Radio Script #908

Little Talks on Common Things
November 21, 1971

While this program has been concerned chiefly with events and persons of Central Maine in days gone by, I occasionally like to bring in items farther afield, especially if they have had any connection with Maine.

Two months ago Mrs. Walter Hinckley, widow of my close friend who was long associated with the Good Will Homes and Schools, gave me opportunity to examine a very old book long held in the Hinckley family, though no one seems to know how it ever came orignally into that family’s possession. This book is so old that it was published before the Pilgrims landed on American soil from the Mayflower in 1620. The book is actually three books, published at different times, but bound together into a single volume. It was, in fact, originally four books, because the first 104 pages are missing, but it contains intact the other three parts. The oldest part is called The Husband Man’s Fruitful Orchard, published in 1609. Another part is The English Housewife, 1615; and the third is Cheap and Good Husbandry, 1616. All were printed in London.

Now 1616 is a significant date in English history, for in that year Shakespeare died. Some of us also are reminded that 1611 was the date of publication of the King James version of the Bible, the one book that had the greatest influence on the spread of literacy in both England and America.

So the first of these four books of  Mrs. Hinckley came from the press two years before the Bible translators had finished their great task. And all three were published in the closing years of England’s golden period, called the Elizabethan Age. Queen Elizabeth I (Good Queen Bess) had died earlier in the new century, but the fruits of her reign – the great voyages, the new colonies, the expanding trade – were at their height.

England in the early 17th century was still an agricultural country, and the farmer was held in high regard. Not the peasant, who did the hard work on the farms, but the farm owner, whether of a small tract, or of a big manor. He knew seeds and crops, all sorts of domestic animals. He knew a lot about breeding of stock, their proper feeding and care. And as 150 years of English printing were more readily available, a lot of information about British agriculture and animal husbandry got into print. So two of the parts of this book deal with the farmers’ concerns, while the third is for the housewife. And by housewife was not meant the wife of a London trademan or artisan, but the wife on a British farm.

The book on fruits and orchards gives valuable information about how the common fruits got started in England. It says: “One Richard Harris of London, born in Ireland, courtier to King Henry VIII, fetched out of France great stofe of grafts, especially pippins, before which time there were no right pippins in England. He fetched also out of the Low Countries cherry and pear grafts of diverse sorts. He then took a piece of ground belonging to the King in the parish of Tenham in Kent, a tract of seven ~core acres, whereof he made an orchard, planting therein all those foreign grafts. That has been the chief mother of all other orchards of these fruits in Kent and other places. The Harris Orchard is called Newgarden. Now, since it hath pleased Almight God to give increase and plenty of fruit to this land,  think it is good to show what course might be taken to make fruits good and profitable. And that is what this book seeks to do.”

The book tells us that, in the early 1600’s, there were four sorts of cherries in England: Flemish, English, Gascasonne, and black. Beside attention to apples and pears, there were several pages devoted to quinces, a fruit very popular at the time.

Another of the books bound together in this old volume has to do with animals and fowl on the farm. Some of the chapter headings are: Color of Horses, Care of Coach Horses, Taming a Young Colt, The Best Mule Cows, Feeding and Care of Bulls, the Shape of Sheep, Use and Profit of Swine; Hen, Chicken and Capon; Preserving of Eggs, Gathering of Goose Feathers, Feeding of Swans, the Tame Pigeon, Care of Hawks, Trimming the Bee Hive, and the Making of Fish Ponds.

Not all of the advice on horses concerned the lesser gentry. One passage said: “If you choose a horse for a supreme magistrate or a great lady, choose one of the finest shape, who bears his head high without help of the a man’s hand, one that has the nimble and easiest pace, is gentle and calm. His color should be milk white or dapple gray.”

There is plenty of advice about poultry familiar to us even today. But let us take a look at some of the more unusual items. We shall begin with the dunghill cock, called in more recent times the barnyard rooster. “This bird”, says the old book, “is a fowl of all birds the most stately and majestical, very tame and inclined to live in habitable houses. But he also delights in open plains, where he may lead his hens into green pastures.”

How did they get chickens ready for market 300 years ago? Listen to this: “To fat a chicken for cooking, sift, barley meal and mix it with new milk, forming a stiff dough. Then make it into long craws, and wetting them in warm milk, give the chicken a full gorgeful three times a day, and in three weeks he will be as fat as any man will want to eat.”

