Agriculture -- England; Conduct of life; Home economics, Rural
Again, at p. 65, he says that if he were to say too much about
the faults of horses, he would break the promise that he made “at
Grombalde brydge,” the first time that he went to Ripon to buy
colts. After some search as to the place here intended, I found, in
Allen’s History of Yorkshire, that one of the bridges over the Nidd
near Knaresborough is called “Grimbald bridge;”[8] and, seeing that
Knaresborough is exactly due south of Ripon, it follows that the
author came from the south of Knaresborough. We seem, in fact, to
trace the general direction of his first ride to Ripon, viz. from
his home to the farther side of Derbyshire, through the northwest
corner of Scarsdale to Sheffield, and “so northward” through Leeds
and Knaresborough. Nothing can be more satisfactory.
A very interesting point is the author’s love of farming and of
horses. As to horses, he tells us how he first went to Ripon to
buy colts (p. 65); how many secrets of horse-dealing he could
tell; how, in buying horses, he had been beguiled a hundred times
and more (p. 63); how he used to say to his customers that, if
ever they ventured to trust any horse-dealer, they had better
trust himself (p. 73); and how he had in his possession at one
time as many as sixty mares, and five or six horses (p. 60). In
this connection, it becomes interesting to inquire if Sir Anthony
Fitzherbert was fond of horses likewise.
It so happens that this question can certainly be answered in the
affirmative; and I have here to acknowledge, with pleasure and
gratitude, the assistance which I have received from one of the
family,[9] the Rev. Reginald Fitzherbert, of Somersal Herbert,
Derbyshire. He has been at the trouble of transcribing Sir
Anthony’s will, a complete copy of which he contributed to “The
Reliquary,” No. 84, vol. xxi. April, 1881, p. 234. I here insert,
by his kind permission, his remarks upon the subject, together with
such extracts from the will as seem most material for our present
purpose.
“The following will of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, of Norbury, is
transcribed from the Office Copy at Somerset House (Dingley, fol.
20), and is now printed, as I believe, for the first time. The
contractions have been written out _in extenso_.
“Sir Anthony married, secondly, the co-heir of Richard Cotton, and
with her he acquired the estate of Hampstall Ridware, which he
probably kept in his own hands, and farmed himself. He succeeded
his brother John at Norbury in 1531, and died there in 1538, aged
68.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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