Until the middle of the last century sowing of cereals and pulse was done by hand, broadcast. Writing in I534, Master Fitzherbert gave an exact description of the method:

'Put thy peas into thy hopper and take a broad thong of leather or of gartherwebbe [literally, girth webbing] of an ell long, and fasten it to both ends of the hopper and put it over thy head like a leash and stand in the midst of the land, where the sack lies, the which is most convenient for the filling of thy hopper, and set thy left foot before and take a handful of peas; and when thou takest up thy right foot then cast thy peas from thee all abroad; and when thy left foot riseth take another handful, and when thy right foot riseth cast them from thee. And so at every two paces thou shalt sow a handful of peas and so see that the foot and the hand agree and then shall ye sow even. And in your casting ye must open as well your fingers as your hand, and the higher and farther that you cast your corn the better shall it spread, except it be a great wind. And if the land be very good and will break small in the ploughing, it is better to sow after the plough than tarry any longer'.

Thorold Rogers, who examined many farm accounts, found no separate payment for sowing and thought it must have been done by the bailiff of a manor or by a farmer himself. But a document that describes farming at the time of Edward the Confessor names the sower among the other villagers and says that he ought to be paid with 'a seed-lip [hopper] full of every kind of every seed which he has properly sown throughout the space of the year'. Other villagers also ploughed and sowed for the lord of the manor.

Piers Ploughman both ploughed and sowed, and he gives some idea of the weight a sower carried:

'I will hang my seedbasket at the neck instead of a scrip and a bushel of breadcorn bring me therein'.

Sowing is a common subject for illustration in medieval manuscripts because it is the symbol for October, and occasionally January, in English psalters and books of hours. The earliest picture I have seen is from the tenth century; but the seed-lip may well be much older, because corn was grown in Britain before the Romans came.

One of the puzzling things about my study of manuscripts was that seed-lips or hoppers appeared to vary so much in shape. They were generally drawn in profile, and some were square, some rounded, some very large, some more like flower-baskets. In general, agricultural tools did not change much in shape until the coming of the machine, and not at all if they worked satisfactorily. There was no competition then among makers to tempt people away from familiar tools. Another fact that emerged was that this big basket of whatever shape was peculiarly English. Sometimes it was woven, sometimes coiled and sewn-a type of basket-making still called lip-work in some country areas. In France and Flanders the general habit was to sow from a cloth tied round the neck and held into a bag by the right hand. I began to wonder if one might ascribe a manuscript by this fact alone, but it was not so easy. The sowing picture from Queen Mary's Psalter, which is fourteenth century, gives a choice of method; two sowers stand side by side, one with a seed-lip and one with a cloth. This most lovely book, now in the British Museum, is certainly English, though no-one knows the name of the artist or for whom it was made. Two very early stained glass windows in Canterbury Cathedral, possible French, both illustrate the parable of the sower: on has a seed-lip and the other a cloth. In some Italian manuscripts the sower has a pouch shaped basket in diagonal weave, quite different from those made here. We know that illuminators copied each other's work. Until the fifteenth century, book were all hand-written and illustrated, and the most important were known among illuminators and scholars thus there were styles and schools of illumination an writing. But there seems to be no doubt that, eve when they were copying a subject, the artists di change details, perhaps to suit the nobleman or the religious house requiring the book. Broadcast sowing must have been one of the most familiar sights.

None of this explained the variety of seed-lip shape until, in the British Museum, I came on the Bohun Psalter dated about 1370. In two initials there are tiny figures of sowers, both carrying the same kind of basket. One, seen from the front, is kidney-shaped and the other, in profile, might be of any shape. This is not one of the great books, but the painter knew his subject. The expression of the taller man is melancholy, and he looks as if he was feeling the weight. So I believe that one reason for the apparent variety of this common farm tool in medieval times is that most artists suffered from the technical inability to draw a very difficult thing: a kidney shape, curved to the body, seen end on.

By the nineteenth century the seed-lip was better drawn and perhaps better made, sometimes of wood, though I cannot think why, since a strong basket weighs far less and has a long life. (Wool-skeps in the West Riding last sixty years or more, with repairs, though they get thrown out from third floors.) But box or basket, what farm hand today would care to fill it with corn and walk the plough from dawn till dark? Our medieval ancestors must have been tough.

The Countryman Spring 1970