I 



History of Animal Plagues. 79 



followed bv a great famine, effusion of blood, and death among 

 animals. The famine was so great that many families emigrated 

 into Poland. The mortality among animals was sueh that no 

 one dared to cat or buy the flesh of oxen.^ Sheep and cattle 

 were most affected." A murrain destroyed many horses and 

 cattle in Eno-land.^ 



A.D. 1266. Swarms of 'Palmer' worms ate up all fruits, 

 herbs, orass, and vee'etation in Scotland, and there were such 

 great floods from the sea, the Tay, and the Forth, that innumer- 

 able villages, people, and cattle were lost.* 



A.D. 1274. The Annals tell us that a deadly disease [lues 

 oviiim)^ broke out amongst sheep, which persisted for twenty-five 

 or twenty-eight years, and destroyed nearly all the flocks in 

 Ensiland. This epizooty will be more fully noticed in subse- 

 quent years. 



A.D. 1275-6. ' Very heavy rains in France for these two 



years; so much so, that the crops could not be gathered, nor 



the corn sown. A dreadful famine, followed by a still more 



dreadful pestilence, ensued, by which a great number of men 



and cattle were destroyed.' ^ ' Great earthquakes in London, 



and in the whole world. At the same time the rain fell a 



bright red, as of blood, in Wales. In this year (1275) was first 



observed the outbreak of common scab {scabies) in sheep. ^ 



Stow, following Thomas of Walsingham, has the following 



notice of this event for this year: 'A rich man of France 



brought into Northumberland a Spanish ewe as big as a calf of 



two years, which ewe being rotten, infected so the country that 



it spread over all the realm. This plague of murrain continued 



twenty-eight years ere it ended, and was the first roi that ever 



was in England.' * If this be correct, merinos were then first in- 

 to ' 



troduced into Britain. 



' Chronic. Siles. Vetust. Sommersberg, p. 17. Annal. Wratisl. Sommersberg, 



P- 173- 



- Menel. ab Henncfeld. Annal. Silcs. Sommersberg. 



3 r. Short. Op. cit., p. 152. '' Il>i<I- P- 153- 



* ThomcE Walsingham. Historia Anglicana. 



" Ilofinanni. Annal. Bamberg. Ltidnvig. Scrij-). rer. Bamberg, p. 176. 



" Ihnry Jc Knyghton. 'i'lie Events of England. 



" Sl(no. The Annalcs or Generall Chronicle of England. London, 1614, p. 200. 



