mix.] OF SELBORNE. 215 



of neatness comparatively modern ; but must prove a great 

 means of preventing cutaneous 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 cor- 

 recting their juices ; for the inhabitants of mountainous districts, 

 to this day, are still liable to the itch and other cutaneous 

 disorders, from poverty of diet. 



As to the produce of a garden, every middle-aged person of 

 observation may perceive, within his own memory, both in 

 town and country, how vastly the consumption of vegetables 

 is increased. Green-stalls in cities now support multitudes in a 

 comfortable state, whilst gardeners get fortunes. Every decent 

 labourer has his garden, which is half his support, as well as his 

 delight ; and common farmers provide plenty of beans, peas, and 

 greens, for their hinds to eat with their bacon ; and those few 

 that do not are despised for their sordid parsimony, and looked 

 upon as regardless of the welfare of their dependants. Potatoes 

 have prevailed in this little district, by means of premiums, 

 within these twenty years only ; and are much esteemed here 

 now by the poor, who would scarce have ventured to taste them 

 in the last reign. 



Our Saxon ancestors certainly had some sort of cabbage, 

 because they call the month of February sprout-cale ; l but, 

 long after their days, the cultivation of gardens was little 

 attended to. The religious, being men of leisure, and keeping 

 up a constant correspondence with Italy, were the first people 

 among us that had gardens and fruit-trees in any perfection, 

 within the walls of their abbeys, priories, and monasteries, where 

 the lamp of knowledge continued to burn, however dimly. 

 In them men of business were formed for the state : the art 

 of writing was cultivated by the monks ; they were the only 



1 March was the stormy month with our Saxon ancestors ; May. Tliro- 

 milchi, the cows being then milked three times a-day ; June, dig and weed 

 month ; September, barley month. MITFORD. 



