It must therefore, in these days, be, to an humane and thinking
person, a matter of equal wonder and satisfaction, when he
contemplates how nearly this pest is eradicated, and observes that a
leper now is a rare sight. He will, moreover, when engaged in such
a train of thought, naturally inquire for the reason. This happy
change perhaps may have originated and been continued from the
much smaller quantity of salted meat and fish now eaten in these
kingdoms; from the use of linen next the skin; from the plenty of
better bread; and from the profusion of fruits, roots, legumes, and
greens, so common in every family. Three or four centuries ago,
before there were any enclosures, sown-grasses, field-turnips, or
field-carrots, or hay, all the cattle which had grown fat in summer,
and were not killed for winter-use, were turned out soon after
Michaelmas to shift as they could through the dead months; so that
no fresh meat could be had in winter or spring. Hence the
marvellous account of the vast stores of salted flesh found in the
larder of the eldest Spencer** t in the days of Edward the Second,
even so late in the spring as the third of May.
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