ven, and E. L. Loveden, Esq. the largest proprietors; several handsome seats with land not exceeding 100 acres, and many small freeholders and yeomanry. Some curious customs; at Enborne and Caddleworth manors, belonging to Earl Craven and R. W. Nelson, Esq., the widow of a copyholder, guilty of incontinency or marrying again, lost her freebench or life interest, unless she submitted to the ceremony of riding into the court on a black rani, and of repeating some well-known confessional lines. (Sec Addison's Spectator.) In the manor of Great Faringdon the customary tenant's daughter, on being convicted of incontinency, was to forfeit the sum of forty pence to the lord, or to appear in court, carrying a black sheep on her back, and making confession of her offence in these words: "Ere porto pudorem posterioris mei." Many other

Farmeries on collegiate or corporate lands generally in bad repair, because the fines for renewal of the leases take all the spare money, &c.

Chelsey Farm, near Wallingford, in 1800 the property of Lord Kensington, and formerly reputed to be the largest and most compact farm in England. Rent 1000. per annum. Before the dissolution of monasteries it belonged to the Abbot of Reading, who had a seat here. The great barn in which his tithes were deposited is yet standing, and measures 101 yards in length and eighteen in breadth. The side walls are only eight feet high, but the roof rises to a great height, and is supported by seventeen stone pillars, each four yards in circumference. This construction is obviously judicious; high side walls, unless tied together by cross-beams, would have ben in danger of being thrust outwards when the barn was filling with com. This, as we have seen (7003.), is the case with the handsome high-walled barns of Coke.

4. Occupation.

One-third of the county occupied by proprietors. Farms of all sizes under 1000 or 1200 acres, but few exceeding 500 acres or under 501, a year. Character of the Berkshire farmer stands high. "A hospitable style of living, liberality of sentiment, and independence of principle, are characteristic of the Berk shire farmer; to which he unites persevering industry and integrity in his dealings, which render him worthy of the com. forts he enjoys." (Dr. Mavor.)

5. Implements.

The Berkshire waggon, one of the lightest and best imple ments of the waggon kind. The sort of draught chain described and recommended by Gray, (2613.) is in use on one estate, "the object is to prevent the draught of the trace horse from pulling down the thiller." The county plough a clumsy implement with wheels; a pressing plough (2515.) recently invented; it has three wheels with the tires wedge-shaped, and is intended "to press in the grips or channels made by the common ploughs, that no hollow places may remain for the seed to be baried too deep, &c." This sort of improvement is usual among amateur agriculturists, who have one implement invented to correct the faults of another, both of course bad. A number of other inventions, including a curious hand threshing machine, ingenious enough, but quite unnecessary, are figured and described.

6. Arable Land.

Plough generally with four or five horses at a snail's pace. George III. had two farms, one of 800 acres, cultivated in the Norfolk manner, and another of 450 acres, managed in the Flemish manner; 450 of the former, and 150 of the latter were arable. The whole delegated to the care of N. Kent, of Craigs Court, land-agent, and author of " Hints to Gentlemen of Landed Property," 1790. Rye cultivated on His Majesty's farms, and on the Downs. Some hops, woad, flax, and other plants not usually cultivated; seventy acres of lavender at

Park Place, on the side of a chalky hill, originally planted by General Conway, who distilled it himself at fås cofe manufac tory. As the plants die they are replaced by others from i small nursery plantation. It begins to flower about the end of July, when nearly one hundred women and children are employed in cutting off the flower spikes, which they be up in bundles, and send to the still house in baskets, carried by two men. The lower part of the stalks are then cat off, and the heads are put into the still, and distilled. The chemical odd, being separated, is poured into copper jars for sale. 7. Grass.

About one-fifth of the county under permanent grass, exdusive of the Downs and wastes. A tract of excellent meadow un the Thames, from the windings of the river, 105 miles in length, little irrigated, but a good deal flooded after heavy rain. Excellent meadows at Reading; those on the Kennet over the stratum of peat, of rather a coarse quality. Manuring nadows not general, though they are for the most part mown once a year; upland pastures manured when mown. Herbags, plants, and artificial grasses, a good deal sown. Meadows chiefly fed by oxen after being once mown. The dairy farmas occupy the poorer upland grassy districts, and the breeders of sheep the Downs.

