(4). ‘The _plough-head_, which is fixed with the skeath and the hale, all at one instant, into two several mortise-holes; a flat piece of timber, about three feet in length, seven inches in breadth, and two and a half in thickness, and having two nicks towards the head of the plough.’ This is the same as what Fitzherbert calls the _sharebeam_; see the explanation in sect. 2, l. 10. (5). ‘The _plough-spindles_, two round pieces of wood which couple the hales [handles] together.’ These are what Fitzherbert calls the _rough staves_; see l. 35. (6). ‘The _right-hand hale_, through which the other end of the spindles run, much more slender than the left-hand hale, because no force is put on it.’ This is Fitzherbert’s _plough-stilt_; see l. 21. (7). The _plough-rest_, a small piece of wood, fixed at one end in the further nick of the plough-head, and on the other end to the right-hand hale.’ ‘In the Middle Ages,’ says Prof. Rogers, ‘it appears that this part was made of iron, and that it was occasionally double.’ We must remember that _plough-head_ means the _sharebeam_. (8). ‘The _shelboard_ [i.e. shield-board], a board of more than an inch thick, covering the right side of the plough, and fastened with two strong wooden pins to the skeath and right-hand hale.’ (9). ‘The _coulter_, a long piece of iron made sharp at one end, passing on one side by a mortise-hole through the beam, and held in place by an iron ring which winds round the beam and strengthens it.’ Fitzherbert’s description is slightly different; see l. 48. The use of the coulter is to make the first incision into the earth; it precedes the share, which follows it and completes its work. (10). ‘The _share_. If this be needed for a mixed earth, it is made without a wing, or with a small one only: if, however, it be needed for a deep or stiff clay, it should be made with a large wing or an outer point.’ (11). ‘The _plough-foot_. This is an iron implement, passed through a mortise-hole, and fastened at the farther end of the beam by a wedge or two, so that the husbandman may at his discretion set it higher or lower; the use being to give the plough earth or to put it from the earth, for the more it is driven downward the more it raises the beam from the ground and makes the irons forsake the earth, and the more it is driven upward, the more it lets down the beam and makes the irons bite the ground.’ Fitzherbert well describes it as ‘a stay to order of what deepness the plough shall go.’ The word _ploughfote_ occurs in Piers Plowman, B. vi. 105; see my notes to that poem, vol. iv. p. 161. This part of the plough was also called a _plough-shoe_ (in Latin, _ferripedalis_); see Rogers (as above), p. 538. In a modern plough, the plough-foot is generally replaced by small wheels. I may remark that it was placed in front, before the coulter.