Sundry new and Artificial remedies against Famine.  
Written by H. P. Esq; upon thoccasion of this present Dearth.  Non est quo fugias à Deo irato nisi ad Deum placatum, Aug.  printer's device of P. Short 
P S  ET VSQVE AD NUBES VERITAS TVA 
Printed by P. S. dwelling on Breadstreet hill, at the sign of the Star. 1596.   

NEW REMEDIES against famine.  
THe first, and principal, and most Christian counsel that I can give in these threatening days of sword and famine, is by hearty prayers from a zealous heart to call upon the name of the great and mighty jehovah, and of the gracious and merciful God of Israel, that it may please him to forget and forgive our manifold sins and transgressions, which have turned his favourable countenance so long from us, and brought down from heaven so many clouds of wrath upon the fruits of the earth, as that the great hope of our harvest is smitten and daunted already, and that it would please him of his fatherly goodness by such means as shall seem best in his own eyes, for the relief of these our present wants, to turn this our penury into plenty, and so to bless us with his bountiful hand, that we may all sing a full song of thanksgiving unto him, as well for these new and undeserved favours, as for that glorious victory of late obtained against our popish adversaries, by the hand of those honourable commanders that have already begun the peace of our common wealth.  
Secondly, I could wish that all inferior officers in their places, would have a more charitable and religious care in the execution of those orders, which have of late been penned, and published with grave and deliberate advise from the higher powers for the furnishing of our markets with all kind of grain. For the execution is the very life of the law, and the letter thereof though set down by authority and graced with a most honourable Chorus, doth give some hope at the first, but no full satisfaction in the end unless the executing magistrate, together with those high directors do join hand in hand for the common good of their distressed country.  
Thirdly, I cannot want good will to wish though I have no authority to command, that the very food of the earth even the blessing of the Lord, should be no longer subject to this copyhold & slavish tenure, of such base & unmerciful lords, who upon every rumour of foreign scarcities, upon every petit transportation, yea rumour of transportation only, upon fair weather, or foul weather, or any weather if they list, can make the same finable ad voluntatem Domini, and set what price they list upon the bushel. Is there no Court of Chancery, neither in heaven nor upon earth, to bridle these covetous and unmerciful Lords, yea and to stint them, that howsoever it shall please the God and giver of all things to cross us from the heavens, that yet no inferior person should dare to exceed a certain price to be set down by authority, upon the confiscation of whatsoever grain he should so overrate unto his poor and needy neighbour?  
Fourthly, if ever Abstinence were a true Christian an virtue, than now let it appear amongst us, for why should the rich men feast, when the poor are ready to famish? was there never but one Dives, and one Lazarus upon the earth? or do we want wit, or will, or grace to apply a parable? Here I may well cry out and say to the rich, and fat weathers of our time, as Tully sometime said to Anthony. Te miror Anthoni, ut quorum facta imitêre, eoreum exitus non perhorrescere. I wonder at you o you Epicures that you are not terrified with their destructions whose deeds you seem to imitate. Well if we have brought our pampered bodies to those delicacies, that we can now aswell leave our lives, as our lusts; yet if every rich man would spare but one meal in a week, and confer the estimate upon the poor of the parish where he dwelleth (nunquam nimis dicitur, quod nunquam satis discitur) I say even this one meal would serve well to mend a whole weeks commons of a poor Subscisor.  
My sift and last petition should be to move us to a Christian charity. And if that Roman Poet and orator, that sententious Seneca in the danger and distress of a private friend could give in precept: Quòd amicorum necessitati magis occurrendum, quam succurrendum, that we ought rather to prevent then relieve the necessity of a friend. Then what is to be expected at our hands in a case of so great weight & importance, as doth not only touch the credit of our profession, but also the lives and welfare of many thousands of our poor Christian brethren, whereof some cannot labour, and many are without labour, and those which labour can hardly maintain themselves by their labour. Yea if we would look more narrowly & pierce more deeply with a sharp eye into the threats and terrors of these times, though religion could work no charity in us towards others, yet reason, and civil policy might prevail so much with us for ourselves and those which are dear unto us, that we should not stay so long until our neighbour's flames take hold of our own houses, nor try the extremities that hunger, and famine may work amongst us.  
Thus much by way of Christian advise and counfell, now because I had rather be any way wanting then in good will unto my native Country, unto the which I confess that I own my wit, my wealth, my labour, my life, and whatsoever else I possess under my gracious sovereign: and seeing that many grave, and learned sermons have already in vain beaten upon this Subject, many careful provisions have been from time to time made and published from our prudent, and provident Prince, and from those honourable Senators of our state, which as yet can work no impression in the steely, and adamant hearts of our English Rooks and Cormorants, though I cannot win the goal in so great a purpose as I have in hand, yet I will bid the base to those choice, and delicate wits of England, who if they would either associate themselves unto me at the first, or second me, when I have begun this proud attempt, I would not doubt, but that by these our joint labours we should frustrate the greatest part of these covetous comlots, and by new, and artificial discoveries of strange bread, drink, and food, in matter and preparation so full of variety, to work some alteration and change in this great and dangerous dearth.  
Nevertheless (though I do only break the ye, for those that shall follow me in this kind) yet according to that poor talon of mine, I will try mine own strength and confer as well my conceit, as knowledge herein: which though it be neither such as I could wish, nor as these urgent times require, yet I will be bold (in the fullness of mine affection) to prefer and present the same to the view of the well disposed Reader, whose courteous acceptation hereof, may one day peradventure wring from me some matter of higher reach, and farther service then as yet I see either just cause to promise or reason to speak of.  
And because in the treatise following my Author hath ranged over all manner of trees, plants, roots, green pulse and herbs, out of which he might by any probability draw any kind of sustenance for the relief of man, I will only content myself with the handling or preparation of some of these particulars which are most plentiful in their quantity, least offensive in their nature and most familiar with our soil and bodies, so as their offensive taste being first removed by art, they may serve us in a far better manner and to our greater liking than now they do, either for bread, drink or food.  

