the fields, without house, shed, or roof, to cover them. A rough manger is formed with rails and stakes; the cows are tied to posts, about three feet from each other, and have at their heads a screen of faggots. Litter is regularly given, and the dung piled up behind. For cows before calving this is found better than suffering them to range at will; the shelter of the hedge and dung keeping them sufficiently warm without any cover.

The quantity of butter computed to be sent from Suffolk to London annually, is about 40,000 firkins.

In those parts of the county where the cattle do not consume all the turnips, it is a common practice to buy black cattle at fairs from north country drovers for the purpose. Some of these are Irish, others Welch, but the greater part Scotch, of different breeds. These, after being fattened, generally continue their journey to supply the markets of the metropolis.

The Norfolk, or, as it might with greater propriety be denominated, the Suffolk breed of sheep, since the most celebrated flocks are found about Bury, is diffused over almost every part of the county. For the quality of the mutton, as long as cool weather lasts; for tallow; for fatting at an early age; for the fineness of the wool, which is the third in price in England; for endurance of hard driving; for hardiness and success as nurses, this race is deservedly esteemed. These excellencies are however counterbalanced by their voracity, a want of tendency to fatten, resulting from an ill-formed carcase, and a restless and unquiet disposition; a texture of flesh that will not keep in hot weather so long as that of South Down sheep, and a loose ragged habit of wool. In consequence of these bad qualities, the breed has been nearly changed in the last twenty-five years, the South Down now being every where prevalent. This new race was unquestionably introduced by Arthur Young, Esq. a fact not depending upon any present assertion respecting what was done many years ago, but published at the time in the Annals of Agriculture. They afterwards passed into Norfolk, in consequence of Mr. Young's recommendation of them to the late Earl of Orford; and thus to the exertions

of this gentleman was owing the establishment of a breed of sheep throughout two counties, to the benefit of several thousands of farmers, and to the advantage of their landlords, from that rise. of rent which has since taken place.

In regard to the number of sheep in the whole county, Mr. Young calculates, that the sand districts have one sheep to two acres; the rich and strong loams, one to four acres, and the fen district one to six acres. According to these proportions the Humber will be:

Suffolk is not less celebrated for its breed of horses, than for its cows. They are found in the highest perfection in the maritime. district extending to Woodbridge, Debenham, Eye, and Lowestoff: but the prime of this breed were some years since to be met with upon the Sandlings, south of Woodbridge and Orford. About half a century ago a considerable spirit of breeding and of drawing team against team, prevailed among the farmers of that country, one of whom is mentioned by Mr. Young as having drawn fifteen horses for 1500 guineas. The horses of this old breed were in some respects the reverse of handsome, of a sorrel color, very low in the fore-end, with a large ill-shapen head, slouching ears, a great carcase, short legs and short back. Their power of drawing was very great; but they could trot no more than a cow. Of late years, by aiming at coach-horses, the breeders have produced a more handsome, light and active animal, which, if fairly compared with the great black horse of the midland counties, will, it is presumed by competent judges, beat the latter in useful draft, that of the cart and plough.

Another peculiarity, besides the feeding of horses on carrots, may be noticed in the mode of treating these animals in Suffolk. This is, that in the eastern districts they are never permitted to, remain

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remain in the stable at night; being turned out into a yard well littered with straw, and supplied with plenty of good sweet oat or barley straw to eat, but never clover or hay. With this treatment, a horse never has swelled legs, and seldom any other ailment: he is kept in as fine condition, and will hold his work several years longer than one confined in the stable.

Of the hogs of Suffolk it may be observed, that the short white breed of the cow district has great merit. These animals are well made, with thick, short noses, small bone, and light offals, but are not quite so prolific as some worse made breeds.

With poultry this county is extremely well supplied, and espe cially with turkies, for which it is almost as celebrated as Norfolk. Great quantities of pigeons are reared in the numerous pigeonhouses, in the open field part of the county, bordering on Cambridgeshire.

Bees are very little attended to in general; though in the neighborhood of uncultivated lands they would probably admit of a considerable increase.

Suffolk contains many rabbit-warrens, especially in the western sand district. One of them, near Brandon, is estimated to return above 40,000 rabbits in a year. Of late years, however, considerable tracts occupied by them have been plowed up, and converted into arable and pasture land.