Now fet us see about goose feathers: “For the gathering of goose feathers, while some advise that you pull your goose twice a year in March, and August, that is not best. In that way disabling the flight of the goose, you make her subject to the cruelty of the fox and in winter leave her to the cold. It is best to take the feathers only at moulting time. Then you can use them for beds, fletchers, and scriveners.”

What were fletchers and scriveners? Fletchers were arrow-makers, and they used many goose feathers to balance the flight of the arrows. A scrivener was a professional letter writer, a valuable man in the 17th century town where few people could read and write. His pens were made of goose quills.

It is a rare farm on which one today sees a peacock, but in 17th century England every large farm or manor owned a flock of them. The old book tells us: “Peacocks are more for the delight of the eye than for profit. Their best, practical use is to keep the yard free from toads and newts. Their flesh is rather unwholesome and is used at great banquets rather for appearance than for nourishment.”

The book has a lot to say about hawks and falcons, including this item: “A hawk, by too much flying, overheats and inflames its body. If that happens, give the hawk stones. These are very fine pebbles lying in the sands of gravelly rivers, usually no bigger than a bean. The roughest stones are best.”

By far the most interesting of these three old books bound together is the one addressed to the housewife. In the 1600’s not only was woman expected to stay in her place, but she was told in no uncertain terms what her place was. First let us see how she was expected to behave.

“Our English housewife must be chaste, courageous, patient, untired, watchful, and witty. Her first duty is care of the family health, so she should have a knowledge of physic (the 17th century term for medicine, from which we get the word physician). The depth and secrets of the excellent art of physic is far beyond her capacity, fit only for the learned professors. Yet she may comprehend some ordinary rules and know the use of some medicines. She should know the symptons of fevers and chills. For grotidian fever let her take a new-laid egg, take out the white, then fill the shell with the yoke mixed with aqua vitae, and stir it well.”

Note some of the other remedies the housewife was urged to use: “For a stroke of palsy the strong scent of a fox is best·, but if you cannot get it, let the sick person drink a pint of distillation of lavender. For wind colic take a large nutmeg and divide it into quarters. The first morning eat one quarter, the second morning two, the third morning three, and the fourth morning a whole nutmeg. Having now made the stomach familiar with nutmeg, eat a whole one every morning as long as the distress lasts. For worms in the belly take half a hazelnut and wrap it in the pap of a wasted apple and swallow it as you would a pill.”

The housewife was given all sorts of advice about cooking. “For the best fritters, warm a pint of cream, and the white of eight eggs beaten in a dish. Add cloves, mace, nutmeg and saffron. Put in a spoonful of ale barme and a little salt. Thicken with wheat flour. Set it near the fireplace to rise and swell. Then add a pot of sack. Put it in a pan and set it over the fire. When it begins to bubble, put slices of pared apple into the batter. Then put it into a boiling steam and your fritters will be crisp and brown.”

In 17th century England wild fowl were nearly as plentiful as the Pilgrims found them when they landed at Plymouth Rock in the New England wilderness. Boiling was their favorite form of preparing meat, and the housewife was given these instructions for boiled fowl. “To boil any wild fowl, as mallard, teal or widgeon, first boil the bird by itself, then take a quart of strong mutton broth, add a good store of sliced onions, a bunch of sweetpot herbs, and a lump of butter. After it is well boiled, steam it with vinegar, salt and sugar and a little pepper. Then break up your fowl according to the fashion of carving and stick a few cloves into it. Put it into the broth with the onions and serve it on siffers.”

Minute were the instructions to women for preparing wool. The book said: “It is the husbandman’s duty to shear the sheep and give the housewife such a quantity of wool as shall clothe the family. With the fleece lying whole before her, she shall cut away with shears all the coarse locks and lay them aside to make later her coarse coverlets. The rest cleaned, she shall break into pieces and tease it lock by lock with her hands open, and divide the wool till it is open and loose. As much as she intends to put into colors she will then lay aside in a bag of netting for each color. These she will send to the dyers. She will spin the wool on great wheels, affording two sorts of spinnings, warp and woof. The warp is spun close, round and hard twisted; the woof is spun loose.”

Surprisingly the book says nothing about home weaving, though we know it was common in the American colonies in the 17th century. The writer assumed that the village weaver did that work. The housewife was told: “When the yarn is delivered to the weaver, the housewife has finished her part. She must charge the weaver to weave it close, strong and true, see that the walker or fuller mills it carefully, and be sure that his scouring earth does not beat holes in the cloth.”

The British housewife of 1600 had few idle hours, and she certainly was expected to manage the home.

Year: 1971