How to take away a great part of that rank and unsavoury taste of beans, Pease, Beechmast, chestnuts, Acorns, Veches, and such like.  
IF this may in some good measure be performed, than I doubt not but that the bulk and body of our meal and flower will be much increased and multiplied at the least for the poor man's Table: then receive mine own experience therein. Boil your beans, pease, beech mast, etc. in fair water, and if they be not yet pleasing enough, change your water again, and at the second or third boiling, you shall find a strange alteration in taste, for the water hath sucked out & imbibed the greatest part of their rankness, then must you dry them (and if you think good, you may also hull them, according to the manner set down hereafter in the Abstract of Anchora Famis, etc.) or else you may grind them unhulled, & then make bread thereof, either simply of itself, or with the addition of some third or fourth part of other wheat flower; or else for better expedition at the least in drink, if not in bread, you may take the ground meal of them, and infuse warm water thereon, and as it beginneth to cool, drain the same away, and reinfuse fresh warm water till the taste please you: then dry up the meal, and make bread thereof either simply, or compounded as before. And as concerning the Chestnuts, we have the experience of France therein already, where in great abundance they are spent and consumed in their usual bread in divers parts of that Country.  
The beech mast doth yield a most sweet and delicate oil, and every way comparable with the nut itself, and therefore it is very probable that it will make an excellent bread with a very small correction: & if there might be some easy way or manner found out for the ready husking or hulling of them (which seemeth no matter of any great difficulty) than I durst promise a most rich & plentiful oil of our own growing and serviceable for many necessary uses. But if notwithstanding my former preparation of beans, pease, etc. the meal thereof do not yet content you, then work it into past, with a liquor first strengthened with some bruised Annis seeds, liquorice, or sweet Fennel seeds, or with the seeds themselves incorporated in the past, or for the avoiding of charge with pepperwort, Thime, wintersavery, penniroyal, etc. For if you can but deceive the taste, you shall find the bread very hearty, wholesome, & nourishing. And whatsoever is here spoken of beans, pease, etc. may be generally understood of all other grain, seeds, plants, pulse, roots, etc. And that which is serviceable for bread, will be much more tolerable in drink: for the making whereof in some more cheap manner then as yet is known or usual amongst us you shall find some few notes of mine upon the Abstract following, in their several places.   

Certain strange and extraordinary ways for the relieving of a prisoner, or other poor distressed creatures, when all hope of usual victual is taken from him  
THese as I dare not warrant, so yet because I have received them either from good Authors, or from the credible report of men of worth, I will deliver them as faithfully as I have received them.  
1 And first of all Paracelsus himself affirmeth, that a fresh turf or clod of earth, applied every day unto the stomach of a man, will preserve him from famishing for some small number of days.  
2 I have heard many travailers deliver of their own knowledge and experience, that a man may live 10. or 12. days by sucking of his own blood.  
3. Bapt. Port. telleth us of a poor fellow upon whom a ruinous house fell, and the man so hedged in with the floors and timber that fell upon him, as that not being able to get out, he was forced to relieve himself with his own urine for 9 or ten days, making his hand his cup to drink in.  
4 But the strangest and most incredible of all the rest, is that story which Parson Bateman, sometime Parson of Newington, had by relation of that reverend father D. Grindal then Archbishop of Canturbury, from the mouth of two English captives, that were imprisoned in Turkey, and for their offence condemned to be famished to death, and escaped by this means. The keeper affecting his prisoners for those good parts which he found in them, having received an oath of their secrecy, delivereth unto each of them a small piece of Allom, which he willed them five or six times a day to roll up and down in their mouths. How at ten days end, the great Turk sending to know if the christians were dead or alive, and being informed of their lives, he commanded that upon pain of death no man should dare to relieve them with any manner of food. Now when 10 days more were expired, and the like inquiry & return made as before. Well, qd. the Turk, if they can continue yet 10. days more without food, I will say that the God of the christians will have them preserved, and they shallbe enlarged. The last 10. days expiring, and the prisoners lives certified unto the Turk, they were forthwith delivered out of prison, and returned for their own country, and here discovered the secret. The reason, and probability hereof I will leave for better▪ Magicians then myself. For though we might suppose that the salt of nature might receive some strength or vigour from this mineral salt, yet how the guts should be filled with so small a proportion I cannot guess much less determine.  
¶ A sift food but receiving some help from come was commended by Mendozza himself, wherewith he assured me upon his honour that he had relieved a Spanish town, in an extreme dearth, and scarcity of victual, and therewithal showed me a loaf of that composition, which was of wheat straw, chopped into short pieces, and ground with some proportion of wheat into meal. But since I have been farther informed, that the same practice hath been usual in hard years in some parts of England, and for mine own better satisfaction, I caused some of the same flower to be kneaded into bread, but it was very brown in colour, and very grettie in the mouth, and therefore it should seem that our stones be not so apt for the grinding of it, & I have heard some affirm, that the same cannot well be ground but in a steel mill, or hand mil.  
6 And the East Indians, as I have read, do use to make little balls of the juice of the herb Tabaco, and the ashes of cockle shells wrought up together, and dried in the shadow, and in their travail they place one of these balls between their neither lip, and their teeth, sucking the same continually, and letting down the moisture, and it keepeth them both from hunger and thirst for the space of three or four days.  
7 The seventh and last of this kind, is that sweet root called Liquorice, which being chewed only (if we may believe Pliny) doth in small quantity satisfy both thirst and hunger, and yet maintain sufficient strength in the body.   

