2 4 o ROBERT POCOCK. 



guide for the departments which a local history should 

 contain. 



" To understand this history clearly, first think what 

 England is in the present reign of King George the 

 Fourth, and what it was at the most early period 

 on record ; and note the progressive changes and im- 

 provements it has undergone. In 1829 we have every 

 kind of fruit, vegetable, art and science, known 

 throughout the world, and brought (it may be said) to 

 this land of milk and honey. Our ancient forests, 

 woods, and waste lands have been mostly grubbed and 

 turned into cultivation for corn, grain, and useful 

 herbage, of which there are now produced more than 

 ever known at any period before. Only revert to the 

 time Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, in 1558, this 

 great pride of English history (far more praise has been 

 given to this tyrannical lady than perhaps she deserved). 

 We had then no cherries, but the little common black 

 indigenous berry of our country. No variety of vege- 

 tables, but what were brought from the Netherlands ! 

 We had then no potatoes to feed our people, nor 

 mangel wurzel to feed our cattle. No turnips, for they 

 were first introduced into England by Lord Townsend, 

 secretary to King Charles I. Mangel wurzel was 

 brought over by Doctor Lettsom. Although potatoes 

 were brought to Ireland in 1565, by John Hawkins, 

 from Santa Fe in New Spain, they did not become the 

 general food of the Irish until after the Revolution. 

 We had no East India trade ! No West India 

 trade ! Lean meat and fish of the coarsest sort was 

 the daily food ! Porpoises we find brought to table ; 

 and bull beef (tough enough we have no doubt) was 

 frequently a prominent dish (every parish kept a bull, 