8. Gardens and Orchards.

About forty acres of market garden and orchard at Reading, where onions are raised in great quantities; asparagus for de London and Bath markets, and cabbage sects for the Landes seedsmen; good apples there and at other places; some cider made, and a good many cherries grown for market. Nar Abingdon an orchard of twenty-one acres, containing 41

trees.

9. Woods and Plantations.

Extent of Windsor Forest, belonging to the crown, 5454 acres, including wood and water; private property, called Forest Lands, 29,000 acres; encroachments acTES- The forest is under the government and superintendance of the Duke of York, lord warden, who appoints his deputy Lientenant, the rangers or head keepers of the several walks, and the under keepers.

Great part of the timber on the forest sold, as well as that retained, is truly venerable and picturesque in appearance, tet rotten or mildewed to the heart in such a way as to be it only for fuel. This rot, or mildew as it is called, seems to be the natural process of decay, and is particularly fatal to beech trees, which are by no means so long lived as the oak, aah, zad others. Various young plantations on different estates, espe cially those of Loveden, Fishe Palmer, Wheelle, &c. User beds on the moist parts of the Thames' meadows.

10. Improvements.

At

An account of the culture of Geo. III's farms, by Kent, dated 1798, is given as of the greatest national consequ«x, ko Oxen are used both in farm and road-work, and the ploughs are the Norfolk wheel plough and the Suffolk iron pigh a later period the Rotherham plough, and with which two oxen, yoked in collars, will plough, on the light soil of the forest, an acre a day. Draining in the Ever manner a good deal practised; the drains filled with straw, rubbish from brick kilns, wood, cinders, or gravel.

What s

Peut ashes is a manure almost peculiar to Berkshire, though they might be obtained by the same process wherever pect of similar quality abounds, and are so obtained in Hol and, and the ashes extensively used there, and sometimes shipped to dis country. In the year 1745 peat was first barnt in Newling, by a Thomas Rudd, who at the same time spread the ashes in clovers, for which they have ever since been famous. An T of peat land at that period sold for 30: it has since sold, according to its quality, for 3007, and 4002, and, in one in tan reached about 8004. per acre. Over the stratum of peat, whịh is about five or six feet deep, is a good meadow soil, and anks the peat is gravel. The peat varies in color, but the Flackest is reckoned the best, and is used for firing, the ashes of which are most esteemed, and have the reddest color. burnt for sale, is mixed with turf and other substances, which gives it a pale whitish hue. It is usually dug with a longhandled spade, from the middle of May to the end of June, and is conveyed from the spot in little wheelbarrows, to a but distance, where it is spread on the ground, and after lying about a week, the pieces are turned. This being three or four times repeated, a heap is made in the middle of the place where the peat is spread, and in the centre of this heaps some very dry peat is put, which being lighted, the fire communkates santy to the rest of the heap. When it is complete y lighted, an additional quantity of peat is put upon the heap, and this per tion is continued till the whole is consumed, which orig takes a month or six weeks, as quick burning is not app*** Š of. Rain seldom penetrates deep enough to extinguish the fire. The heap is commonly of a circular form, and rather flat at top. At first it is very small; but at last it is SEXUS two or three yards deep, and six or seven yards in diameter. The ashes being riddled, are conveyed away in carts, to a distance sometimes of twenty miles, and put it; a house, or under a shed, to keep them from the wet, til they are wanted to be put on the ground.

The usual time of applying post ashes is March and April.. They are generally taken in carts, and sown on the grand before or after the seed is sown on the land. The quamur is usually from twelve to fifteen Winchester bushels per act, according to the soil and crop. It is supposed that for large a quantity would be injurious. For barley, wheat, and peas, they are not in much estimation; but for all sorts of art. grass, more especially, they are preferred to all other manumo In turnips they assist to prevent the ravages of the fy; and m grass seeds the farmers reckon on an acre, manered with ashar producing nearly a ton of hay beyond what it would have yielded without them. The effect is supposed to be of no longer duration than two years. On meadow land, from fem to twenty bushels may advantageously be pat; they much. 15prove the grass.

