Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 6

Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association

ISSN: 0002-2470 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uawm16

Attitudes and Responses Towards Air Pollution in


Medieval England

Peter Brimblecombe

To cite this article: Peter Brimblecombe (1976) Attitudes and Responses Towards Air Pollution
in Medieval England, Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association, 26:10, 941-945, DOI:
10.1080/00022470.1976.10470341

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00022470.1976.10470341

Published online: 13 Mar 2012.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 1380

View related articles

Citing articles: 10 View citing articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at


http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=uawm16
C^otu e Bjttfc Impioro TLonDottf $ cat
leDtfjtelonDei&jptapnc/anD^cotlon*
Dc aibpnc/anD tbalpa Camber*

London's medieval citizens reacted strongly to the in-


troduction of coal as a fuel fearing it would be detri-
mental to their health. Familiarity with coal resulted
in popular objection being directed more against the
aesthetic damage caused by coal smoke. Laws and
schemes proposed by early agitators were forgotten as
the destruction of England's forests necessitated the
unrestricted adoption of coal as a fuel. The figure is a
reproduction of a woodcut from Chronycle of Englonde,
printed by Richard Pynson in 1510 and is the earliest
printed picture of London. St. Paul's Cathedral domi-
nates the center. Note the chimneys that have begun to
dot the housetops. At the top right is the Tower of
London and London Bridge. Source: Medieval London,
Timothy Baker, Cassell, 1970

Peter Brimblecombe
University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

It is possible to trace the rise of Lon- predominant problem in that period.1 from the thirteenth century until the
don's air pollution problem through Through the centuries that followed, year 1661, which is significant because
seven hundred years and to see that the other industries and domestic con- of the publication of the first serious
city's air quality has been intimately sumption became major contributors to work on air pollution, John Evelyn's
connected with the use of coal. In fact, London's smog, but even in Shake- Fumifugium; or the Inconvenience of
a history of air pollution is almost a spearean times, the reputation of the the Air and Smoke of London Dissi-
history of fuel. In the earliest air pollu- lime kiln remained, as the poet has pated. 3 It was immediately followed by
tion incidents, of the thirteenth century, Falstaff say that something he dislikes John Graunt's Natural and Political
it is not only possible to link the pollu- "is more hateful to me than the reek of Observations upon the Bills of Mortal-
tion with coal burning, but also to single a lime kiln." 2 This paper examines the ity,4 a statistical examination of the
out the lime burning industry as the perception and control of air pollution health of an urban population, attri-