How to make an excellent bread of the roots of Aaron called cuckowpit, or starch roots.  
THe making thereof is set down by a late writer in this manner. First, the roots that are large must be cleansed from all skin and filth, and then cut into small and thin slices, the thinner you make them the sooner they are prepared, seethe them in boiling water, so long as you find the water hot and biting, and till the roots begin to wax sweet. Then change your water, and pour fresh water unto them, and so continue boiling until the water become sweet, and that the roots have lost all their acrimony. Then take them out, and lay them abroad upon Canvas, supported with frames, and being dry grind them with hand mills, and they make a most white & pure meal, which either of itself, or by the mixture of one third of wheat meal with it, maketh a most fair & savoury bread. This carrieth some good sense and likelihood of truth with it, for we find by daily experience, that it maketh as fair, if not a fairer starch, than our wheat. And therefore it were to be wished, that some good husbandry were used in the planting, and multiplying of these roots, observing the nature of such soil and place wherein they most delight. And though it should fail us in this kind, yet we shall find our labour richly requited, if we convert them into starch only. But here it is to be remembered, that the root must be gathered when it is plump full, and in his pride, which is about the latter end of March, and April all: for when it beginneth once to spire, and that the sap is run up into the leaves, than the root shrinketh, & also loseth much of his virtue. Here a just occasion is offered to practise the like upon the Turnip, whereof there are both good store and the price of them likewise very reasonable.   

Bread, and other food made of Pompions.  
THis fruit being both cheap, and great, doth also make a very savoury bread, if a little meal be mixed therewith, yielding food to a great number with a small charge. And if you bestow sugar, and other sauce upon it, it may also pass for a delicate dish. The manner of making the same is thus described by Porta: Choose the greatest and ripest Pompions, cut them into thin slices, and take away the hard crust or coat, and the inner marrow or softness, seethe them in boiling water, & bring them to a pulp or pap, and then strain it, adding thereto a third part of meal or flower, and make it up into bread, the fresher you eat the same, the more pleasant & delicate you shall esteem it. But with mine Author's favour: I think you will find it in his best form, and of farthest extension, when it is in his pap or pulp, for his body is exceeding waterish, and vanisheth away to a small substance if you seek to dry it. This I writ by mine own trial, yet peradventure the Gourd of Naples, which he calleth Cucurbita, may be of a differing nature from our Pompions.   

How to save much flower, or meal that is lost in all our usual Corn mills, that grind either with wind or water.  
IF I teach the Miller so to grind his wheat, as that neither the starchmaker (if I be not deceived) shall have stuff to make his starch with, except he grind for himself after the ancient manner; nor the brown Baker any bran to make horsebread withal, I hope that my fault will be pardonable at this time, because I hold it much better to want flower about our necks then in our bellies, and that horses should starve before their masters. The conceit is short, and easy, and I hope without controlment. Let every Mill that grindeth corn, have also a bolting mil annexed unto it, that the same mover may play upon both, and by shaking of the boulter make a division of the bran from the flower. This bran as soon as it is divided from the flower must be returned again into the hopper amongst the rest of the wheat that is unground, and so as fast as you gather any bran, you must mix it with more corn: and by this means you shall have much less bran, and also more flower, though you would notwithstanding this course, pass the same through a fine boulter again. It is an usual manner in the higher part of Germany to boult with these mills, but not to grind over their bran again in the first mill, for aught that I know, or as yet can learn.   

