Peculiar Constitutions

The inhabitants of Portsmouth ‘… are badly supplied with water, having none but what partakes of a saline quality; and even this is so scarce that were it not for showers of rain, which is most industriously catched by everyone, people could not possibly subsist. As it is, if their constitutions were not of a very peculiar make, they would long before now have attempted a remedy for so great an evil; …’ Taken from The Borough being a faithfull tho’ humerous account of one of the strongest garrisons and seaport towns in GB published in 1748.