230 FOTHERGILL AS PHILANTHROPIST CHAP. 



Boil potatoes as in the common way for use ; take the skin 

 off, and whilst warm bruise them with a spoon, or a clean 

 hand ; put them into a dish before the fire to let the moisture 

 evaporate, stirring them frequently that no part grow hard ; 

 when dry, rub them as fine as possible between the hands. 

 Take three parts of flour, and one part of the prepared potatoes 

 (or equal quantities of each), and with water and yeast in the 

 usual manner make into bread. It looks and tastes agreeably 

 and will keep moist nearly a week ; it should not be cut until 

 it is a day old. 



This bread was often used. The Board of Agriculture at 

 a later date advocated the use of such bread in the rural 

 districts, directing that the potatoes should be strained 

 through a sieve. 1 



During the latter part of the century the agricultural 

 labourers of England suffered much distress, the result 

 of war and bad harvests, aggravated by land enclosures 

 and the use of machinery, and potatoes began to a con- 

 siderable extent to take the place of the wheaten bread, 

 which, with small beer and cider, had been their common 

 food. Fothergill's earlier efforts may have prepared the 

 way for this change. 



Fish was then little eaten by the poor in the interior 

 parts of the kingdom. Fothergill thought it a food of 

 value, and urged its consumption, so that the population 

 might be less dependent in troublous times on the produce 

 of the land. He had fish brought to London by land 

 carriage then a novel method in order to break a 

 monopoly which kept the price high. On the approach 

 of the severe winter of 1767 he got several Friends to 

 join him in purchasing fish wholesale and selling it to the 

 poor at a slight loss. This small society of wealthy and 

 generous men continued its efforts for three years, bringing 

 also potatoes by sea from Lancashire and other cheap 

 markets to sell them in the metropolis. 2 



The British system of canals was in making at this 

 epoch. John Hustler, a wool-stapler of Bradford, who 

 has left his mark on the growth of that great town, was 



1 Works, in. p. Ixxxiv ; see also Lettsom, Hints, i. 46, 52. 

 2 Works, iii. pp. Ixxxii ff. 



