Manuscript Copy of Complaints Made Against Bakers in Leicestershire

No Place: No Publisher [4]p, final leaf blank, n.d. c.1815? Very lightly browned, otherwise fairly clean. A manuscript copy of several complaints made about the adulteration of bread in Leicestershire. The examples include a visit to a Thomas Fielding, a baker from Castle Donington, "to examine his bread and to search for any unlawful ingredients in the making thereof". The adulteration of bread was common, even after the 1757 Making of Bread Act, which was introduced after a report accused bakers of using lime, alum, chalk, plaster, and even powdered bones to add weight and keep bread white. Vogler notes that the medical journal 'The Lancet', which campaigned against adulterants, "found that every single loaf the report's author bought at random in London contained alum. The millers and bakers responded by denying that alum was toxic, but Eliza Acton drily pointed out that, 'as their education generally does not qualify them to form an opinion worthy of respect upon the subject, it is unwise of them to make such an assertion'" (Vogler, 'Scoff - A History of Food and Class in Britain', pages 337-8). The paper has the watermark of T, W & R Botfield, which Churchill dates to 1807. First Edition. Unbound. Good. Folio. Ephemera.