October 1976 Volume 26, No. 10 941


buting much of London's public health the 1570s as in former times it was only tion tackle the history of the subject, but
problem to air pollution. These years used by smiths and lime burners. It was make little use of primary source mate-
mark the end of a period in which there no doubt used by other industries on a rial.21-22 Chambers has been careful to
had been a lack of awareness of the im- small scale in London and coastal towns, point out that evidence of air pollution
pact of air pollution on the population because of its cheapness compared to in early times is no indication of any
in anything but a limited and transitory wood. One Stephen le Chandeler (can- significant awareness of air pollution, or
way. However, it is valuable to examine dlemaker) is recorded as having sold coal even the existence of a pollution prob-
the reactions of people during this pe- in medieval London16 and it is inter- lem. Thus in order to make full use of
riod of "innocence" where they were esting to wonder whether he used it in the information in early documents, it
unaffected by many of the factors, such candlemaking. In Scotland it was quite is necessary to consider how air pollu-
as the "media," and education which acceptable as a domestic fuel17 and it is tion was perceived before the industrial
influence the modern reaction to air associated with domestic supplies of revolution.
pollution. firewood as far south as Lincolnshire by
Galloway5 and Nef6 have written the early part of the fourteenth centu- Perception of Air Quality
fairly extensively on the technical and ry,18 but southern England was certainly
economic aspects of the early coal trade, centuries away from accepting the fuel The overall impression that early
but neither is able to find any significant for household use. The Scottish habit documents give is that of the extreme
use of coal before the thirteenth century, was certainly known to the English as it sensitivity of pre-industrial urban man
when it was known as sea-coal because was sent from Newcastle into Scotland to contaminants in the air, from the
it was shipped from Newcastle to Lon- for prisoners held hostage there in earliest complaints of Queen Eleanor
don as ballast.1 It was probably im- 1323.19 The Monks of Tynemouth began who had to leave Nottingham because of
ported into London in modest quantities to use coal as a fuel for salt making in the the smoke in 125723 to the "fine nosed
by the beginning of the thirteenth cen- fifteenth century and in the next cen- dames" of the seventeenth century, who
tury as it was well enough known by tury Cardinal Wolsey encouraged ex- Howes24 says would not even enter a
1228 for a street to be called Sacoles periments in smelting lead with coal, house where sea-coal had been burnt.
Lane,7 and in 1236 there is a record of it while supervising the See of Durham, This is in marked contrast to the toler-
being unloaded from a ship in the but nothing seems to have come from ance shown by modern city dwellers.
Thames.8 Stowe9 says that Sea Coal The reason for these contrasting atti-
Lane was a place where "sea-coals were tudes is not as easy to understand as
to be had," but it has been suggested might first be thought. The immediate
that it was a place where early coal reaction is to allow the medieval citizen
traders lived rather than stocked sea- a cleaner atmosphere and imagine that
coal, as William of Plessy lived there in any deterioration in its quality would be
1253.10 However, the fact that during so much more obvious than in the
the next century a street nearby was present; however, there would seem lit-
called Lymbarneres Lane11 suggests tle to support such a hypothesis if we
that coal was probably procurable in look more closely at the conditions
relatively large quantities in the area, for within cities before the Restoration. The
use in lime kilns. cities cannot have been attractive places
Records of the annual imports of coal to live in, particularly for the poor; foul
into London are not found until 1580, smells from poor sanitation and refuse
even though it had been regularly me- piles must have been most oppressive,
tered since the thirteenth century and especially in the summer months, yet
taxed at Billingsgate at one farthing for the high "industrial" activity in these
two quarters (0.68 ton).12 The fact that months lead to strong complaints about
the number of "metiers" was not in- the burning of sea coal in May and June
creased from the earliest times until the during the thirteenth century.1 The
reign of Queen Elizabeth I, is regarded these very early experiments. The complaints came mainly from the
by Nef6 as evidence that there was only shortage of wood became increasingly nobles, and it might be argued that the
a slight increase in the quantity of coal severe as the sixteenth century drew to feeling about air pollution was only an
imported into London over the first a close, and coal became acceptable as a upper class reaction by people who lived
three centuries of its use. This may be domestic fuel. Coal was also rapidly in considerably less polluted surround-
true, but historians appear to have adopted into industry, even though for ings, but even if one is willing to accept
placed too much emphasis on the small many industries there were considerable the doubtful assumption that the no-
size of coal stocks in southern England technical difficulties to overcome.20 bility were able to breathe purer air,
during the thirteenth and fourteenth The widening use of coal through the their much easier access to legislative
centuries. Stores of coal were usually seventeenth century stopped the rise of procedures probably accounts for the
held by smiths, but even in recent times firewood prices so characteristic of the fact that their opinions dominate me-
an active smith, using coal as the prin- beginning of that century.6 Records of dieval documents. Even among a pre-
cipal fuel would only use about twenty coal imported into London become fre- dominance of upper class complaints, it
tons a year. In the thirteenth century quent toward the end of the century is possible to find some reactions of the
these stores were usually only a ton or also, and their magnitude hints at the "average" urban man in early times.25
so,1 but there are very large stocks of extent to which pollution would have If there was any particular group to be
coal associated with lime burning. The been possible, the annual coal import seen as outspoken about air pollution it
Tower purchased 1100 quarters (370 being some 100,000 tons before 1620.6 would be the visitor. From medieval
tons) in 127813 and even private indi- Historians writing on the development times to the present people visiting
viduals made purchases in excess of 100 of the coal trade5'6 have noted the oc- polluted cities have found the conditions
tons in London.14 casional mention of air pollution in more a subject for complaint than the
The use of coal for forging and lime contemporary records, but have been cities' permanent residents. The earliest
burning so dominated the early coal interested only to the extent that this recorded complaint about air pollution
trade, that the Newcastle historian slowed the acceptance of coal as a fuel. in Britain arises from Eleanor's visit to
Grey15 says that the coal trade began in A few writers of books about air pollu- Nottingham, while the extensive action

