Good wholesome labour was his exercise, Down with the lamb, and with the lark would rise; In wise and toiling sweat he spent the day, And to his team he whistled time away; The cock his night-clock, and till day was done, His watch and chief sun-dial was the sun. He was of old Pythagoras’ opinion, That new cheese was most wholesome with an onion; Coarse meslin bread; and for his daily swig, Milk, butter-milk, and water, whey and whig; Sometimes metheglin, and, by fortune happy, He sometimes sipped a cup of ale most nappy, Cider or perry, when he did repair To a Whitson ale, wake, wedding, or a fair, Or when in Christmas-time he was a guest, At his good landlord’s house among the rest; Else he had little leisure-time to waste, Or at the alehouse buff-cup ale to taste; His physic was good butter, which the soil Of Salop yields, more sweet than Candy-oil; And garlic he esteemed above the rate Of Venice treacle, or best mithridate; He entertained no gout, no ache he felt, The air was good and temperate where he dwelt; Thus living within bounds of Nature’s laws, Of his long-lasting life may be some cause. Taylor thus describes the person of Parr: From head to heel, his body had all over A quick-set, thick-set, natural hairy cover. The Vegetarians maintain that their system of living conduces highly to longevity. We find in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, 1774, this recorded instance: “At Brussels, Elizabeth de Val, aged 103, who was remarkable for never having eaten a bit of meat in her life.” An advocate of vegetable diet adduces the Norwegian and Russian peasantry as the most remarkable instances of extreme longevity: “The last returns of the Greek Church population of the Russian empire give (in the table of the deaths of the male sex) more than one thousand above 100 years of age, many between 140 and 150.... Slaves in the West Indies are recorded from 130 to 150 years of age.” Widow Rogers, of Penzance, Cornwall, who died 1779, aged 118, for the last sixty years lived entirely on vegetable diet.