212 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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

 of sordid and 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 round 

 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 correcting 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 vege- 

 tables is increased. Green-stalls in cities now support multi- 

 tudes 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 pro- 

 vide plenty of beans, peas, and greens for their hinds to eat 

 with their bacon j and those few that do not are despised 

 for their sordid parsimony, and looked upon as regardless 

 of the welfare of their dependants. Potatoes have prevailed 

 in this 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. 



Our Saxon ancestors certainly had some sort of cabbage, 

 because they call the month of February " sprout-cale ; " 

 but long after their days the cultivation of gardens was 

 little attended to. The religious, being men of leisure, and 



