Calendar_, from an original MS., printed in _Archaeologia_, xiii. 373 et seq. [284] Cf. Tusser: 'October for wheat-sowing calleth as fast'; and 'When wheat upon eddish (stubble), ye mind to bestowe Let that be the first of the wheat ye do sowe'; and 'Who soweth in raine, he shall reap it with tears'. [285] The writer of the diary probably meant this work should be done in September. CHAPTER XII THE GREAT AGRICULTURAL WRITERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.--FRUIT GROWING. A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ORCHARD The seventeenth century is distinguished by a number of agricultural writers whose works, as they afford the best account of the farming of the time, we may be pardoned for freely quoting. The best known of them were, Sir John Norden, Gervase Markham, Sir Richard Weston, Blythe, Hartlib, Sir Hugh Plat, John Evelyn, John Worlidge, and Houghton.