JWB on 7 Sep 2008  •  Link

Blackheath and neighborhoood:
"Here, as we have already had occasion to remark, the main body of the Danish army lay encamped in the reign of Ethelred, while their ships held possession of the river for three or four years in succession. Several places in the neighbourhood are still called "Coombs" and "Comps" East Coombe and West Coombe, two estates on the borders of the heath, are presumed to trace their names from the encampments of the Danes at this place-coomb as well as comp signifying camp; coomb being probably the Saxon term, and comp the Danish or corrupt Saxon, both of which tongues were then in use. The manors of East and West Coombe are situated at the north-east corner of the heath; and there was formerly one called Middle Coombe, otherwise Spittle Coombe, which in all [p. 225] probability, was attached to that of West Coombe. Vestiges of intrenchments were, some years ago, distinctly traced in different parts of the heath, some formed doubtless by the Danes, ..."

Walter Thornbury," Old and New London: A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places."

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-…

Terry Foreman on 20 Sep 2015  •  Link

W. Combe & Comb Fa[arm] are W of Greenwich nr. the bottom of this map.
http://www.motco.com/map/81001/Se…

San Diego Sarah on 27 Aug 2024  •  Link

Since we are talking about a farm ... but this annotation really belongs in Rev. Ralph's annotations:

"While Thomas Tusser's 'Five hundred pointes of good Husbandrie' (1580) is a treasure house of information about daily life on the Tudor farm, getting at it requires patience. Reading early modern English is an acquirement. Spelling and grammar were irregular. The written word and thought process behind the written word were much more highly idiomatic than the centuries since. The works of even so highly-educated a writer as Shakespeare are notorious for often being impentrable by the modern reader or theater-goer.

'Section 17 of the 500 points: “A digression to husbandlie furniture” informs us about the tools and equipment owned by the farmer. The true character of historical times is found in the details of the daily life associated with various employments and trades, so lists like this are a treasure:

'1. Barne locked, gofe ladder, short pitchforke and long,
flaile, strawforke and rake, with a fan that is strong :
Wing, cartnave and bushel, peck, strike readie hand,
get casting sholve, broome, and a sack with a band.1

'To learn the vocabulary is to learn the times.
A gofe was a hay-rick or hay-stack.
A gofe-ladder, then, was a ladder used to climb to the top of hay-stacks. Cartnave is obscure, until you uncover that it was a board laid down behind or beside a cart to give workers footing in soft terrain.
The words “bushel, peck, strike” refer to the different size measuring bins or baskets to be filled in the cart.
The sholve (“shove”) teaches us where our word “shovel” comes from.

'A short distance down the section, is another fascinating stanzas:
18 Long ladder to hang al along by the wal,
to reach for a neede to the top of thy hal :
Beame, scales, with the weights, that be sealed and true,
sharp moulspare with barbs, that the mowles do so rue.
Here the terms are much more in line with modern usage.
Except, that is, for “moulspar” which is a mole-spear. This item is particularly interesting as farmers constantly hired the services of mole catchers.

'Like all farmers, Tusser constantly had moles on his mind. They pop up throughout the 500 pointes. They generally appear under the month of February:
Get mowle catcher cunning-lie mowle for to kill,
and harrow and cast abrode euerie hill.

February is the 'month that Tusser brings in the mole catcher to clear his farm of the destructive little beasts. But he also has a mole-spear which he considers to be essential to the proper operation of a farm, suggesting that he or his laborers do their own catching between visits.

'The mole catcher was a common skilled tradesman from the Middle Ages until the early 20th century. Every farming area had several competing for the business. According to Thorold and Rogers' "A history of agriculture and prices in England" (1866) at least one mole-catcher was paid by a standard 2-day rate of 5-6 pence in 1542.

San Diego Sarah on 27 Aug 2024  •  Link

CONCLUSION:

'In 1586 one or more got one shilling a dozen by body-count. Each was a moderately high rate of pay for the time.

'In the 1710 edition of "Tusser Redivius", the editor provided his readers some commentary from his own experience.

'There are many Country Fellows very dexterous at Mole catching: Some have a way of setting them with a little Dog, very neatly and diverting, to look on; perhaps, a Gentleman’s or a Farmer’s time may be as well fpent to follow those Fellows, while they are catching for him, as to hunt after a Pack of Dogs, or a setting Dog for Partridges, for they are dexterous at catching both ways; and, without looking after, you may pay for Moles that never hurt you, and belong to their yearly Customers.2

'Both we and the editor suspect that the trade wasn't much changed between Tusser's time and then. The mole-catcher in 1710 seems generally to have been paid by the body-count. While Tusser does not mention it, it seems likely, knowing Tudor times, that some catchers kept the corpses, then, as well, from earlier catches to add to the tally of those that followed.

'The mole-catcher was not only a feature of the Tudor England landscape. The texts of various language and dialect dictionaries inform us as much.
'By language:
Latin:
Talpicidus -i (m.) = mole catcher
talparum venator = mole catcher
captor taliparum = mole catcher
grumus, grumulus = mole hill
French:
taupier = mole-catcher
German:
maulwurf = mole. fanger = mole catcher
Dutch:
val = mole trap. vanger = mole catcher
Welsh:
gwazwr -wyr s. m. = molecatcher (also tyrçewr -ewyr s. m.)
The Welsh surname Wonter, Wantur, Wontner means mole-catcher.
Isle of Wight:
want = mole. want ketcher = mole catcher
Scotland:
Mowdy, Mowdie, Moudie, Mowdie Wark, Modywart s. A mole.
Moudy-Hillan, s. A mole-hill.
Mowdie-Hoop, s. A mole-hill (from Mowdie, a mole, and Teut. hoop, a heap.)

'In certain areas of England both the mole and mole-catcher were called a “moudy”. The mole was also called moudy Rat. A moudy-hill was a mole-hilL'
To this day the part of a plow that digs up the ground is called a “moldboard”.

'Period didactic verse, it is clear, is by no means the historian's only cherished tool. Etymological dictionaries are also a vital resource. The words of languages are storehouses of all kinds of information.

'1 Tusser, Thomas. "Five hundred pointes of good Husbandrie" (1580, 1878). Payne and Herrtage, ed. 35.

'2 Anon. "Tusser Redivivus: Being Part of Mr. Thomas Tuffer's Five Hundred Points Of Husbandry: (1710). 11.'

Thanks to Medieval and Tudor Topics:
https://vgs-pbr-reviews.blogspot.…