How to make starch without any corn.  
IT is well known that those Aaron roots before mentioned, will make a white and delicate starch. You must gather them in March or April, washing them clean, and paring away all the filth, or foul skins from them, and after slicing them into thin slices, and so leaving them in fair clear water, and changing your water every 12. hours, for the space of four or five days, till they become exceeding white and clean; then stamp them, and force them through a strainer with clean water, and when the substance of the starch is settled in the bottom, which will be in a few hours, then drain away all the clear water that fleeteth on the top, very gently, and expose the rest being in flat earthen pans or clean tubs to the Sun, which will attract or draw up all the water, and leave a hard cake in the bottom. But in the winter time, when you cannot have the Sun of a sufficient force for this purpose, than set your stone pans, or pewter basins wherein you have strained out your starch upon a pot with scalding water, and so you may dry the same in a sufficient quantity for your own use all the year long. And if you would harden the same without charge, then place your pan upon your beef pot, & so you shall make one fire to perform several actions at once. But because these roots are not to be had in all places, nor at all times of the yeeare, therefore for a second supply I have thought good to set down this receipt following.  
Take of the whitest Gum Arabic that you can buy at the Grocers, let them beat the same into pieces for you as big as hafell nuts in their great mortars, then take 3. ounces of this gum, & first wash it in fair conduit water, in a stone basin, stirring it up and down with your hands to take the filth from it; then wash it again with some more water, and power that also away, and then to every 3. ounces so washed put a wine pint of fair conduit water, stirring it up and down 3. or 4. times a day to procure a speedy solution or dissolving of the gum: then cover your pan, and when all the gum is dissolved, strain the water through a clean and thin linen cloth, and reserve the same in glasses well stopped, till you have cause to use it. It will last sweet at the least three weeks after it is made. When you would use this starch, if you desire to have your ruffs to carry a pure & perfect white colour, you must mingle some blue with the water, stirring it up and down with your finger in a porringer, and before the blewe settle to the bottom, wet your ruff therein, and presently wring it out again; then pat it till it be clear, and after set it, as you do in your common starch, I do find by experience, that half the time that is lost in the other manner of starching, is here gained▪ for by reason that your starch is in a thin water, the Lawn & Cambric will be soon cleared, and with much less beating. And I think that a second profit will here likewise fall out by the way, viz. that your Lawn and Cambric will last much longer: for (if I be not deceived) the continual patting, or beating thereof between the hands in our usual starching, worketh a great fretting and wearing of the same. And I doubt not, but that there be many other sorts of grain, pulse and roots, which will make as good starch as wheat, which at this time I leave unto the studious endeavours of those that are careful for the common good. It may be that at my better leisure I may handle this subject more at large, but now the present times enforce me, to deliver that knowledge which I have. And thus much for starch.   

Sweet and delicate cakes made without spice, or Sugar.  
SLice great and sweet parsnip roots (such as are not seeded) into thin slices, and having washed & scraped them clean, dry them, and beat them into powder (here a mil would make a greater dispatch) searcing the same through a fine searce, then knead two parts of fine flower with one part of this ponder and make the same into cakes, and you shall find them to taste very daintily. I have eaten of these cakes divers times in mine own house Quaere, what may be done in carots, turnips, and such like roots after this manner.  
Here I think it not impertinent to the purpose, which I have in hand, to wish a better survey to be made of my book of Husbandry, being a parcel of the jewel house of Art and Nature, printed an. 1594. Wherein sundry new sorts of Marle are familiarly set down, and published for the good of our English farmers: amongst the which, those waste ashes of the Sopeboilers (for such as dwell near unto the City of London, or may by easy water carriage convey them unto their hungry and lean grounds) have a principal place for the enriching of all cold, moist & weeping grounds. The book is to be had at the Greyhound in Paul's churchyard. And if there were such plenty as I could wish of those shavings or cuttings of horn, whereof those the work for lanterns only make the greatest store, I would then in respect of the infinite extension thereof, commend that before any other manuring of ground whatsoever, & for the only garden dung that I know, although for arable ground I must needs confess, that I have one secret, not as yet made known or common to the world, that would prove more general, & more easy of price then any other whatsoever that I as yet have either heard, or read of, but for some reasons best known unto myself, I do as yet forbear the discovery thereof.  
There is also a certain victual in the form of hollow pipes, or wafers, wherewith, as also with a defensative oil for his armours, pieces, and other weapons, I furnished sir Frances Drake in his last voyage, which hath been well approved and commended by sundry of his followers upon their return for England, whereby I was the more encouraged to make a second trial thereof in the Bear which went lately for CHINA. This food I am bold to commend in this place, both because it argueth ad propositum, and for that I know that if the masters, owners, or Mariners of ships, would advisedly look into it, they should find it one of the most necessary, and cheap provisions that they could possibly make, or carry with them. The particular commendation whereof, resteth upon these few branches following:  

1 ¶ First, it is very durable, for I have kept the same both sweet and sound, by the space of 3. years, and it agreeth best with heat, which is the principal destroyer of Sea victual.  
2 It is exceeding light: for which quality Sir Frances Drake did highly esteem thereof, one man may carry upon any occasion of land service, so much thereof, as will be sufficient to relieve two hundred men a day.  
3 It is speedily dressed, for in one half hour, it is sufficiently sodden, by which property it may also save much fuel and firing, which occupieth no small room in a ship.  
4 It is fresh, and thereby very pleasing unto the Mariner in the midst of his salt meats.  
5 It is cheap, for in this dearth of corn, I dare undertake to feed one man sufficiently, for 2. pence a meal.  
6 It serveth both in steed of bread and meat, whereby it performeth a double service.  
7 Not being spent it may be laid up in store for a second voyage.  
8 It may be made as delicate as you please, by the addition of oil, butter, sugar, and such like.  
9 There is sufficient matter to be had all the year long, for the composition thereof.  
10 And if I might once find any good encouragement therein, I would not doubt but to deliver the same prepared in such sort, as that without any farther dressing thereof, it should be both pleasing, and of good nourishment unto a hungry stomach.   
¶ All those which are willing to victual their ships therewith, if they repair unto me, I will upon reasonable warning, furnish them therewith to their good contentment.   

