N iV T U K A L H I S T O R Y 
<lcad mondis ; fo that no frcfli meat could be bad ia winter or 
dpting. Hence the marvellous account of the vaft (tores of (iilted 
llefli found in the larder of the ekleft Spencer^ in the days oi Edward 
■the Second, even fo late in the fpring as the third Alav. It was 
from magazines like thefe that the turbulent barons fupported in 
idlenefs their riotous fwarms of retainers ready for any diforder or 
mifchief. But agriculture is now arrived at fuch a pitch of per- 
fcftion, that our beft and fatteft meats are killed in the winter ; 
and no man need cat ialted fieih, unlefs he prefers it, that has 
money to buy frelh. 
One caufe of this diflemper might be, no doubt, the quantity of 
wretched frelh and fait filh confumed by the commonalty at all 
feafons as well as in lent ; which our poor now would hardly be 
perfuaded to touch. 
The ufe of linen changes, fliirts or fliifts, in the room of fordid 
and filthy woollen, long worn next the fkin, is a matter of neatnefs 
comparatively modern ; but muft prove a great means of preventing 
cutaneous ails. At this very time woollen inftead of linen prevails 
among the poorer Welch, who are fubjeft to foul eruptions. 
The plenty of good wheaten bread that now is found among 
all ranks of people in the fouth, inftead of that miferable fort 
which ufed in old days to be made of barley or beans, may con- 
tribute not a little to the fweetening their blood and corredting 
their juices ; f or the inhabitants of mountainous diftridts, to this day, 
are flill liable to the itch and other cutaneous diforders, from a 
wretchednefs and poverty of diet. 
As to the produce of a garden, every middle-aged perfon of 
obfervation may perceive, within his own memory, both in town 
5 Vi%, Six hundred bacons, eighty carcaffes of beef, and fix hundred muttons. 
and 
