200 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



from the much smaller quantity of salted meat and fish now 

 eaten in these kingdoms ; from the use of linen next the skin ; 

 from the plenty of better bread ; and from the profusion of fruits, 

 roots, legumes, and greens, so common in every family. Three 

 or four centuries ago, before there were any enclosures, sown- 

 grasses, field-turnips, or field-carrots, or hay, all the cattle which 

 had grown fat in summer, and were not killed for winter use, were 

 turned out soon after Michaelmas to shift as they could through 

 the dead months ; so that no fresh meat could be had in winter 

 or 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 third of 

 May. It was from magazines like these that the turbulent 

 barons supported in idleness their riotous swarms of retainers 

 ready for any disorder or mischief. But agriculture is now 

 arrived at such a pitch of perfection, that our best and fattest 

 meats are killed in the winter ; and no man need eat salted flesh, 

 unless he prefers it, that has money to buy fresh. 



One cause of this distemper might be, no doubt, the quantity 

 of wretched fresh and salt fish consumed by the commonalty 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 con- 

 tribute 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 in- 

 creased. Green-stalls in cities now support multitudes in a 

 comfortable state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every decent 



* Viz. Six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses nf beef, and six hundred muttons. 



