LEPROSY. 247 



spring. Hence the marvellous account of the vast 

 stores of salted flesh found in the larder of the eldest 

 Spencer *, in the days of Edward the Second, even 

 so late in the spring as the 3d of May. It was from 

 magazines like these that the turbulent barons sup- 

 ported in idleness their riotous swarms of retainers, 

 ready for any disorder or mischief. But agriculture 

 has now arrived at such a pitch of perfection, that 

 our best and fattest meats are killed in the winter ; 

 and no man needs eat salted flesh, unless he prefer 

 it, that has money to buy fresh. 



One cause of this distemper might be, no doubt, 

 the quantity of wretched fresh and salt fish con- 

 sumed by the commonalty at all seasons, as well as 

 in Lent, which our poor now would hardly be per- 

 suaded to touch. 



The use of linen changes, shirts or shifts, in the 

 room of sordid or filthy woollen, long worn next the 

 skin, is a matter of neatness comparatively modern, 

 but must prove a great means of preventing cuta- 

 neous ails. At this very time, woollen instead of 

 linen prevails among the poorer Welsh, who are 

 subject to foul eruptions. 



The plenty of good wheaten bread that now is 

 found among all ranks of people in the south, instead 

 of that miserable sort which used in old days to be 

 made of barley or beans, may contribute not a little 

 to the sweetening their blood, and correcting their 

 juices ; for the inhabitants of mountainous districts, 

 to this day, are still liable to the itch and other cuta- 

 neous disorders, from a wretchedness and poverty of 

 diet. 



As to the produce of a garden, every middle- 

 aged person of observation may perceive, within his 



* Viz. six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef, and six 

 hundred muttons. 



