Plain and Marlborough Downs, and contains in all about 780 square miles, or nearly 500,000 acres."

SURFACE.-P. 9. " The distant appearance of the whole, is that of a large elevated plain, but the surface is broken into numberless inequalities, and intersected by several deep vallies, formed by brooks or rivulets" (no)" chiefly rising within this district, and on which the villages, with very few exceptions, are situated."

CLIMATURE.-P. 10. "The climate of Wiltshire Downs, is so well known for its coldness and keenness, as to be almost proverbial. The height of the hills, and their exposure to the south-west wind, from the Bristol and British Channels; the want of inclosures in the vallies, and the draught of air that necessarily follows the rivers, undoubtedly contribute to make this district healthy both for men and cattle; but the length of the winters consequent to such a situation, is certainly unfavourable to many of the purposes of agriculture."

WATERS.-P. 9." The greatest part of the springs which rise in the part called Salisbury Plain, run southward or eastward, and joining at or near Salisbury, near the southeast corner of the county, make the river called the Wiltshire or Upper Avon. Those which rise in the part called Marlborough Downs, join near Marlborough, and make the river called the Kennett, which leaves the county at Hungerford, after receiving the streams which rise in the Bedwin Vale."

SOILS.-P. 9. "The soil of this district, though various, is in a certain degree uniform. The hills are chalk, with its usual accompaniment of flint."-What immediately follows is not sufficiently accurate description. The close of the passage, however, is just.-P. 10. "The sides of the hills which have been the most washed, are the thinnest and weakest soil, and the level tops, which have been very little washed, or not washed at all, frequently the deepest and strongest.”

Sandy Soils." But there are some very singular sand veins, running through a large portion of this district, which deserve particular notice. One very narrow, but very fertile vein enters the county at Mere, on the borders of Dorsetshire, and takes a north and north-east direction round the outside edge of the Downs, keeping nearly close to their foot, by way of Maiden Bradley, Warminster, Westbury, and Lavington, towards Devizes, where it meets and unites with a much wider and still more fertile vein, coming down the Pewsey Vale from Burbage.

"Another vein also enters the county from Dorsetshire, being the continuation of the sand-hill on which Shaftsbury

stands,

stands, and passes through Donhead, Ansty, Swallowcliffe, Fovant, &c. under the foot of the Down, till it is stopped by the high ground in Burcomb Field. This vein is also met by another branch, or rather a ridge of sand-bills, coming from West Knoyle by Stop Beacon and Ridge, and joining the last-mentioned branch at or near Fovant."

Clayey Soils." There are some instances of strong clays and clayey loams on the skirts of this district, but as they make no part of the corn and sheep division of the county; and the quantity of this land is small, and its management is the same as that practised in similar soils in North Wiltshire, it will be needless to say more of it here.

"These soils, with all their consequent mixtures and variations, may be said to constitute the far greater part of this district."

SUBJECT THE SECOND.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

APPROP

PPROPRIATION.-Common Pastures.-P. 77." The idea that Wiltshire Downs (and particularly Salisbury Plain) are all waste land,' is so general, that few who have travelled over them, especially from Devizes to Salisbury, will believe the contrary.

"But in the common accepted sense of the word 'waste. lands,' viz. land in a state of nature capable of cultivation, but of very little value in its present condition,' Wiltshire downs are undoubtedly 'not waste land;' and although there are many inconveniences in their present mode of occupation, it will, perhaps, not be very easy to prove, that they do not produce more food, in their present hardstocked state, than they will (or at least than such lands usually do) when in a state of severalty, especially as a great proportion of them cannot be improved by tillage.

"There is on Marlborough downs a tract of some hundred acres of land, called Albourn Chace,' which may truly be called waste land,' and, in its present situation, a blot in the county, being merely a cow common all the summer; while the sheep, for which a great part of it is much better calculated, are starving for want of it.

"There are, in every part of this district, common meadows, which, though valuable in their present state, might be made much more so, if put in a state of severalty: and there are many common marshes, which might be improved

by

by inclosing; but these are, in general, small; and it may be said, with truth, that there are no very extensive tracts of waste land in this district. But in another sense of the word, waste land,' viz. land already cultivated, but in a defective manner, 6 common-fields may be called the worst of all wastes.' Common-pastures may, in some instances, be made the most of, by mutual agreement, without a division; but common-fields never can."

Common Fields.-P. 78. "It has been already remarked, and the assertion is founded on an accurate enquiry and observation, that at this time the greatest half of the parishes in this district are wholly, or partly, in a common-field state. Reasons have also been given, why it has so long remained in that state, on account of the peculiar shape and situation of a great number of manors, and the local difficulties attending a division. And these reasons have hitherto operated to preserve many of them in that state, though proposals are daily made for a division.

