Tusser, Thomas 1524-1580

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Tusser was an English author of the 16th Century. He was educated as a chorister, attended Cambridge University, but left because of ill health. He became a farmer after attaining no financial success as a chorister. His farming career was also unsuccessful and he then became a chorister again. Still later he took up farming again.

For 10 years he had been a retainer at the court and upon retirement to his farm in Essex he wrote the poem One Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie (1557). Sixteen years later after some travel, he enlarged the book to Five Hundred Pointes. His precepts in rhymed couplets cover every phase of country life and work in a practical, simple manner. He gave an authentic picture of horticulture in Queen Elizabeth's reign.

Tusser, Thomas, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, 1557. Subsequent editions - 1561, 1562, 1564,and 1570.
Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie, 1573. Eight editions were made before the end of the 16th Century and 13 subsequently. The last one was in 1848.

In his books the diction and atmosphere of the text closely resembles nursery rhymes. He discussed the content of the farmers' gardens in Tudor days.



Tusser reference

Source: http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/pubsindex.shtml

Familiar Quotations by Thomas Tusser

Source: http://www.bartleby.com/100/