THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 187 
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 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 dis- 
tricts 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 laborer also 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 parsi- 
mony, 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, 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 at- 
tended to. ‘The religious, being men of leisure, and keeping 
up a constant correspondence with Italy, were the first people 