A speedy or present drink which travailers may make for themselves (extempore) when they are distressed for want of good beer or ale at their Inn.  
TAke a quart of fair water, put thereto five or six spoonfuls of good Aqua composita, which is strong of the Annis seeds, and one ounce of Sugar, and a branch of Rosemary, brew them a pretty while out of one pot into another, and then is your drink prepared. Or if you leave out sugar, it will be pleasing enough. I have been credibly informed that divers Gentlemen of good credit, when they travail abroad, and cannot like the taste or relish of their drink, that they use no other than the aforesaid composition, and find the same both to refresh and cool them very well, neither are they troubled with the rawness of cold water, by reason that it hath received some correction by the Aqua composita, & that the Annis seeds do give a delicate taste unto it. It were not amiss for all Seaman to carry some store of Aquavitae with them, that when their wine, Cider, Perry, and beer are spent, they may transmute their water into the said drink.   

A cheap liquor for poor men, when malt is extreme dear.  
IF a poor man in the time of flowering, do gather the tops of Heath with the flowers, which is usually called and known by the name of Linge in the Northerly parts of this Realm, and is that plant whereof our common heath brushes are made, and lay up sufficient store thereof for his own provision being well dried and carefully kept from putrefying or moulding, he may at all times make a very pleasing and cheap drink for himself, by boiling the same in fair water, with such proportion thereof, as may best content his own taste. And this liquor is commended unto me, by one of the most sufficient professors of Physic of our times, and that upon his own and often experience, for a most wholesome and medicinable drink, as well for the Liver as the Spleen. It may be graced with a little liquorice in the decoction, if he see cause.  
¶ I have also heard Sir Frances Drake affirm, that fair water and vinegar mixed in a due proportion, doth make a fine cooling and refreshing drink in hot wether, which he esteemed for a rare secret at the Sea. And I have also known them that have made a voluntary drink thereof on the land, when they have had sufficient choice of others before them.   

How to brew good and wholesome Beer, without any Hops at al.  
SInce my profession in this book, is in some sort to anatomize both Art and Nature, without any regard of private men's profits, whom it either may essentially or accidentally touch, I am bold therefore, without craving any leave to do good: to renew, or rather to confirm and ratify an ancient opinion & practice, which long since in the great dearth and scarcity of hops, many brewers of this land have been enforced to put in use for the better suportation of their weak and declining estates. But because they failed in proportion (without the which there can be nothing complete or absolute) they suffered a good conceit to die in the birth. And no marvel then, if wormwood notwithstanding it be a simple so highly commended of all the ancient and new Herbarists, for his great and singular effects in Physic, be in a manner utterly abandoned of all the brewers in our time (except a few that can make a difference between five shillings, or 5. pound charge, when hops are sold for 50. s. an hundred) seeing as yet not any one of them hath so clerkly wrought upon this simple, as to cover and hide the taste thereof, from the well mouthed alecunners of our commonwealth, which weakness of theirs, because it consists wholly in the want of a due proportion between the malt and other beer corn, in respect of wormwood, I have thought good to set down a sufficient direction for those that are wise, and willing to do good both to themselves, and to their country, whereby they may easily even in one days practise attain to the full perfection thereof. Supposing then that your wormwood is either cut down in the leaf before it be seeded, or being seeded that it is cut into short pieces, whereby there may be made an equal mixture of the whole bulk together (for you must note that the seedy tops are much stronger and much more oily than the rest of the leaves or stalks) make first a decoction of 4. ounces of hops with nine gallons of water (which is the proportion which some Brewer's in some sorts of drink do use) and when you have gotten out by ebulition or boiling, the full strength and virtue of them, keep the same, and begin likewise with some small proportion of wormwood to the like quantity of water as before; and when you have bestowed as much time and fire therein, as you did about the hops, then taste each of them by itself, and if you find the same to exceed the first in bitterness, then begin with a less proportion of Wormwood, and so reiterate your work, till you have equally matched the one with the other: then may you safely proceed by the rule of proportion to a barrel, and from thence to a tun, and so to a whole brewing. Neither let the bitterness of Wormwood in his present taste any thing dismay you, for if you did but taste the decoction of hops only before the mixture of ground malt (which doth wonderfully sweeten the same) you would think it a very unapt liquor to be wrought up into so pleasing a drink as our ordinary beer doth show itself to be: for it is the hop only which maketh the essential difference between beer and ale, and that by allaying the exceeding lusciousnes of malt by his bitterness, whereby both uniting themselves together, become a savoury and wholesome drink for man's body: which may be in every respect as well performed in wormwood, as in the hop, yea, & peradventure with Centaury, artichoke leaves, or Aloes hipatique, as some work masters have confidently affirmed unto me. And though the hop be usually in drink, and the wormwood only in medicine, whereby some may happily be persuaded, that it is inconvenient for men that are in health to drink a medicine continually to their meat: yet let this be a sufficient answer to that objection, that it is the dose only that maketh the difference herein. For I can assure you in mine own experience, and by the experience of one of the best experienced Brewer's in London, who yet liveth, that if you give a double or triple quantity of English hops to an ordinary guile of strong beer, you shall find the same to be a sufficient preparative to your body for the best purgation that shall be ministered after. And this is the reason why Venice Turpentine, which being ministered in a small dose, is given for the strengthening of the back, and to stay the running of the reins: yet if it be taken in the quantity of an ounce at once, it will purge sufficiently in divers bodies. So then either let there be no more taste of wormwood, than there is of hops in our drink, and we shall find no difference in effects, but such as shall commend and grace the wormwood beyond the hop; or let beer be advanced with the hop to the bitterness of wormwood wine, & so we shall find the hop far to exceed the wormwood in his malign quality.  
Thus much I have thought good to publish, for the credit of wormwood and for the benefit of this Island in sundry respects, which I shall not need to particularise at this time, because they are so commonly known to all men. And though I know I may be overweyed either with the Flaunders Merchants, or with the great hop masters of England, whose foundation is so deeply laid, that a few lose lines can neither shake nor stir the same: yet either knowing or at the least persuading myself to maintain the truth, before I give it over, I will crave the liberty of the schools, quòd fiat controversia. And in the mean time, those which will not be satisfied of the wholesome and rare medicinable helps of the one, together with the weak and feeble virtues of the other (which was but a hedgebird the other day, though now it be perking so proudly upon his poles) I will refer them to the learned Herbals of Dioscorides Matheolus, Doctor Turner, Dodoneus, Turnizerus, and the rest.    

