rent, and performing the offices, &c. to which the estate is liable.

"The proportion of freehold in this county, compared with what is held by other tenures, is in favor of freehold in the proportion of four to one." ji to

P. 75. "On the whole, it may be said, that in Dorsetshire, life-tenure is wearing out, and fee-simple, more and more prevailing."

P. 76. "The inhabitants of Portland are almost all Freeholders; their tenure is gavelkind, whereby the lands of the father are equally divided at his death among all his sons: or the land of a brother or sister among all their brethren, if they have no issue of their own.'--Hutchins."

MANAGERS.-P. 73. "Some of the principal estates are under the care of land surveyors; others are managed by practical farmers; and several large properties are superintended by gentlemen of the law."

IRRIGATION.-P. 360. "The principal farmers are almost unanimous in praise of irrigation, particularly on the chalky district, where the watered meadows are mostly situated, and where the want of them is considered by the sheep farmer as a most serious inconvenience."

Nearly a sheet of letter-press is bestowed on this subject, by Mr. Stevenson. But seeing the mass of information concerning it, which is already before the public, I perceive nothing, in the volume under review, that could beneficially add to it. The only useful purpose to which I can turn it is to extract a few items relating to the quality of water, for the use of irrigation. They powerfully tend to corroborate the fundamental principles on which its utility principally rests; and which I have been endeavouring to inculcate, in the mind of the agricultural public, during one quarter of a century, or more.

P. 364. Mr. Garland of Wareham, is of opinion that the water-meadows nearest that town, owe their indifferent quality to the water which springs out of the immense heaths."

Mr. Groves thinks bog-waters are of no value, unless when mixed with floods, but the water which descends from hills that have been well supplied with lime and other manures, improves the meadows in a striking man

ner."

P. 365. "Mr. Bryant thinks the water which is used immediately as it springs out of beds of chalk or limestone, is as useful as the water of floods, and perhaps more useful, as it proves beneficial even on clay soils."

P. 366. "Ridge-work is deemed the best where the water is plentiful, and the water is constantly found to have the most

most fertilizing effect, the nearer it is taken towards the spring head; but Mr. Goodenough believes, there is little utility in snow-water."

*

P. 368. The River Stour is not applied to the purposes of irrigation after it enters the chalky district, but it frequently overflows a considerable quantity of meadow land, and its winter-floods are very advantageous. A gentleman at Canford tried the effects of a stream from the heaths in that vicinity, but it produced rushes, and injured good land.t

"William Salkeld, Esq. is of opinion, that irrigation could not produce any beneficial consequences, if applied to the meadows of the Stour in the Vale of Blackmoor.

"These meadows are in general excellent land, and the river for the most part lies so low, that they suffer scarcely any injury from stagnant water, and need very little draining.

"The occasional overflows of the river are beneficial, but a superabundance of water entirely alters the nature of the vegetation for the worse."

It is unaccountably strange, that, from among those known facts, the calcareous principle should not have discovered itself!

P. 370. The streams in Dorset are in general shallow, and have a considerable fall; the meadows are narrow, and the water is supplied with comparative regularity, in consequence of its having to filter through immense masses of chalk previous to its exit at the springs: and hence the process of irrigation is much facilitated."

Yet the idea of rain water taking up (chemically, not in substance) calcareous matter, as it filters through chalk, issuing from the base of the rock, loaded with himy par ticles, conveying them in streams to the land, and there depositing them, in the state of effete lime,-does not appear to have struck the occupiers of CHALK HILLS and WATER MEADOWS!

SODBURNING.-P. 341. "This practice, which is termed burn-baking, has made but little progress in Dorsetshire; some of the principal land-agents, &c. are so inimical to it, that it is difficult to suppose their opinion is unmixed with prejudice,"

Α

The Stour, as has been observed, rises, principally,, out of the vale lands of Blackmoor; and its waters, probably, are nearly void of calcareous particles; saving what the broken line of limestone heights, between Sherborne and Wincaunton, may afford.

f. This, I doubt not, is a fact. The astringent waters of heathlands I have ever found to be injurious to nutritious herbage.

A string of opinions and incidents in practice are, nevertheless, reported. They are, however, frequently contradictory, and, on the whole, of little or no value.

TENANCY.-P. 104. "Leases of twenty-one years duration were common in this county, till near the end of the last century; but proprietors in general think it now improper to put the management of their estates out of their own power for so long a period; and though at present it is supposed, that about one half of the county is under lease, yet its duration is mostly for the term of only seven years, and in many very recent cases, the leases have been limited, even to three years."

Another and longer chain of inconsiderate opinions, prompt sayings, and futile remarks, (of informants) relating to this disputed point, is drawn out for the amusement of the readers of the Dorsetshire Report. I do not mean thus to convey, to mine, that every link is faulty, and unfit for inspection; but to acquaint them that I cannot find one which I think would add to the value of the work I am preparing for them.

WOODLANDS.

