if we may believe the
contemporary writers; it flavoured dishes, helped digestion, was good
for short wind, killed moths, helped deafness, dissolved gravel, and,
lastly, 'drunk in wine doth haste on drunkenesse.'

The most important novelty of this century was the potato, which the
colonists, sent out in 1586 by Sir Walter Raleigh, brought from
Virginia to Ireland, though it had been introduced into Europe by the
Spaniards before this. According to Gerard, the old English botanist,
it was, on its first introduction from America, only cultivated in the
gardens of the nobility and gentry as a curious exotic; and in 1606 it
occurs among the vegetables considered necessary for a nobleman's
household.[241] It is curious to find Gerard comparing it to what he
calls the 'common potato', in reality the sweet potato brought to
England by Drake and Hawkins earlier in the century. In James I's
reign the root was considered a great delicacy, and was sold to the
queen's household at 2s. a lb., an enormous price.

Like most agricultural novelties it spread very slowly, but about the
middle of the seventeenth century began to be planted out in the
fields in small patches in Lancashire, whence it spread all over the
kingdom and to France.[242] At this date it was looked upon as a very
second-rate article of food, if we may judge by the _Spectator_ (No.
232), which alludes to it as the diet of beggars. About 1690, Houghton
says, 'now they begin to spread all the kingdom over,' and recommends
them boiled or roasted and eaten with butter and sugar.[243] Eden
notes its increasing popularity during the eighteenth century, and by
his time (the end of that century) in many parts it was the staple
article of food for the poor; in Somerset the children mainly
subsisted on it, and in Devon it was made into bread. Its cultivation
on a large scale in the field did not, however, spread all over
England till the Napoleonic war, and the ignorance and prejudice
against it lasted for long; even Cobbett called it 'the lazy root,'
and whole potatoes were used for seed regardless of the number of
eyes.

In 1563 was passed the famous Act, 5 Eliz., c. 4, which Thorold Rogers
has asserted to be the commencement of a conspiracy for cheating the
English workman of his wages, to tie him to the soil, to deprive him
of hope, and to degrade him into irremediable poverty.[244] The
violence of this language is a prima facie reason for doubting the
correctness of