An abstract of certain frugal notes, or observations in a time of Dearth or famine, concerning bread, drink, and meat, with some other circumstances belonging to the same, taken out of a Latin writer, intituling his book, Anchora famis & sitis.  
FIrst, for the avoiding of all putrefaction, aswell in bread, as in corn, it is very requisite that they be perfectly dried, or gently parched, either in the sun, or by the warmth of the air, or else in the want of these two, in some apt oven, or rather in a Stove, but with such care, as they do not burn, or savour of adustion.  
2 After the baking of your bread, it is necessary that the same be left in the oven, well closed, for some reasonable time, the heat thereof being lessened by degrees, for so the bread being thoroughly baked, & suffered to cool of itself again, will satisfy the hunger of a man in double proportion to that which otherwise it would.  
3 Each kind or sort of bread being a little toasted over the coals, and afterwards sopped in wine, will fill or glut exceedingly: such a breakfast as this taken in the morning, is a sufficient repast for the whole day after.  
4 The meal of parched corn doth fill the gut exceedingly.  
5 Bread may be made of Rice, Indian millet, or Turkish wheat, either by decocting the whole grain in water, and so bringing it to the form of a pulteis, and after baking the same, or else by grinding it into meal, but the latter way maketh the fairer bread. This may as sufficiently be performed with our ordinary wheat, for aught that I can imagine.  
6 All manner of pulse, as Lentils, vetches, beans, & such like, if they be first rubbed over in Lee, & then hulled and after ground, they will yield both fairer meal, and better bread.  
7 Paast, or dough is soon baked upon thin plates of iron or brass.  
8 Those which ride post, are oftentimes content both to bake their bread, and also to roast their meat under the seats of their saddles, here I think that our climate will prove too cold.  
9 Men must be broughr by degrees, and not too suddenly from their usual and natural food and drink, into these artificial diets.  
10 A pulteis or hochpot, made of flower or meal sodden amongst apples, pears, plums, and such like fruit, or of some bread and water, or the broth of flesh that hath been toasted in the smoke, or with milk well boiled together, doth fill the stomach more than thrice so much of dry bread eaten alone, especially, if the same be high boiled to a stiffness, or consistency.  
11 Such like compositions do also extend farther in the satisfying of hungry maws, being made of Biscuits, or dry, hard, or stolen grated bread. And by this means one loaf will go as far as two new loaves.  
12 All sorts of good cakebread, or spicebread steeped a convenient time in fair water, will convert the water into a most pleasant or wholesome drink, the bread notwithstanding being very wholesome to be eaten.  
13 Pound your pepper, ginger, and such like spices, and having steeped them in water, place the same well covered over a gentle fire, and then work your past with the imbibition, or decoction thereof. And by this means your spice will extend much farther in cakebread. And the same spice also being new pounded or beaten, may be afterward wrought up in past for cakebread. Here you may practise upon these plants, which be hot and wholesome withal: as the wild Cresses, otherwise called Pepperwort, Galingale, Thime, Orrace, Isop, Wintersavery, Penniroyall, and such like herbs instead of spices.  
14 Some of these artificial kinds of bread & drink, if there be any left that may be well spared, will serve for the feeding and fattening of cattle, geese, Hens, Hogs, etc.  
15 The smell or sent of bread (I think he meaneth that, which is new and hot from the Oven) doth nourish the body, and refresh the spirits greatly. Some commend the spirits of bread extracted by distillation, as a most sovereign preservative in the consumption, and other pining diseases.  
16 If any of these artificial foods or drinks do happen to offend, either in colour, taste, or savour, they may be helped with honey, sugar, saffron, wine, annis seeds, Coriander seeds, sweet Fenel, Cinnamon, and such like.  
17 In the time of necessity, even green corn taken as it groweth of itself, or a little parched or dried against the fire, or steeped, or boiled in wine, or water, affordeth a reasonable kind of sustenance.  
18 The distilled water of oats, doth so warm the stomach, as it doth overcome the senses. It is well known that many do brew a very strong & mighty drink with malted oats, how profitable the same might be to all our English Brewers (if there might be sufficient store of them had) in a dearth of wheat and barley, the same being rightly matched, or rather mastered a little with the hop, to alter their taste: they can best tell that have made their private experience and profit of them, when others very inconsiderately have run on in their common, and chargeable course of brewing.  
19 The liquor of the Birch tree is both wholesome, and savoury, and deserveth to be recommended in his kind.  
20 There may be an excellent extraction made of ale, which you may term either a spirit, or a quintessence, and that in a small dose, far more excellent than all the tartareous, sulphureous, or mercurial preparations. If the Author do here mean any philosophical course, it will be both too curious and costly for the common sort of people: if only a well rectified Aquavitae, or an evaporation of the phlegmatic part to a thick body, I cannot see how we shall raise any store, or quantity of matter to furnish the subject which we have in hand If he mean physically, we will reserve the strict examination thereof, till a fit occasion be offered.  
21 The meal of such corn as is ground in the month of August, is remembered amongst the writers of best credit, to keep and last best all the year after.  
22 Such bread as is made up of the flower of dry beans is most strong in nourishment, and may be corrected of his taste by the addition of Cominseed. And it is also a usual matter in Germany to make drink of beans. Our English Brewers do also find good use of them amongst other corn in a small proportion, wherein they have a special care not to surcharge the rest of their beer corn, with too great a quantity of beans, lest they should give a bad smack or farewell to their beer: but I am verily persuaded that if either beans, or pease were artificially handled according to the manner before expressed, that they would not only prove serviceable, and that in a large manner for Beer only, but also for the making of wholesome, sweet, and delicate bread.  
23 Of Veches first hulled, and of the herb Aphace, which receiveth divers translations, and is called Dandelion, priests crown, Swine's snout, Monk's head, Dogs teeth, or common Cicory, may be made a bread so as it be mixed with a convenient proportion of other usual meal, for it yieldeth a very fair and savoury flower, as the Author testifieth of his own experience the same may be corrected with Annis seed, Fenell seed, Coryander seed, etc.  
24 Both bread, and drink may also be made of Lentils.  
25 Bread may be made of Panic, as also of Millet, whose seed even in a small quantity doth arise greatly both in bulcke, and substance.  
26 A solid, and wholesome bread may be made of wheat starch. But such bread, by reason of his price, will have no fit place here except every private man do make his own provision.  
27 A decoction of Annis seed, Fennel seed, Caraway seed, and such like, either in wine, or water, is a most wholesome drink. Hereunto may be added a decoction also of Liquorice with Annis seeds together in fair water in a due proportion.  
28 Of Beechmast, Acorns, and the barks or raping of trees that are wholesome, a convenient drink may be had.  
29 Mushrooms will spring abundantly if you slit the barks of the black, and white Poplar, and bury them in furrows well dounged. So likewise the white Poplar being cut off close by the ground, and watered with warm water well seasoned with leaven, in four days space will bring forth most pleasant, and delicate Mushrooms. These being dressed in their kinds are accounted amongst the most lusty, & stirring meats with the Italians.  
30 A good bread may be made of the Rape, or Navew, being first scorched, and after sodden, and then baked.  
31 A bread may be made of the powdered, or ground leaves of the pear tree, apple tree, beech & oak, and so likewise of drink.  
32 Dow may be kneaded up with wine, vinegar, or ale, if you would make the same hot, and hearty. But I think the new must of wine, or the best wort of ale, or beer much better, for that we may well doubt, or rather assure ourselves that the whole spirit of wine, or ale will fly away in the baking, because the same had first wrought itself into a body, whereas in wort that never came to workmanship, the fire or spirit doth as yet lie close, and couched within it.  
33 A drunken bread may be made with spirit of wine and flower. But I think that common Aquacomposita would prove overchargeable.  
34 A past consisting of meal, and the oil of Olives, or other fruit, or seeds mixed together may be made into bread.  
35 Mizaldus reporteth of a certain travailer, who undertaking a long journey did relieve himself with one pound of the oil of Violets, and soft grease mixed together, and therewith he preserved himself by the space of ten days. The like effect hath also been found in the oil of Almonds mixed with the grease of a Cow, and that by reason of the clammines thereof.  
36 A bread made of Eggs is both wholesome, and more filling then other ordinary bread, but especially if the same be kneaded up with the yeist of the strongest beer or ale.  
37 Those eggs are most carefully to be gathered, and kept, which are laid from the new moon in August, others do rather commend the wain, and the time of both the Sunsteads. And new laid eggs will keep long in dry chaff, or bran.  
38 An excellent bread may be made with milk either leavened, or unleavened, and of exceeding nourishment being taken but in a small quantity, but they fill more if resty bacon being fried be also incorporated therewith.  
39 A man may live with milk only, and it will serve instead of meat, and drink, and medicine.  
40 A glutting kind of bread may be made of new cheese, and likewise of old being grated; mixed, and wrought up with meal. For it cometh all to one end whether we eat bread and cheese severally, or both mixed together.   