WOODS.-P. 325. "Timber is scarce in this county, and the quantity is continually diminishing. The Vale of Blackmoor is said to have been very woody in former times, but at present the greater part of it grows no other timber than what is interspersed in the hedge-rows; which is, however, à considerable quantity of elm, ash, &c.

"There are few parishes that have woods which contain timber exclusive of parks, where they are mostly preserved for ornament, and consequently are of little use to the public.

"There are, it is believed, only 17 parishes in the county, that have timber woods, and many of them are thinly

stored."

A list of those woods being given, the Reporter adds,p. 326, "This enumeration does not amount to 1500 acres, but there are several other woods in the county which contain some portion of timber, beside a number of copses, consisting almost entirely of hazel on the chalky soils."

COPICES.-P. 326. "Mr. Best of Dewlish, says the copses are cut at about six or seven years old, for the purpose of making hurdles, without splitting the hazel.

"When hurdles are made of older wood, the largest branches are split. Ash in copses often stands 20 years. or mole for poles, hoops, &c."

AGRICULTURE.

ARMS. On the Sizes of Farms, in Dorsetshire,-see Mr. Claridge's account p. 247, aforegoing.

HOMESTEADS.-P. 83. "Many of the farm-houses, particularly those belonging to the large farms on the chalky district, are very ancient buildings, and have all the appearance of having been the seats of the proprietors in former times.

"They are mostly built with stone; and many of the ancient family mansions are covered with stone tiles, with window-frames likewise of stone, and turrets, battlements, and pointed arches, and carved work, in the Gothic style. Buildings of this kind may be seen, at Athelhampston, Waterson, &c.

"The more ordinary farm-houses, though generally built of stone, are frequently covered with reed thatch."*

P. 85. "In the chalky division of the county, many walls of cottages, barns, &c. are built partly of large flints, and partly of hard chalk, the flints being laid, of course, at the outside of the wall, and with the fractured or black part of the surface in view. The wall round a great part of the park of the late Lord Dorchester, at Milton Abbey, is built entirely with flints.

"There are many mud-walled cottages, barns, &c. in the county, but principally in the district to the east of Dorchester. They are composed of road-scrapings, or other kinds of earth which are a little cohesive, and well mixed with a large quantity of chalk and straw.

"In building walls of this kind, it is necessary to lay a foundation of stone, or such hard materials as will resist the injurious effects of wet, as well as the intrusions of vermin. The implement which is principally used is no other than a dung-fork, and the walls are generally made two feet thick. The first layer, or strata, is built about two and an half feet high all round the foundation of the building, or as far as is convenient; and, after the interval of about a week, which is allowed for the first layer to harden and consolidate, another is added, and the work proceeds

* Mr. Stevenson observes, p. 87, "Reed-thatching is very little in use to the cast of Blandford." Hence we may say the practice of preserving wheat straw from the flail, for the purpose of thatch, prevails from the middle of Dorsetshire, to the Landsend.

proceeds in a regular manner, till the whole is completed. Garden walls, &c. are often built in this manner, but have always a coping of thatch to secure them from the rain."

PLAN OF MANAGEMENT.-P. 189. "The county of Dorset has been remarkable, in former times, on account of the very large proportion of its arable land, which was devoted to the production of culmiferous or white-strawed corn crops. At present, the successive cultivation of wheat, barley, and oats, without the intervention of pulse, or cattle crops, is a practice that is not encouraged by any of the proprietors of the soil, nor defended by the most intelligent farmers; yet it is occasionally adopted by many who, nevertheless, freely acknowledge its impropriety."

After that unpromising exordium to the section, "Course of Crops," succeeds a sub-infinity of miscellaneous items, a la Secretaire. Out of the mass I have extracted the two which follow.

P. 194. "In the Vale of Blackmoor, there is but little arable land, perhaps not more than one-eighth or one-ninth of the whole; and as the land, for the most part, is not adapted to the culture of turnips, there is scarcely any thing like a regular course of cropping, unless in those places where it is regulated by ancient customs, in uninclosed fields; and there are but few of these now remaining.",

P. 201. "There is a singular custom in the Isle of Portland, which consists in fallowing half the arable land every year, and sowing the other half with wheat, barley, oats, and a few pease and tares."

OCCUPIERS.-P. 75. It has been remarked, that there are a greater number of Yeomanry in the western part of Dorsetshire, especially in that part which lies detached, surrounded by Devonshire, than in any other part of the county."

WORKPEOPLE.-P. 428. "The price of labour, in many parts of this county, appears to have undergone little variation for some years; yet, as it is paid partly in kind, by the allowance of wheat and barley at a low and fixed price, it has, of course, advanced in some measure according to the increased price of provisions."

"The ale which is given to labourers in bay-time and harvest, is brewed with four bushels of malt to the hogshead."-Of this ale, we are told, even women are allowed"three pints a day or more;" and men "seven pints."

P. 430. "At Stinsford, labour is 68. or 78. a week, with? wheat at 58., and barley at 3s. per bushel."-This custom prevails in different parts of the West of England. I have repeatedly, I trust, shown its impropriety.

P. 453.