■2W THE NATURAL HISTORY 



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

 It was from magazines hke these that the turbulent barons 

 supported in idleness their riotous swarms of retainers 

 ready for any disorder or mischief. But agriculture is 

 aiow arrived at such a pitch of perfection, that our best 

 •and fattest meats are killed in the winter ; and no man 

 -need cat salted flesh, unless he prefers 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 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 Welch, 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 daj's 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, 

 sre 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 countrj% 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 dehght ; and common farmers provide plenty of beans, 

 yeas, and greens, for their hinds to eat with their bacon ; 