942 Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association


in London in the year 130726 arises from smell of burning coal persisted through can only suppose that its use was con-
complaints made initially by nobles and most of the period under discussion and sidered so abhorrent, that no baker
prelates visiting the city. A similar sit- occurs in almost every document com- would have risked his reputation by
uation is found in more recent periods plaining about air pollution. This is the being foolish enough to try to use the
such as Defoe's sharp criticism of the predominant aesthetic objection, over- fuel. Howes24 says that ladies in the El-
northern cities27 or the present reaction riding the modern complaints of the vi- izabethan period would not eat meat
by travelers to Los Angeles. sual impact; loss of light and loss of vi- that had been roasted over sea-coals,
The reactions against air pollution are sual clarity. The stench of burning sea- and even by 1620, when wood had be-
strong and direct, and one marvels at coal is described as intolerable in a come very short, coal was not used to a
this, from people probably all guilty of document of the thirteenth century26 great extent by bakers. A baker reck-
ejecting rubbish or human dung onto the and Evelyn puts forward similar objec- oned on using about five tons of coal a
street or into the nearest ditch. Their tions in his Fumifugium.3 In a docu- year, but wood cost about twelve shil-
directness also contrasts them with ment of 1587 it is interesting to note that lings a week, which probably amounted
modern man, tied as he is to the pollut- Queen Elizabeth I finds the taste of to a wagon load.36 Brewers in West-
ing industries and their products. Few sea-coals annoying,31 which may be a minster were frequently harassed by the
of either the nobility or the poor in the reflection of the fact that sulfur dioxide authorities in the early part of the sev-
middle ages would have had, or been can be detected by taste in the air at enteenth century for burning sea-
aware of, any economic link with the lower concentrations than it can be coal,37"39 even though the law proposed
polluting lime and smelting industries, smelled. The description of the pollution to prohibit its use there was never
so they could agitate strongly against as annoying supports the claim above passed.40
them without fear of personal financial that the fear for health strongly held in Even though Evelyn3 is more con-
harm. Change always brings strong re- earlier times (by Queen Eleanor and cerned with the obvious physical aspects
sistance; so the introduction of coal was, Queen Margaret) had moderated by the of air pollution, he does say that the
perhaps, bound to lead to a conservative mid-sixteenth century. The pressure of reasons for its origin lie in the greed of
reaction, except from the artisans who necessity finally drove away the objec- the industrialists of his time. However,
were to profit from the use of cheaper tions to coal on the grounds of smell, as political and economic motives have
fuel. Perhaps the consumers profited by 1635 a young citizen in a play of been evident right from the early days of
also, as it may have been the introduc- Henry Glapthorne is heard saying coal usage. The economic pressures
tion of coal that allowed the price of lime "would I were in my native Citty ayre which caused the switch to coal were
to be kept at the values laid down by agen, within the wholesome smell of noted in the opening paragraph of this
"ancient ordinances," but the public, seacole.. .".32 section. Economic motives were also in
then as now, could hardly be expected to The corroding effect of pollution from the minds of legislators and plaintiffs
be sympathetic towards the problems of coal burning damages buildings who could see air pollution as lowering
a "capitalist" industry. The black smoke aesthetically rather than structurally, the value of property as is illustrated in
of shallow bituminous coal must have but by the early seventeenth century the a document of 1377 where a householder
made its use very obvious, although no effect evoked comment. Blackening by and his wife complain that the smoke
