210 MODERN COMFORTS. 



so that no fresh meat could be had in winter or spring. Hence 

 the marvellous account of the vast stores of salted flesh found 

 in the larder of the eldest Spencer,* in the days of Edward 

 the Second, even so late in the spring as the third of May. 

 It was from magazines like these that the turbulent barons 

 supported in idleness their riotous swarms of retainers, ready 

 for any disorder or mischief. But agriculture has now arrived 

 at such a pitch of perfection, that our best and fattest meats 

 are killed in the winter ; and no man needs eat salted flesh, 

 unless he prefer it, that has money to buy fresh. 



One cause of this distemper might be, no doubt, the quantity 

 of wretched fresh and salt fish consumed by the commonalty 

 at all seasons, as well as in Lent, which our poor now would 

 hardly be persuaded to touch. 



The use of linen changes, shirts or shifts, in the room of 

 sordid or filthy woollen, long worn next the skin, is a matter 

 of neatness comparatively modern, but must prove a great 

 means of preventing cutaneous ails. At this very time, woollen 

 instead of linen prevails among the poorer Welsh, who are 

 subject to foul eruptions. 



The plenty of good wheaten bread that now is found among 

 all ranks of people in the south, instead of that miserable sort 

 which used in old days to be made of barley or beans, may 

 contribute not a little to the sweetening their blood and cor- 

 recting their juices ; for the inhabitants of mountainous districts, 

 to this day, are still liable to the itch and other cutaneous 

 disorders, from a wretchedness and poverty of diet. 



As to the produce of a garden, every middle-aged person 

 of observation may perceive, within his own memory, both in 

 town and country, how vastly the consumption of vegetables 

 is increased. Green stalls in cities now support multitudes in 

 a comfortable state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every 

 decent labourer, also, has his garden, which is half his support, 

 as well as his delight ; and common farmers provide plenty of 

 beans, pease, and greens, for their hinds to eat with their 

 bacon ; and those few that do not are despised for their sordid 

 parsimony, and looked upon as regardless of the welfare of 

 their dependents. Potatoes have prevailed in this little district, 

 by means of premiums, within these twenty years only, and 

 are much esteemed here now by the poor, who would scarce 

 have ventured to taste them in the last reign. 



* Namely, six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef, and six hundred 

 muttons. 