A petition to the courteous Reader.  
HEère I have thought good (Gentle Reader) to entreat thus much favour at thy hands, that seeing my new fire of Coleballes, together with some other few inventions, first mentioned in mine Apology, do as yet attend some courtly favours, whereby they cannot so presently as I wish, break forth into the public service of this land: that thou wouldst for a little time (which I hope is now drawing to his period) entertain them with a good conceit and kind opinion, not regarding the censures of those ignorant, or malicious spirits of our age, who presuming to know the simples of my fire, may happily range into base and offensive matter, and thereby labour to discredit that secret, whose composition they could never yet reach unto, nor, if they had the particulars, were they able to combine & knit them with their left handed workmanship.  
And for the better satisfaction of my well-wishing friends, & the full confutation of mine undeserved foes, I would have them to understand, that seeing the premised secrets, have not only been seen, and allowed, but at this present are also countenanced by those which are right Honourable in their places: that from henceforth they will scorn the malice both of viperous tongues, as also of slanderous pens, if any man should happen to be so extremely, or desperately mad, as to take upon him to argue upon that project, whereof he can neither find a medium, nor communes terminos, and therefore impossible to conclude Sillogisticè sinon in Bocardo against it.  
ANd if I shall here discover a secret both new and profitable for our English Maltsters, whereof as yet there is not so much as any model extant, and that I could fall into M. Ajax vein, and had some of his glib paper, & gliding pens, I might soon scribble ten sheets, and sell every sheet for two pence, toward necessary charges: and in the end conclude the expectation of many leaves, in a few sweeter lines than he hath done before me: but because I will bind myself to no such privy precedents, I will deliver my conceit in as plain and naked terms as I may.  