objections to the ugliness of smoke are smoke is much more obvious and its ef- has lowered the rent obtainable by let-
found before the seventeenth century. fects are heightened by any corrosion. In ting his rooms from ten marks to forty
Despite the diffuse pollution of decaying 1620 King James I "was moved with shillings a year.25 The other aspect of the
organic material, the air must have been compassion for the decayed fabric (of St. case seems to illustrate the possibilities
quite clear, but the point source emis- Paul's)... near approaching ruin by the pollution offers as a convenient instru-
sion of black smoke must have made the corroding quality of coal smoke . . . ment to precipitate the wrath of the civic
culprit easily identifiable. where unto it had been long subject," 33 authorities on a noisy neighbor. Lime
The predominant fear of the thir- which hints at the severity of the prob- burners frequently set lime prices ex-
teenth century was that the smoke from lem, so soon after coal came into general orbitantly high41 so pollution may have
sea-coal would affect one's health.1'28-29 use. Even earlier there are objections to been a convenient way of bringing
With the increasing use of coal in the the "sootiness" of the smoke from coal. pressure to bear on them. Butchers42
following centuries this fear vanished. In Shakespeare has "Master Sea Coal" a and brewers43 were another trade that
a population with a high death rate from grubby dirty fellow.2 came under frequent attack for pollu-
poor sanitation any change due to It is understandable that the reaction tion, although here it was primarily
burning coal would be extremely diffi- to the dirtiness of coal smoke came water pollution. The effects were par-
cult to detect. If anything, the opposite rather late, as washing of buildings and tially airborne and again there seems to
reaction made itself felt as Defoe,30 even of clothes must have been infre- be considerable scope for public feeling
presumably writing from eye-witness quent in medieval times anyway. In the against these groups on the grounds of
accounts of the plague says in Journals Duke of Northumberland's book,34 their hold on medieval prices. The most
of the plague year that the coal smoke commenced in 1520, an entry for a year's interesting example of this kind is a case
actually drove away the plague. The fuel is found which outlines concern for which involved the Knights Templars
cleansing action of sulfurous smoke the effect of coal smoke on furnishings. who were under repression in the open-
seems to be a return to much earlier at- This predates Evelyn's well known ing years of the fourteenth century and
titudes. In Roman times sulfur was complaint by more than a century. Coal finally expelled in 1312.44 They were
burnt in religious rites and in Anglo- was not used for cooking, even in the accused of being the main cause of the
Saxon England the smoke from coal was north where it had long been accepted perennial problem of blockage of the
thought to drive away bad spirits. It was for other domestic purposes, and wood Fleet river by their mill even though
only the closer observations of men such was specially bought for cooking. The contemporary records admit that the
as Digby, Evelyn, and Graunt, whose Hallmote of Bakers35 from the early smell is probably due to tannery refuse.
more scientific approach could recognize fourteenth century declared that "no During the reign of Elizabeth I some
the damaging effects of air pollution baker shall cause his fires to be lit with writers saw the smoke problem arising
among the disguising influence of poor fern, stubble, straw or reeds." There is from the fact that the good coal was
public health. no mention about sea-coal, when a study being exported.45 Chambers22 has even
Although the initial fears of damage of medieval man would suggest that the seen religious motives in the slow ac-
to health fell away among the general legislators would have been.strongly ceptance of coal, which "was an un-
public quite rapidly, the objection to the against its use as a fuel for baking. One natural fuel."