11. Live Stock.

No particular breed of cattle; long hormed mest cem EST. A dairying tract in the west of the vale of White Horse; tah butter inade, and some cheese of the single Gleicester & the Calves a good deal suckled in some places. Basent partð famous for cheeses, in the shape of pin apples; they are oď sa nă excellent flavor, and sell higher than other cheeses- T curds are well worked with the hands, then pressed into s

considered as very hardy, and particularly adapted for the low strong lands, and for folding.

Horses of the common heavy black race. Pearce calculated in 1794, that 12,000 horses were kept in Berkshire for the purposes of agriculture, and that one-third of the number might be saved by the use of improved implements; most of the horses are bought from the Northamptonshire breeders; many, after being kept a year or two at work, are sold for the London drays.

Hogs, the native breed one of the best in Britain; a cross with the Chinese, now more common than the pure native breed. Wherever there is a dairy, hogs are kept, but they are not counted a profitable stock to be fed with what would fatten cattle or sheep. Carcase chiefly made into bacon; cured in the usual way, and dried in rooms heated with wood or coal. Loveden has a bacon house, heated by a stove and flues. In farm-houses, much is smoke-dried in the chimnies with wood fires, which is supposed to have the best flavor.

Rabbits kept in warrens, in one or two places; and one gentleman rears tame rabbits of a pure white, the skins of which sell high for trimmings.

Poultry. Near Oakingham, many are crammed for the market, they are put up in a dark place, and crammed with a paste made of barley-meal, mutton suet, and some treacle, or coarse sugar, mixed with milk, and are found to be completely ripe in a fortnight. If kept longer, the fever that

fat

1. Geographical State and Circumstances. Climate, cold and bleak on the Cotswold hills; mild in the vale, which lies open to the south winds; on the sandy soils of the forest district, the harvest is sometimes cut a fortnight earlier than in the vale.

Soil of the Cotswolds is all calcareous loam or stonebrash; in the vale, a fine black loam, or fertile red loam, and in some places a strong clay and peat earth; the finest soil is generally sandy loam, sand or peaty earth.

Minerals. None in the Cotswolds, but iron and coal in the Forest of Dean, both worked. Lead found in the limestone rocks of the lower part of the vale; not worked. Though iron ore be abundant in the Forest of Dean, only a small quantity is raised, it being found more profitable to bring the richer ore of Lancashire, which is burnt with the coke of the forest coal for cast iron, and plates for tinning. Coal pits numerous, and worked at a shallow depth, for want of proper machinery to exhaust the water; three sorts delivered, kitchen coal, smith's coal, and lime coal. Claystone and freestone found in various parts of the forest; paving stones, grindstones, yellow and grey stone tiles raised in different parts of the Cotswolds; gypsum is raised for stuccoing, and sent to Bath from Hanbury; it is also used as alabaster for chimney pieces, &c.

Water. Produce of the Severn is roach, dace, bleak, flounders, cela, elvers, chub, carp, trout, and perch. The sea-fish taken within the limits of the county, in the Severn, are salmon, lampreys, lamperns, chad, soles, shrimps, cod, plaice, Great conger-eel, porpoise, and sturgeon. Salmon formerly caught in great abundance, but now comparatively scarce. mischief done by the use of small meshed nets, which take the samlets or fry.

Ponds for water made on the Cotswold hills, as already described (4136.), in the vale in the common manner. The waters which rise through beds of blue clay, are often strongly saline, as at Cheltenham, &c.

2. Property.

Largest estate 8000l. a year among the nobility, and 30001. among the gentry; tenures chiefly freehold, some copyhold, and about one-fortieth corporate or ecclesiastical. Estates under the see of Gloucester, leased out on lives; those of the corporation of the city, the same; usual fine for renewal of a life one year and a half of the improved annual value.

3. Buildings.

Many handsome seats; farm-houses and cottages on the Cotswolds built of freestone, and covered with stone tiles; often as many on an estate of 1001. a year, as are required for a farm of 500. a year, under the correction of modern improvement; barns, however, of a moderate size; wheat stacked on stone staddles. Cottages, as in most counties, neglected, and uncomfo.table; some judicious remarks on the subject by Rudge.

