LXXIX.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
215 
of neatness comparatively modern ; but must prove a great 
means of preventing cutaneous ails. At this very time woollen 
instead of linen prevails among tlie 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 inliabitants of mountainous districts, 
to this day, are still liable to the itch and other cutaneous 
disorders, from 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 vastl}^ the consumption of vegetables 
is increased. Green-stalls in cities now support multitudes in a 
comfortable state, whilst gardeners get fortunes. Every decent 
labourer has his garden, which is half his support, as well as his 
delight ; and common farmers provide plenty of beans, peas, 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 dependants. 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, wdio 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 keeping 
up a constant correspondence with Italy, were the first people 
among us that had gardens and fruit-trees in any perfection, 
within the walls of their abbeys, priories, and monasteries, where 
the lamp of knowledge continued to burn, however dimly. 
In them men of business were formed fur the state : the art 
of writing was cultivated by the monks ; they were the only 
^ Marcli was the stormy moiith with our Saxon ancestors ; May, Tliro- 
niik'lii, the cows being then milked three times a-day ; June, dig and weed 
)nonth ; September, barley month. ]\I:tf<)rd. 
