CATTLE PLAGUE 185 



young men and young women flocked to the cities, and those 

 who remain were lazy and extravagant, even the country 

 wenches contending about ' double caps, huge petticoats, 

 clock stockings, and other trumpery'. ^ 



The bounty now paid on the export of wheat was naturally 

 resented by the common people, as it raised the price of their 

 bread. In 1737 a load belonging to Farmer Waters of Burford, 

 travelling along the road to Redbridge for exportation, was 

 stopped near White parish by a crowd of people who knocked 

 down the leading horse, broke the wagon in pieces, cut the 

 sacks, and strewed about the cornj with threats that they 

 would do the like to all who sold wheat to export.^ While 

 England was paying farmers to export wheat she was also 

 importing, though in plentiful years importers had a very bad 

 time. In 1730 there were lying at Liverpool 33,000 windles 

 (a windle — 220 lb.) of imported corn, unsaleable owing to the 

 great crop in England.^ The year 1740 was distinguished by 

 one of the severest winters on record. From January i to 

 February 5 the thermometer seldom reached 32°, and the cold 

 was so intense that hens and ducks, even cattle in their stalls 

 died of it, trees were split asunder, crows and other birds fell 

 to the ground frozen in their flight. This extraordinary 

 winter was followed by a cold and late spring ; no verdure had 

 appeared by May ; in July it was still cold, and thousands of 

 acres of turnips rotted in the ground. Among minor mis- 

 fortunes may be noticed the swarms of grasshoppers who 

 devastated the pastures near Bristol at the end of August 

 1742,"* and the swarms of locusts who came to England in 

 1 748 and consumed the vegetables.^ 



The cattle plague of 1 745 '^ was so severe that owing to the 



^ Cf. this and Tull's character of servants with Defoe's accusation of 

 their laziness. 



''■ Salisbury newspaper, quoted by Baker, Seasons and Prices, p. 187. 

 ' See Aictobiography of Wm. Stout, ed. by J. Harland. 

 * Gentlemati's Magazine, 1742. ^ Baker, ofi. cit. p. 1 94. 



® A Defence of the Fanners of Great Britain (1814), p. 30. 