5. Implements.

6. Enclosing.

7. Arable Land.

300,000 acres; much ploughing on the Cotswolds lightens the staple of the weak soils: seven horses often used in the vale teams; ridges in the vale so high that a person six feet high may stand in the furrows, and not be able to see the crown of the second ridge from him; to reduce them a small ridge often Fallowing practised on the clays, begun between them. then wheat and beans, or oats. Rotation on the Cotswolds -1 turnips, 2 bailey, 3 and 4 clover mown the first year, 5 wheat, 6 oats, tares, or peas; if oats, frequently laid down with saintfoin. On crumbly soils wheat is sown and ploughed in during rather wet weather, otherwise the seedling plants are apt to be thrown out with the first frosts; the same thing attended to in Oxfordshire and various other counties; this is called seven-field husbandry. Beans either drilled or dibbled; a broad bean, the mazagan, used when the land is in The Burbage pea, an good heart, and ticks when less so. "Some lands have the pecuearly grey variety, most in use. liar quality of raising siddow pens, or such as boil freely," on them the Chariton is grown, and sold for splitting: clay lands never have this property. Tares common, and among these a sort called dill, supposed by Marshal to be the ervum hirsutum, L., but erroneously termed anethum by Rudge. Turnips on the Cotswolds always broad-cast, and sometimes after wheat or tares, and then called stubble turnips; consumed by sheep in hurdle folds; sometimes given to horses, and found to induce them to cat barn chaff with a Letter appetite. Some flax

making cider for sale, are found only on the sides of the hills and in the vale and forest district. The stocks are planted in the orchard when six or seven feet high, ten or twelve yards asunder on pasture, and sixteen or seventeen on arable lands. A year after planting, they are grafted. Sometimes fruit trees are planted in the hedge rows; hedges are often composed of apple seedlings, raised from the kernels in the cider mast; and here and there the farmer often leaves a stem to rise above the general height of the hedge, and grafts it; frequently also wildings are allowed here and there to rise into trees, and their fruit is used with that from grafted trees, in crushing for cider. Grafts are inserted in the cleft manner, at seven feet from the ground, two in each stock: if both succeed, one is removed the following spring, and the stock sloped to the remaining graft, to prevent the lodging of water, and clayed afresh, to facilitate the growth of bark over the wound. After grafting, "braids," that is, inverted wicker baskets, rising about two feet high, are fitted to the stock, which serve at once to guard the grafts, and direct their shoots to a proper form. The stock is next protected from cattle or the plough harness, by four posts placed round it, with six tier of rails; by three posts and six tier of rails; by two broad posts and rails by a bundle of thorn branches; by planting a thorn or briar along with the stock; or by twisting a shoot of the creeping rose (Rosa arvensis) round the stock. The mode of plantinga creeping rose with the stock, and twisting it round the stem, is said to be found the cheapest and best; but it must evidently impoverish the soil. Pruning is not attended to on young grafted trees, or any others as it ought to be, nor the removal of moss and misletoe. Grafting the branches of old trees often practised with great success; a young stock grafted will probably not produce a bushel of apples in twenty years, but a branch grafted bears the second year. Dr. Cheston, of Gloucester, practises root grafting, but which is quite unsuitable for field orchards. Grafted trees bear little till twenty years of age; their produce increases till fifty years, and is then ten or fifteen bushels; an apple will bear 100 or more years from this period, and often much longer. A pear tree at Minsterworth 300 years old at least.

Cider-making. Best orchardists shake off the fruit, and never beat the tree, which destroys the blossom buds; limb by limb is shaken by a person in the tree, and those which adhere allowed to remain some time longer to ripen: the horse-mill used by large, and the hand-mill by small farmers; the cylinders of the hand-mill of wood, and fluted; sometimes there are two pair of cylinders, one finer fluted under the first pair, and in other cases the cylinders are set wide the first time the apples are passed through, and closer the second; the other processes as usual. Of the various apples grown, the whitestyre of the Forest district makes the strongest and richest cider; it is often valued equally with foreign wine, and sold at extravagant prices. Ciders from the Hagloe crab, golden pippin, and Longmey russet, are next in esteem. The whitemust, wood-cock, and half a dozen others, are fine old fruits, but now going off.

