GENERAL VIEW

OF THE

AGRICULTURE

OF THE COUNTY OF

ESSE X,

WITH

OBSERVATIONS ON THE MEANS OF ITS IMPROVEMENT.

BY MESSRS. GRIGGS,

OF HILL HOUSE, NEAR KELVEDON, IN ESSEX.

1794."

IN ABSTRACTING the Reports from the Eastern Depart

ment of England, a few extracts were taken from this diminutive sketch-relating to the northeast or the Suffolk side of the County; and I here insert a few passages, which belong to the southern, or the Thames and Middlesex side.

POOR LAWS. The Reporters, speaking of the "Obstacles to Husbandry," say (what has often been intimated by other writers)-P. 24. " Another circumstance which would aid the plough, it is conceived, is liberty to the poor to seek a livelihood where ever work offers, or inclination leads them to seek for it, instead of being subject to be taken up, if found out of their own parish, and carried to what is called to their place of settlement, at the caprice of an overseer, to sit at home, or what is worse, while they have any credit left, at the alehouse, for want of employ; labourers will then, it is presumed, naturally be led to reside, where they could render most service to the community, and have a prospect of supporting themselves and families, without being reduced to the mortifying application to an unfeeling parish officer."

PUBLIC DRAINAGE.-P. 25. An object, not perhaps beneath the notice of this most useful institution, is thought to be a general commission of sewers, for the repairs and preservation of the sea walls along the coast, which protect the lands most capable of improvement, from the destructive inundations of the salt water, which is known to leave such fatal effects behind it, that the land is not worth the tillage

L3

tillage for several years after it has been overflown; besides, that the expence and trouble which may have been laid out upon it, are for ever lost. At present, it is common for the owners of land, to manage their own walls according to their own discretion, by which means, the neglect of an individual, may cause not only ruin to himself, but to many of his more careful neighbours, and spread a general distress around him."

ARABLE CROPS.-P. 12. "In the southeast corner" (doubtlessly the Marshland District)" farming seems to be as near, if not nearer perfection, than in any other part of Essex. The land is in general of a deep, rich, tender, loamy quality, and, as in other parts, rather farmed than grazed. The crops of wheat, beans, oats, coleseed or rape, mustard, and in short of any thing that is sown, afford a great return, compared with the common produce of land. The wheat is not unfrequently found to rise to a load an acre; oats (particularly the Poland), to eleven or twelve quarters, and beans and other corn in proportion. Some of this land has been known to produce five or six of the most exhausting crops successively, without a fallow or other particular usage, affording large crops of each. Wheat has been sown three successive years upon the same field, and the crops, upon an average, have amounted to four quarters per, acre, the first, from the too great richness of the soil, being the least."

This information is in praise of the soil, of Essex, not of the management of its husbandmen! I insert it, here, as it conveys an interesting fact (I take for granted) in English agriculture; tho not a singular one.

LIVESTOCK-P. 23. "If Essex fails in any part of husbandry, it is in the kind of stock it sends to market, which seem to be bought in without any sort of preference to this, or that particular breed. In the course of a few miles ride, you will see North, and South Wales, Irish and most other sorts of cattle, Norfolk, Hertfordshire, Lincoln, Wilts, &c. sheep, and not uncommonly two or three different kinds in the same field."

DAIRY.-P. 13. "Our largest dairy farms are at, or in the neighbourhood of Epping, so deservedly famous for the richness of its cream and butter. The farmer even here confines himself to no particular sort of cows, but keeps up a stock of promiscuous cattle, bought in as opportunities offer, though indeed the more provident of them say, where the land is particularly good, the Derby and Leicestershires have a preference. These in the summer are fed with the natural and artificial grasses, and in the winter with hay (which is in general of the best quality) and grains, The

best

best dairies are built on the north side of the farm houses, calculated to be always cool; and are furnished with square troughs, lined with lead, sufficient to hold nine or ten gallons of milk, which is seldom suffered to be more than five or six inches deep; this, in winter, is skimmed four, and, in summer, two or three times; and the cream, after being kept three or four days, is churned into butter; and the milk, after it will afford no more cream, is given to the hogs, which it fattens to most delicious pork."