"Many advantages, it is certain, have been derived from inclosures already made; and it may be proper now to state, the probable advantages to be expected from inclosing, or at least dividing, and putting in severalty, those lands now in a state of commonage, with the most practical means of obviating such disadvantages as will necessarily arise from a new order of things, in a country less favourable than many others, to improvements of this kind.

"The peculiar disadvantages, attending the common field state of husbandry in this district, have already been. said to be, the obligation of plowing and cropping all kinds of soil alike; the almost total preclusion that a common flock makes to any improvement of sheep stock, the difficulty, and in some instances, the impossibility of raising sufficient hay or green winter food for the stock; and particularly the very great expence and trouble, and the additional number of horses necessary, in occupying lands in detached and dispersed situations.

"The advantages to be necessarily derived from an abolition of these impediments to good husbandry, need not be enlarged upon; they speak for themselves: but it must be remarked, that, in many parts of this district, these advantages apply much more forcibly to the case of the great farmer, than of the small one.

"It has been already remarked, that the commonable lands of this district consist usually of three or four arable fields, a common sheep down, sometimes a common cow down, and, in some instances, a common meadow."

On the Business of Appropriation.-P. 79. "The custem of a division has been, to give to every land-owner an allotment

allotment of arable land, in one or more of the fields; a sheep down as near the arable land as possible, and a portion of the common meadows, if there are any. But of these, it is seldom thought necessary to inclose any but the common meadows, and perhaps a small part of the arable near home."

6

Further on appropriating Wiltshire Manors.-P. 83.“ In every division of commonable lands in this district, it should always be kept in view, that a lasting improvement in the land, and not merely a temporary one in the rent, is the great object of all inclosures. The soil of Wiltshire downs is of that kind, that it may soon be made worse, under unskilful hands. A state of severalty,' where every farmer can manage his land as he pleases, is certainly infinitely preferable to one of tenantry, where every one is alike obliged to pursue the same husbandry. But it must be remembered, that although a common field system of husbandry does not make the land better, it keeps it from growing worse; and as all men are not equally good judges of agriculture, there have been instances, without any relaxation in the industry of the tenants, but merely by their proceeding on a bad plan of husbandry, where the produce of a whole parish or manor, has absolutely been less both in corn and stock, after a division of common field lands, than before. A sure sign, that however the rent might be improved, the mode of husbandry was not so. In short, the remark has frequently been made, that severalty makes a good farmer better, and a bad one worse.""

There is novelty, as well as ingenuity, and much truth, in the above remarks.

On Fencing appropriated Lands.-P. 83. "In the article of the expence, of a general division of commonable lands, (which in some counties is a very serious consideration) South Wiltshire, and the other sheep folding districts, have great advantage, as it is seldom necessary to fence the new allotments, except, perhaps, a small quantity of land near home.

"In these counties, where sheep are folded every night, and never without a shepherd in the day, hedges are seldom necessary for the distant lands. And, indeed, there are many situations in South Wiltshire, in which hedges would never grow to perfection."-These, let it be said, are just and valuable observations*.

SUBJECT

* Those curt remarks are not directed to the notice of men of mature knowledge, either in agriculture or "letters"; but to the attention of less informed students,-to induce them to pay the more regard to the passages which dictate them. Let this be received as a notice of general application to the whole of my present Work.

E

SUBJECT THE THIRD.

RURAL ECONOMY.

TENANTED ESTATES.

STATES.-History and Sizes.-P. 11. "It has been already remarked, that this district is at present chiefly possessed by great proprietors, and that it was at one time in more hands than it is at present. But it is equally clear, not only from history, but from an examination into the nature of its subdivisions, that it was originally in much fewer hands than it is now.

"The regular division of the manors in this district, shews that a great number of them were originally in one hand, and that their disposition was a matter of choice, and not of necessity or accident. The vallies of this district, are (almost without an exception) intersected longitudinally by rivulets. The sides of these rivulets, being the most eligible situation for building, because of course crowded with houses as much as possible. These vallies, with their accompanying rivulets, (provincially called bourns) are frequently from three to five miles apart, and hills intervene between bourn and bourn. The shape of manors, therefore, necessarily became a narrow oblong. It was necessary that each manor should have water, should have meadow ground, and should have wood for fuel (pitcoal being very little, if at all in use at that time). The proper situation of the meadow ground, was always near the river; for the wood, usually on the summit of the hills, the greatest part of them being evidently once covered with it, and many of them are still so.

"The natural division of the manors of this district was therefore into long narrow strips from river to wood, with a right of the use of both; and as the disposition of much the greatest part of the district is in this way, it shews, that such disposition, was the work of accommodation, given by the original grantors or superior lords, to the grantees or inferior holders: and as a further proof that it was so, there are numerous instances in this district, where a want of meadow, or of wood, was supplied by a grant of those necessary articles, taken out of other manors, at the distance of several miles from the manor to which they were annexed.

"The influx of trade and commerce, and consequently

Im