Perry from the squash pear is esteemed the best; and next from the Huffcap and sack.

Table fruits, where farmers live near canals, pay much better than those of the cider kind; especially those of the keeping varieties, such as the golden and Moreland pippin, Longney russet, &c.

10. Woods and Plantations.

Most extensive on the Cotswolds; the sorts there beech and ash; timber sold to dealers, who convert it on the spot to Scantling for gun-stocks, saddle-trees, bedsteads, chairs, and other cabinet work, and staves for sugar hogsheads. Some fine old specimens of chestnut, elm, oak, and ash in the vale. Tortworth chestnut, 500 years old, in the time of King John. In the Forest of Dean a considerable quantity of good timber belonging to government, and nearly 3000 acres lately planted with acorns. The method of planting is, first, to mark out the ground; then taking off about a foot square of turf, to set two or three acorns with a setting-pin; afterwards to invert the turf upon them, and, by way of raising a fence against hares and rabbits, to plant two or three strong white thorn sets round. They are seldom thinned till they have attained the

size of hop-poles, and then are left at twelve feet distance from each other, with the view of again thinning them, by taking out every other one, when they are thirty years old, and have attained the size of five or six inches diameter. By growing thick, no side-shoots are thrown out, which supersedes the ne cessity of pruning; the young trees which are drawn at the first thinning, are transplanted, and, as it is thought, grow equally well with those that have not been removed, and produce timber as tull at the heart, compact, strong, and durable, as" that which is raised immediately from the scorn." The "whitten," or small leaved lime (Tilia cordata, L.), is found in several coppices on the Welsh side of the Severn; and, what is singular, ropes for halters, plough traces, cider presses, draw wells, and fishery boats, &c. are made from it as in Rusia These ropes are found to contract and expand less from moisture or drought than hempen ropes. The bark is stripped off about Midsummer, dried like hay in the sun, and manufactured an the spot or elsewhere. Many walnut trees in the parish of Arlingham; the fruit shipped to distant places, and the timeber sent to Birmingham for gun stocks.

Artificial plantations, to a great extent, made round gentlemen's seats on the Cotswold hills. The osier in beds on the Severn.

11. Improvements.

On the lands adjoining the Severn inundations were fre quent; but a commission of sewers have erected banks and flood-gates, which protect upwards of 12,000 acres. At other places private banks or flood-gates on the rivers or lanked ditches are placed, and operate by the alternate influence of the tides and accumulated inland waters.

Draining much practised; both in the turf, stone, wood, straw, and with Lumbert's plough; the plough drawn by twelve horses, or worked by a long lever and axle (2594.1, by which one horse gains the power of thirty. Before the mole draining-plough is used, it is a good practice to turn off the sward with the common plough; then to make the incision for the drain in the centre of this; the sward being afterwards turned back to its place, completely covers the aperture, and protects it from the effects of a subsequent dry season- The long-continued drought of the summer of 1806 opened many drains which were cut by Lumbert's plough, so much that the bottom was clearly seen, while many that have been done br hand have formed still wider chasms, and will probably not answer the purpose intended at all. In both instances there a reason to think, that this would not have happened if the qe ration had been performed in autumn, and the surface buf first turned back, as recommended.

The accumulated water of underground drains raised from low meadows in one parish by a wheel driven by the water of s face ditches.

Paring and burning practised on the Cotswolds; weeding corn general.