The dairy practice of Essex, and that of Buckinghamshire &c., appear, pretty evidently, to have risen from the.

same root,

ON the QUALIFICATIONS of this Reporter, as a writer on

rural affairs, I have had repeated occasions to speak; namely, in the EASTERN DEPARTMENT, Waterlands of Cam bridgeshire, and Northeast Essex; and in the MIDLAND DEPARTMENT, Uplands of Cambridgeshire.-Suffice it,. therefore to say, here, that Mr. Vancouver has evinced, especially in his Survey of Cambridgeshire, extraordinary exertion and perseverance; and that his knowledge of rural concerns, as well as his manner of communicating the information acquired, is superior to many or most of the Board's Reporters.

Mr. Vancouver's PLAN of Survey, in Cambridgeshire, was to examine every parish in the County, and to put down the extent, the soil &c., the state of appropriation, the state of drainage, and a few other circumstances, belong

ing to the natural, political, and rural economy of each, in detail; and, at the close of each parochial journal, to' insert a wide-spreading table, exhibiting several more minute, though not perhaps less important, matters, at one view;-afterward reporting, in a digested form, the general information relating to the County at large;-together with his own opinions and sentiments concerning the several subjects touched upon,-in a distinct part of the Work, termed "Part II."

His survey of Essex, though made on the same general principle, differs in its minutiæ. Instead of giving, in detail, the several particulars, as to soil &c. &c. &c. of each parish, he throws the County into fourteen Districts; and gives a cursory report of each; with a table of sundry particulars of information at the close of each district.

In the Essex, as in the Cambridgeshire Report, a "second Part" is added; stating, in many instances, the existing circumstances, and the prevailing practices, of the County at large, at the time of reporting, but setting forth, more generally, the Reporter's own sentiments on the subjects brought forward.

My mode of abstraction, in this case, has been to systematize, agreeably to the general plan of my present Work, the particulars which have engaged my attention in going through the volume (no matter whether in the "Journal," or the "second Part") and which, I conceive, will be conducive to its value.

Mr. Vancouver's districts from which I have selected the following particulars of information are the sixth (in) part), the whole of the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh, and the principal part of the fourteenth. These districts and parts of districts are principally included within the following outlines :-the sea coast, on the east :-the Thames, on the south:-the river Lea, on the west: and, on the north, an almost straight line, passing nearly by Walthamstow, Epping, Ongar, Chelmsford, the river Chelmar, and the Estuary of the Blackwater river, to the British sea. For the situation of each, see the next page. The number of pages-two hundred and thirteen. A map of districts.

SUBJECT

SUBJECT THE FIRST.

NATURAL ECONOMY.

SOILS.

DOILS.-On this subject of Report Mr. V. has bestowed great attention. At the head of each of his districts, he has given, in a few words, the specific qualities of the lands which they severally contain; and then leads his reader across the area of each; describing to him the particular sorts of soils and substrata, that fell in his way. The former statements being sufficiently descriptive, to convey a general idea of the lands of South Essex, I readily give them a place, here.

District seven-situated between the Estuary of the river Blackwater and the river Crouch, nearly corresponding with the hundred of Dengy.-P. 64. "Temperate and heavy mixed soil, upon a brown tender clay, a gravelly loam, a brick and a tile earth."

District eighth-comprizing the main land of the hundred of Rochford; being situated between the Crouch and the Estuary or mouth of the Thames.-P. 71. "Temperate mixed soil, upon a gravelly loam, a gravel, and a brick earth."

District ninth-the islands in the Estuary, and at the mouth, of the Thames.-P. 77. "The islands of Foulness, Wallasea, Potton, Haven-Gore, New England, and Canvey. All consisting of a deep rich hazel coloured loam, upon a fine sea sand or silt, ouze, or sea clay: the husbandry of which, equally applies to the embanked marshes, and all such lands as have been produced by, and enclosed at different times from the sea."

District the tenth ;-a small tract, situated to the north of Canvey Island, within the hundred of Barnstable.P. 83. "Strong heavy mixed soil upon a brown clay, or brick earth, a gravelly loam, and a tough red clay, or

tile earth."

District the eleventh ;-bordering on the Thames, on the south; the towns of Romford, Brentwood, and Billerricay standing near its northern margin.-P. 86. "Being that of a temperate mixed soil, upon a sandy and a gravelly loam, a pure sand, a pure gravel, a chalk, a brick, and some tile earth."

District the fourteenth ;-adjacent to the County of Middlesex; including the dairy and forest lands.-P. 109. "Temperate