October 1976 Volume 26, No. 10 943


Response burned. In 1302 a strange group of chimney heights were already in exis-
benevolent blacksmiths vowed not to tence.25
If the public response to change in burn sea-coal at night to prevent any ill The officer responsible for public
fuels was to some extent simply a con- effect on their neighbors' health.48 In health in medieval London was the
servative reaction, it is to be expected 1307 Edward I issued a proclamation Chamberlain, but no records of his in-
that a frequently proposed solution to that during the time that Queen Mar- volvement in air pollution episodes were
air pollution problems in medieval times garet, his consort, was resident in the found in the present studies, although
was a return to the old fuels. The com- Tower no kilns be burnt in the city and the Chamberlain did seem to be in-
missions setup in 1285 and 128846 were other places adjoining the Tower.28 It is volved with pollution of the rivers of
apparently unsuccessful in finding any interesting to note that this proclama- London. Aldermen were chosen to in-
ingenious solution to the problems of tion follows the ban on sea coal burning vestigate early air pollution prob-
pollution and the proclamation of 1307 and restricts all kilns regardless of the lems29'50 and they associated themselves
simply bans the use of coal, insisting fuel. In Queen Elizabeth's time, the with the sheriffs and bailiffs of the city.
that brushwood or charcoal be used.47 brewers said that they would use wood King Edward II is on record as acting
The reasons which prevented this from in the brewing houses nearest the palace directly through the Constable of the
being a success, although largely eco- of Westminster,31 and from then on well Tower in 1310, John de Crumbwell.51
nomic, were probably also due to the into the seventeenth century brewers in Penalties for contravening "pollution
fact that coal is a better fuel for lime that area used sea-coal only at consid- abatement regulations" seem to have
burning and some forging operations. erable risk of being fined by any number been fines26 or the removal of the of-
However, even for domestic purposes to of administrative bodies.37"39 John fending kiln,51 a typical fate for kilns
which coal is not well suited, the con- Evelyn proposed that industry be lo- that were a public nuisance in the thir-
tinued use of wood was not possible be- cated away from the residential areas of teenth century.8 There is a popular no-
cause of the destruction of the English London, and although the rebuilding tion that a man was hung for burning
forests. Hence the solution which programmed after the great fire would sea-coal in London in 1306,52 but this
seemed reasonable to many in the thir- invariably has no primary reference and
teenth and fourteenth centuries, was so the Rolls for that year make no mention
obviously unworkable by the seven- of any pollution incident at all. The date
teenth century that even coal-smoke's 1306 may well be due to a textual error
most eloquent critic, John Evelyn, does in John Stowe's Survey of London.9
not suggest that it could be abandoned
as a fuel.3 Chambers has argued that duties en-
forced by Richard III and the metage of
A related solution, to try and find coal by the administration of Henry V
another fuel, seems to have received were pollution control measures, al-
scant attention. Owen45 suggested the though the textual evidence for this is
use of the relatively smokeless anthra- not cited.22 In the early part of the sev-
cite in 1602, but nothing seems to have enteenth century the brewers in West-
come of this. Kings and Nobles in Scot- minster were repressed by confusing
land had long used "great coal" and al- range of offices, which included that of
though this was brought to London it the Attorney-General,37 the Judges of
did not find much favour possibly be- Serjeant's Inn and Inner Temple,37 the
cause it burnt without much light. It was Court of Exchequer38 and the Arch-
well known in London as an odorless bishop of Canterbury.39 The action
fuel by the end of the seventeenth cen- against brewers using sea-coal by
tury, but was regarded very much as a Archbishop Laud is mentioned in his
luxury item.6 Methods of rendering the have given adequate scope for this, his trial of 1643.39 The prosecution claimed
bituminous coal more pleasant were advice, as with the advice of many other that he had made brewers in Westmin-
attempted in the late sixteenth century, prominent planners of the time, went ster pay fines for using sea-coal even
but none seem to have had lasting suc- quite unheeded. though the King had pardoned them.
cess. The main motive for coking coal The most obvious response to the Part of the money was to be used for the
was not so much to make a smokeless widespread domestic use of coal was the repair of St. Paul's, which James I
fuel, but to render it suitable for use in need for chimneys in every house. The thought damaged by coal smoke. Al-
industries such as steel and glass mak- increase in chimneys through Eliza- though one cannot find much to admire
ing. However, domestic uses of coked bethan times was emphasized by the in Laud's administration, it did devote
coal were not ignored long. In 1627 a editor of Holinshed's Chronicles.49 Al- an overwhelming importance to detail;
patent was granted for "rendering sea- though this is necessary to make the the easterly drift of coal smoke from
coal and pit coal as useful as charcoal, interior of the house bearable, its rele- Westminster to central London can
for burning in houses without offence by vance to air pollution on a larger scale is hardly have escaped its notice, and the
smell or smoke." Despite the furious that it is the chimney that allowed do- desire to make the polluter pay for the
activity of Jacobean inventors who mestic usage of coal to become so gen- damage wrought would receive more
patented some eight or nine methods of eralized. The chimney must not only sympathy today than it did in his
"charking" coal in 1633, acceptance discharge the smoke, but it is also re- times.
cannot have been wide.21 Indicative of quired to disperse it in such a way that
the lack of popular acceptance of char- it does not affect the surroundings
coal is Evelyn's apparent lack of interest. Conclusion
unduly. The height of the chimney is one
In 1656 he visited Sir Joseph Winter at of the primary factors that controls A concentrated list of medieval pol-
Greenwich and saw coal being charred,47 dispersive efficiency, and although early lution documents does draw undue at-
but makes only passing reference to this building codes were concerned mainly tention to what must have been a prob-
when discussing solutions to London's with the fire risk and structural stability lem of only minor concern to early city
smoke problem in Fumifugium.3 of chimneys, a document of 1377 shows dwellers. Nevertheless it still seems
Another approach that was tried very that the importance of chimney height worthwhile to try and make some gen-
early was to restrict the time or places was well* known and even hints that eralizations. Complaint seems to have
within the city where coal could be some city regulations about minimum been induced by perceptible changes in