New Malt kills for wood or sea-coal.  
INstead of those spars which support the hearcloth place a few single quarters, sawed in equal parts, here and there scatteringly, or make what other devise you shall think best, to bear a floor or platform of lead, which (for the avoiding of charge) may be made of sheet lead thinly driven: and if you mean to use sea-coal, then must you have a grate of iron bars to lay your coals on, and let there be four vents within a foot of the floor, made in equal distance each from other, both to draw up the heat and steam of the fire, as also to convey the smoke by small leaden pipes into some wooden trunk or tunnel of brick or plaster: and if you find the lead too hot for the barley, you may either lessen your fire till you have attained a true degree thereof, or else you may spread a haircloth upon the lead, and so avoid the danger of hasty malting, peradventure the steam of boiling water, issuing out of a great copper vessel being placed over the fire, may give a sufficient heat for this purpose. And here I hope, that both the bad sent and taste which is usually found in wood dried-malt, as also the continual attendance upon a straw fire will be much avoided: besides that saving which will fall out in such shires, as afford either wood or sea-coal in any plentiful manner. I have been also credibly informed, that a fire of bean stalks, maintained in an usual kill, will defray his own charge, by reason of the ashes, which are more worth than the fuel itself. But whether they serve best for the making of glass, soap, or salt Peter, I cannot determine, only I know them to be full of a strong and sharp salt, and such as serveth the Surgeon to make his Cawsticke withal.   

A new and extraordinary means for the enriching of arable grounds.  
ANd because the multiplying of corn is not greatly abhorring from our purpose, and seeing the greatest part of Dearth, must of necessity begin from scarcity of grain, I will here (without praying in aid of M. Ajax, or of his stolen marginal notes, whose reformation hath already more offended the ears of Honourable persons, than his first salts could ever offend their noses) make a public offer to all those Gentlemen and Farmers of England, who dwell in such parts of this Realm, as do neither yield any store of Marle, or other common and ordinary dung or soil, how they shall be sufficiently furnished, with a new and plentiful Compost, and whereof there have been already sundry and rich trials made, whose quantity shall not exceed eight bushels, whose yearly charge shall not amount to xviii. pence the acre communibus Annis, one year with another, and whose nature is so transmuted and disguised, as that one neighbour, yea M. Ajax himself, though he were present at the disposing or scattering thereof, shall not be able to discern what his next neighbour hath done to his ground. In which secret, all those whom the author shall find willing and worthy of the same, may upon reasonable composition, become owners of the skill, aswell for their own as for the good of their country. Neither do I know any just objection, why the same should not enrich aswell pasture ground as arable.   
FINIS.