ΤΟ

ARTHUR YOUNG, ESQ.

A GENTLEMAN

WHOSE INDEFATIGABLE EXERTIONS, DURING A LONG

AND ACTIVE LIFE,

HAVE BEEN DIRECTED TO THE PROMOTION OF THE BEST INTERESTS

OF HIS COUNTRY,

BY THE

IMPROVEMENT OF ITS AGRICULTURE;

THIS VOLUME,

Illustrative of

THE HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY

OF

SUFFOLK, SURREY, AND SUSSEX,

IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED

BY HIS OBLIGED AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,

F. SHOBERL.

405230

THE

BEAUTIES

OF

England and Wales.

SUFFOLK.

SITUATION AND EXTENT.

SUFFOLK is bounded on the north by Norfolk, on the east by the German Ocean, on the south by Essex, from which it is divided by the river Stour, and on the west by Cambridgeshire. On Mr. Hodskinson's map of this county may be measured an oblong of almost unindented form, forty-seven miles long by twenty-seven broad. The land stretching beyond it in the northeast and north-west parts will more than compensate the deficiency in other quarters. This form indicates a surface of 1269 square miles, or 812,160 acres. In Templeman's Survey, he makes it only 1236 square miles; but Mr. Arthur Young is of opinion that the superficial contents of Suffolk may be computed at about 800,000 acres.

DIVISION AND POPULATION.-Its two grand divisions are, the franchise or liberty of Bury St. Edmund's, and the body of the county, or guildable land, each of which furnishes a distinct grand jury for the county assizes. These are subdivided into twenty-one hundreds, comprehending 523 parishes. The hundreds, according to the return made in 1801, are as follow:

VOL. XIV.

B

HUN

In order to obtain an accurate knowledge of the population of Suffolk, Mr. Arthur Young took the trouble, in 1796, to write to all the rectors and vicars in the county, requesting the births and burials from their registers for the twenty preceding years, with an enumeration of the houses and people. To above four hundred letters, he received two hundred and sixty answers. These enabled him to form

• The last ten hundred are incorporated.

+ In the original here is an error; it is entered 1086, but by turning to the detail it appears to be 1986.

form a very satisfactory table which afforded the following general results:

From this comparison the natural inference is, that the population of the county must either have much increased, or that a considerable emigration from it is constantly going forward. Both these positions may, we think, safely be assumed as facts.

CLIMATE.-The climate of Suffolk is unquestionably one of the driest in the kingdom; but the frosts are severe, and the northeast winds in spring are sharp and prevalent. Upon the whole, however, the climate of this county must be reckoned favorable; and it cannot but be extremely salubrious, to judge from the mortality which, upon an average of ten years, appears to have been to the existing population as one to fifty-four, while the number of births was as one to thirty,

SOIL.---It may be asserted that not a county in the kingdom contains a greater diversity of soil, or more clearly discriminated than Suffolk. A strong loam on a clay-marl bottom, predominates through the greatest parts, extending from the south-western extremity at Wratting Park to North Cove near Beccles. Its northern boundary stretches from Dalham by Barrow, Little Saxham near Bury, Rougham, Pakenham, Ixworth, Honington, Knattishal, and then in a line near the Waveney to Beccles and North Cove; but every where leaving a slope and vale of rich friable loam of various breadths, along the side of the river. It then turns southward, to Wrentham, Wangford, Blithford, Holton, Bramfield, Yoxford, Saxmundham, Campsey Ash, Woodbridge, Culpho, Bramford, Hadleigh, and following the high lands on the west side of the Bret, to the Stour, is thence bounded by the latter river to its source, leaving all along it a very rich tract of slope and vale. It must not be supposed that in so large an ex