298 Histojy of Animal Plagues. 



Wiltshire it had totally ceased ; but in Somersetshire sixteen 

 had died in the parishes of East Chennock and Clodsworth.^ 

 On the 9th of May it was said : ^Tis hoped the distemper 

 among the cattle at East Chennock is stopt, not one having 

 been taken ill for above three weeks. Great care has been 

 taken by the justices to prevent the calamity from spreading. 

 All fairs have been stopt for some time, and above twenty shot 

 by order of the clerk of the peace. The cattle were appraised, 

 and the owners paid out of the county stock ; and one of the 

 oxen in an ox-v/aggon which carried the soldiers' baggage, fall- 

 ing down dead, the other five were immediately shot.' On the 

 31st of May, it was announced that the distemper was about 

 six miles east of Reading, Berks, where it had not been before. 



Early in 1753, 'The distemper among the cattle being 

 broke out near Malmsbury, in Wiltshire, fifteen belonging to 

 one man were ordered to be shot; and the justices of the peace 

 this day prohibited the holding any fair or market, and removal 

 or sale of any, except fat cattle for immediate slaughter.' On 

 the 15th of October, 1753, ^ fanner of the parish of Shemping, 

 in Suflblk, was convicted, on his own confession, before two 

 justices of the peace, in the penalty of <^ioo, for buying and 

 driving infected cattle, contrary to law, and immediately paid 

 the penalty; and his servant was afterwards committed to Bury 

 gaol, not being able to pay the penalty of .^^50 for intimidating 

 and preventing the inspector and parish officers from executing 

 his Majesty's orders and regulations, and not suffering them to 

 kill four beasts that were distempered, whereby the infection 

 was spread into several adjoining parishes. On the 26th of 

 October, 1753, ^^ clerk of the peace for Ipswich received notice 

 of upwards of sixty parishes within the county where the dis- 

 temper had broken out amongst the cattle. On the 3rd of 

 November, 1753, ^^ ^^'^ reported that the distemper among the 

 horned cattle had broken out at Chatham, and ninety-seven had 

 died on the roads between that place and Canterbury. The 



^ The Dublin Gazette for March, 1 752, speaking of the Cattle Plague in London, 

 says : ' The distemper among horned cattle rages considerably about the skirts, in- 

 somuch that last Saturday several cows were buried in the fields at the bottom of 

 Gray's Inn Lane.' 