Among the implements of agriculture peculiar to Suffolk, or invented and first employed in this county, may be reckoned, the Suffolk swing plough; the horse-rake for clearing spring-corn stubbles; the new drill-plough invented by Mr. Henry Balding, of Mendham, who was ten years in bringing it to perfection, at a considerable expense; threshing mills on the improved construction of Mr. Asbey, of Blithborough; and the extirpator, or scalpplough, a machine for destroying weeds, and clearing plowed lands for seed, invented by Mr. Hayward, of Stoke Ash. A gentleman of this county has also contrived a moveable stage for building the upper parts of stacks of hay or corn, and which may be equally well applied to other useful purposes.

To agricultural societies, which in other parts of the kingdom have been productive of great and extensive benefit, Suffolk is perhaps less indebted than any other county. The only institution of this kind, is the Melford Society, which meets alternately at Bury and Melford. On its first establishment, some of the members read memoirs of experiments, which appeared in the Annals of Agriculture; but for some years this has been dropped. A few premiums were offered, but never claimed, for which reason they have likewise been discontinued.

COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.---The commerce and manufactures of Suffolk are inconsiderable in comparison with those of many other counties of England; and even those are, from various causes, upon the decline.

The imports are the same as in all the other maritime counties: and corn and malt are the principal exports. Lowestoff is celebrated for its herring fishery, which was formerly more productive than at present; and of which farther notice will be taken in treating of that town.

The principal fabric of the county was, till lately, the spinning and combing of wool, which extended throughout the greatest part of Suffolk, with the exception of the district in which the manufacture of hemp is exclusively carried on. In the year 1784, the woollen fabric was estimated by Mr. Oakes, of Bury, to employ 37,600 men, women and children, whose earnings amounted, upon an average, to 150,0001. per annum. The Norwich manufacture alone employed nearly half of the above number. At present this fabric is far from being so flourishing in this county, having been chiefly transferred to Yorkshire.

At Sudbury there is a manufacture of says, and also a small silk manufactory; and some calimancoes are still made at Lavenham. GENERAL HISTORY-- Suffolk, so called from the Saxon appellation Sudfolk, or southern people, in contradistinction to the Nordfolk, or northern people, constituted, at the time of the invasion of the Romans, part of the district belonging to the tribe, whom those conquerors denominated Iceni, or Cenomanni. Their history

history has already been given in preceding volumes of this work*. In the Roman division of the island, it was comprehended in the province of Flavia Cæsariensis.

When the Romans, after a possession of four centuries, abandoned Britain to its fate, and the Saxons, on the invitation of its pusillanimous inhabitants, had made themselves complete masters of the country, Suffolk, constituted with Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, one of the seven petty kingdoms, into which these new masters parcelled out the island. It was denominated East Anglia. To this state the German Ocean formed a natural barrier on the east and north-east; the Stour divided it from the kingdom of the East Saxons, or Essex, on the south; and on the west and north-west it bordered upon Mercia. The boundary on this side has not been accurately ascertained; but it is the general opinion, that the stupendous effort of human labor, known by the name of the Devil's Ditch, on Newmarket Heath, was formed as a line of demarcation and mutual defence. This opinion is encouraged by the account of Abbo Floriacensis, who says, that " on the west part is a ditch and mound like a lofty wall." By subsequent monastic writers it has been termed St. Edmund's Ditch; and many antiquaries and historians have adopted this appellation.

From the various and contradictory statements of ancient writers, the precise period of the establishment of the monarchy of the EastAngles by Uffa, cannot be fixed with certainty; but we shall not probably be far from the truth, if we assume the year 530 of the Christian era as the date of that event. Uffa, after a long reign, died in 578, and was succeeded by Titil, whose history is involved. in the darkest obscurity. His death is supposed to have happened in 592, when his son, Redwald, inherited the kingdom, and was the first East-Anglian monarch who embraced Christianity; but the influence of his queen occasioned his relapse into the doctrines of paganism. His son, Eorpwald, who ascended the throne in 624, also professed the Christian religion, though the greater part of

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See Vol. II. p. 3. Vol. VII. p. 325; and Vol. XL. Norfolk, p. 7.