Irrigation chiefly pursued in the valleys of the Cotswolds, a joining rivulets, and especially the Coln and Churn. Carried to greatest perfection in the parish of South Cerney; first bege here under the Rev. W. Wright, who wrote several tracts on the subject. When the first great rains in November bring the waters down in a nuddy state, it is let into the meadows In December and January the land is kept sheltered by the waters from the severity of frosty nights; but every ten days, or thereabouts, the water is let entirely off, to give air and prevent the roots from rotting. In February great care is n quired. If the water now remains long on the meadows, a white scum will generate, which is found to be very injurious to the grass. On the other hand, if it be taken off, and the land exposed to a severe frosty night, without being previously dried for a whole day, much of the tender grass will be cut of Towards the middle of this month less water is used than be fore, keeping the land rather wet than watered. At the be ginning of March, there is generally in such meadows plenty of pasturage for all kinds of stock; the water, however, should be taken off nearly a week before cattle are turned on, and a little hay at night during the first week is very proper. I the custom with some to spring-feed with ewes and labe folded, with a little hay. The meadows, however, must be en

Book I.

tirely clear of stock by the latter end of April. If May be at all intruded on, the hay crop will be much injured, and the grass become soft and woolly, like lattermath. After spring-feeding the water is let in again for a few days. It is remarked, that autumnal, winter, and spring watering will not occasion rot in sheep; but if the water be used for a few days in any of the summer months, the pasturage becomes unsafe for such stock. This is conformable to the general idea of rot; viz. that it is occasioned by summer moisture, and is seldom known to any considerable estent without a long continuance of warmth and rain. A wet summer, therefore, is always productive of this disease in the vale. The general advantages of watering are, that the land and herbage are continually improving, without manure; and the crop is not only full and certain, but also early.

Warping might be practised to a considerable extent on the banks of the Severn, if the commissioners were to direct their attention to the subject.

The dairy the principal object with most of the vale farmers. Good milkers preferred, without much regard to perfection of shape. Gloucestershire breed resembles the Glamorganshire excepting in color, which is red or brown, bones fine, horns of middling length, white with a black tip at the ends, udder thin in flesh and large. In the higher vale the The improved long horned cows of Bakewell and Fowler in most repute. Devons, Herefords, and various others in use best land does not always produce the most marketable cheese; often times the reverse; if it has either been much manured with dang, or sheep feeding, the quantity of milk will be increased, but the quality materially altered. This is probably owing to the introduction of plants, which did not grow there before, or to the destruction of some that did. The cause does not originate with the cow, but the herbage on which she feeds. The same cow, on two pastures, separated only by a hedge, will give milk of different qualities: from one shall be made fine, rich, and close cheese; while from the other shall be made rank, "heaving," hollow, unpleasant to the palate, and unfit for the market. In the parish of Haresfield, two grounds adjoining each other were alternately used for the pasture of Cows: while they were on one, excellent cheese was made; but on the other, it was difficult to make any tolerably good. The latter had been lately well dressed with manure, which produced plants unfavorable to the dairy; and the dairy woman herself remarked, that if the farmer continued to enrich the herbage with dung, she must give up making cheese. It is

1099

Fallows ploughed four times, which is rather rare in England; rotations generally a fallow and two corn crops, with an intervening leguminous herbage, or turnip crop. Drilling in use for wheat, in the vale of Evesham and other places; beans commonly dibbled. Turnips cultivated broad-cast, and Carpenter, author of A Treatise on Practical and Experi mental Agriculture, has discovered since he published his book, that the fly is to be prevented or destroyed by steeping the seed in sulphur before sown, and harrowing as soon as the fly is discovered, "then sow eight bushels per acre, of dry lime, or fine ashes, when the dew is on the leaves, so as it may adhere to them." Carrots sown by Knight and others in the neighborhood, where a good deal of seed is raised for the London seedsmen.

Hops grown to great perfection, and fruit trees generally planted among them, at the rate of forty-eight to an acre; 1000 stools of hops are considered an acre, whatever ground they may stand on, and labor is paid for accordingly. Goldingvine, mathon-white, red, nonpareil, and Kentish grape, local names for varieties distinguished by very slender shades. Land stirred between the plants with the plough; only two poles to a stool; picking chiefly by Welsh women. When tithe of hops is taken in kind, the parson may either take every tenth basket when green, or every tenth sack when dried; in the latter case, allowing 258. per cwt. for drying, sacking, and duty. The culture of hops having been carried too far, the trade here, as elsewhere, is on the decline; corn, on the average of years, is found to pay better.

Asparagus, cucumbers, and onions, grown in the fields of