944 Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association


environmental quality. Environmental References 33. Sir W. Dugdale, History of St. Paul's
quality in medieval cities was low, but it Cathedral from its Foundation, London,
1. P. Brimblecombe, "Industrial air pollu- 1658.
is the change that the citizen noticed; tion in thirteenth century Britain," 34. A Northumberland Household Book
changes which began with the first large Weather 30: 388 (1975). Duke of Northumberland's Book.
scale use of coal late in the thirteenth 2. W. Shakespeare, from the Arden 1520.
Shakespeare Ed. H. F. Brooks and H. 35. H. T. Riley, "Hallmote of Bakers" in
century. Contemporary records are seen Jenkins, Harvard, London. 1961. Liber Albus. (ref. no. 12.), 1861.
as showing another burst of feeling in 3. J. Evelyn, Fumifugium, London. 1661. 36. Remembrancia. E. J. Francis & Co.,
the early seventeenth century, which 4. J. Graunt, Natural and Political Obser- London, 1878.
might be attributed to an unprece- vations, Tho. Roycroft, London, 1662. 37. Historical Manuscript Commission IV,
dented twenty-fold increase in London's 5. R. Galloway, Annals of Coal Mining and 54.
the Coal Trade, Vol. 1. Colliery Guardian 38. Calendar of State Papers (Domestic)
coal imports between 1580 and 1680. Co. Ltd., London, 1898. Charles I CCCXI (January 15, 1636).
Visitors to the city experience an even 6. J. U. Nef, The Rise of the British Coal 39. Manuscripts of the House of Lords XI,
more rapid change in environmental Industry. George Routledge & Sons, pp. 382-385.
quality as they pass from a rural to an London, 1932. 40. Lord's Journal Hi, p. 269 (Bill of 1623).
7. Pipe Roll (1228). 41. Calendar of Letter Books of London E.
urban climate, and perhaps this explains 8. London Eyre, No. 106 (1224). Fo CXXVII, CXCVII 6.
the strong protest that they evoked. 9. J. Stowe, Survey of London. Ed. C. L. 42. Rotuli Parliamentorum et Petitiones et
An important aspect of such changes Kingsford, Oxford, 1971. Placita in Parliamento, ii 460 (20 April,
10. Cartae Antiquae, Chancery, L. No. 20 in 1370).
in air quality is that it is a change in the dorso. 43. G. O. Sayles, "Selected cases in the court
level of perception of the pollutants 11. R. R. Sharp, Calendar of Wills in the of King's Bench under Edward I," Sel-
rather than in the absolute level of pol- Court of Hustings, Vol. 1. Corporation of don Society 57:151 (1938).
lution. In the thirteenth century pollu- London, 1899. 44. M. B. Honeyborne, "The Fleet and its
tion is perceived through its smell, 12. H. T. Riley, Liber Albus, Richard Griffin neighbourhood in early and medieval
& Co., London, 1861. times," in London Topographical Record
rather than its visual impact; thus one 13. F. J. North, Limestones, London, 1930. XIX.
might conclude that the change in the 14. Calendar of Early Mayors' Court Rolls. 45. G. Owen, A History of Pembrokeshire.
