OF SELBORNE. 207 



One cause of this distemper might be, no doubt, the quan- 

 tity of wretched fresh and salt fish consumed by the common- 

 alty at all seasons as well as in lent ; which our poor now 

 would hardly be persuaded to touch. 



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

 sordid and filthy woollen, long worn next the skin, is a matter 

 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 Welch, 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 

 cutaneous 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 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, while gardeners get fortunes. Every 

 decent labourer also has his garden, which is half his support, 

 as well as his delight ; arid 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 dis- 

 trict, 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-cole; 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, 