olfactory environment was larger than Roll G. m3b. MSS published in Cambrian Register
the change in soiling of buildings or 15. Grey, Choreographia, or a Survey of 1796,1595.
Newcastle-upon-Tine, 1649. 46. Calendar of Patent Rolls, 16 Ed. 1.
clothes, presumably none too clean at 16. Calendar of Early Mayors' Court Rolls, ml2.
that time anyway. Benarie53 has treated Roll A. mlb. 47. J. Evelyn, Diaries. Ed. E. S. De Beer,
smell as a language and that a large class 17. The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland (eg. Oxford, 1955.
of smells signify danger, so the new 1264-66). 48. Calendar of Early Mayors' Court Rolls,
18. Calendar of Memoranda Rolls (Exche- Roll B m5.
smell, an acrid odour of burning coal, quer) 1326-1327. 49. Harrison, Holinsheds Chronicle iii:16
was treated with caution and a certain 19. Calendar of Close Rolls 16 Ed. II m4. (1577).
amount of fear for bodily well-being, by 20. Harleian MSS 7009 f.9. 50. Calendar of Patent Rolls, 35 Ed. 1.
early urban man. Yet sophistication in 21. A. Marsh, Smoke, Faber and Faber, m5d.
London, 1947. 51. Calendar of Close Rolls, 4 Ed. II m23d.
perception was by no means lacking, and 22. L. A. Chambers, Air Pollution. Ed. A. C. 52. Calendar of Patent Rolls, 16 Ed. 1.
even indirect effects, such as economic Stern. Vol. 1. Academic Press, New York, ml2.
changes, were perceived in the four- 1968. 53. M. M. Benarie, "Language as a model
teenth century.25 Awareness of the in- 23. Annales de Dunstaplia (1257) from An- relating to odour quality," Atmos. En-
nales Monastici Vol. Ill, 1858. viron. 7: 369 (1973).
direct effects of pollutants was not lim- 24. E. Howes, The Annals of England con-
ited to the aristocracy, even if the re- tinued by E. Howes. 1631.
sponse is more evident from this sector. 25. London Assize of Nuisance 1301-1431.
However, attempts to limit the use of London Record Society, 1973.
coal, suggestions for new fuels and the 26. Calendar of Close Rolls. 35 Ed. 1. m7d.
27. D. Defoe, A Tour through the Whole
relocation of industry proved all too Island of Great Britain. London,
futile, under the inexorable economic 1724-6.
pressures in a society where the powers 28. Calendar of Close Rolls, 35 Ed. 1. m6d.
of industry and capital were growing 29. Calendar of Patent Rolls, 13 Ed. 1.
ml8d.
rapidly. Perhaps the attitudes and re- 30. D. Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, Dr. Brimblecombe is a lecturer in
sponses to air pollution in early times London, 1722. the School of Environmental Sciences,
serves to outline more clearly the pre- 31. Calendar of State Papers (Domestic) University of East Anglia, Norwich,
(1547-80) p. 612. NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom.
dicament that must be faced and over-
32. H. Glapthorne, The Lady Mother, Ma-
come at the present time. lone Society Reprint, 1958.

October 1976 Volume 26, No. 10 945

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi