Page images
PDF
EPUB

after considerable erasements, alterations, and additions, a large portion of the original is preserved; and to obviate the inconvenience of notes and references, we have in some measure identified ourselves with Mr. Worgan in the body of the Work; taking care that wherever we have made observations, or stated facts, for which we alone are answerable, the initials of our respective names are subjoined. We are, Gentlemen, with much respect,

Your obedient humble Servants,

Cornwall, May 1, 1810."

ROBERT WALKER.

JEREMIAH TRIST.

CHARLES VINICOMBE PEnrose.

Mr. WORGAN'S QUALIFICATIONS are not so fully set forth, as are those of his judges. By incidental expressions, it appears that Mr. W. was, or recently had been at the time of his Survey, an occupier in the County. He rarely, however, brings his own practice, or his own opinions, forward; -appearing to be most desirous to give a faithful account of the best practice of the County; which is, I conceive, the true principle and business of Report.

His MODE of COLLECTING INFORMATION appears to have been, principally, by a pedestrian tour through the County; -the fatigues and privations attending which are not passed unnoticed. To his own observations he has fortunately been able to add much valuable intelligence,liberally furnished by professional men of the higher class, and well informed amateurs.

Fraser's original Report is not once named!

The number of pages, of the body of the book, one hundred and eightyeight, with an index.

The number of engravings fifteen, together with some wooden-cut diagram. The plates are neatly done; and are doubtlessly intended, in those picture-fancying times, "to sell the book",-by raising its price from five (its letterpress value) to twelve shillings.

A map of soils; properly distinguished by the graver; not by colors.

NATURAL ECONOMY.

EXTENT.

XTENT.-See the original Report.

SURFACE.-P. 5. "The whole county of Cornwall, with a very few exceptions, is remarkable for inequality of surface; ascents and descents follow in rapid succession. Some

of

of the hills are very steep, and tediously prolong a journey. The great post-roads being carried many miles together, over rugged, naked, and uncultivated heaths and moors, the traveller is impressed with a more unfavourable opinion of the county than it deserves."

CLIMATURE.-P. 3. "The general character of the cli.mate of Cornwall, like all other peninsulated situations. lying far to the southward and westward, is inconstancy as to wind and rain; and mildness as to heat and cold. Nor

is it so subject to thunder storms as some inland counties are."

"The cause of more frequent rains in Cornwall than in other parts of England, is, that for three-fourths of the year the wind blows from the intermediate points of the west and the south, which sweeping over a large tract of the Atlantic Ocean, collects and brings with it vast bodies of clouds, which, being broken by the narrow ridge-like hills of the county, descend in frequent showers: but it may be remarked, that the rains in Cornwall, though frequent, cannot be said to be heavy or excessive, and perhaps the quantity may not exceed that of other counties."

P. 5." Snow seldom lies more than four or five days on the coast; and a skaiter may sometimes pass a winter in Cornwall, without being able to partake of his favourite amusement. A kind of languid spring prevails through the winter, which brings forth early buds and blossoms, raising the farmers' and gardeners' expectations, to be too often disappointed by blighting north-east winds, in March, April, and even sometimes so late as May.

"With respect to the effects of the climate on the human race, it may be said to be particularly healthy and genial, and there are numerous instances of longevity."

WATERS.-P. 14. "Nature has been bountiful in her supplies and distribution of this blessed element in Cornwall, sufficient for every purpose of life. Springs are abundant on the high, as well as the low grounds, which, gliding away to the vallies, unite, and form numerous streams, rivulets, and some not inconsiderable rivers.

"The most considerable are the Tamar, the Lynker, the Looe, the Fowey, the Camel or Alan, and the Fal." SOILS.-P. 8. "The soils of Cornwall may be arranged under the three following heads:

"1st, The black growan, or gravelly.

"2d, The shelfy, or slaty.

"3d, Loams differing in texture, colours, and degrees of fertility.

"To attempt to specify these soils severally, with their endless combinations and adventitious differences, would be

Mm

a hopeless task, as in the same field they are frequently found to vary exceedingly, in the proportion of their several constituent parts. The first consists of a light, moory, black earth, intermixed with small particles of the granite rock, called growan, from grow, a Cornish word for gravel."

P. 9. The shelfy, or slaty, soil, forming the second class, is by far the most prevalent. It is distinguished by this name, from having a large proportion of the sehistos, or rotten slaty matter, mixed with the light loam of which its soil is composed. When the substratum is a schistos, or soft slate, there is a considerable difference in point of fertility, according to the disposition of its lamine; for, if flat, the surface is more retentive of the manure; but if on its edge, it forms what they call a greedy hungry soil, allowing the manure to wash down through it."-This, let it be said, is valuable Report.

P. 10. "Loamy Soils.-There are some very rich and fertile patches of these soils, interspersed in different parts of the county; the low grounds, declivities, banks of the rivers, and town lands, are composed of them. Some of these are incumbent on a subsoil of clay, and partake, more or less, of it in their composition, forming clay loams."

FOSSILS.-P. 12. " Both on the north and south coasts of the county there are quarries of slate, which form excellent covering for houses. The famous quarry called Denny bole, near Tintagel, on the north coast, is supposed to afford the finest slate in England. There are other slate quarries, particularly in St. Neot's, St. German's, and Padstow, but of inferior quality.

"In some parts are strata of freestone, which, in quality, approach to the Portland stone; these are of great value as materials for building, as is another stone of a coarser texture-the moorstone, or granite."

MINERALS.-P. xi. " Of the great variety of mineral and fossil productions for which Cornwall has from time immemorial been so famous, a few only are enumerated, Professor Davy having undertaken to draw up in a distinct work, a Mineralogical Survey of his native County."

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

APPROPRIATION.—P. 46. « Though there be no

case, till very lately, of enclosure by Act of Parliament in the county; yet there are numerous instances of parcels of

land

land being taken up from the waste, and enclosed with temporary dead fences, for the purpose of securing two or three crops of corn; after which the land is consigned to waste again."

P. 104. "The coarse or uncultivated wastes of this county, though, as elsewhere, of much less value than the enclosed lands, have yet their appropriate uses. A hardy race of herds and flocks depasture the coarse herbage of the more level parts; goats climb and browse the rocky summits, and the wild conies feed and burrow among the sandy hillocks. The lands in Cornwall, which come under this description, bear striking marks of ruggedness and deformity. Viewing these lands with an agricultural eye, they present a wide field for speculation. The pasturage of the moors, downs, and crofts, as the waste lands in Cornwall are called, is generally considered to belong to the tenantry, in the right of some manor or lordships, to which such wastes are appurtenant; and consequently, as in most cases of common lands, the pasturage is by no means equal to the stock.

"A practice has prevailed in this county for many years past, and still prevails, of breaking up detached parcels of the waste lands, paring and burning, sometimes liming or sanding them, and after taking as much corn as they will carry, letting down the temporary fences, which had been raised to secure the crops, and then suffering them to run to waste again, in tenfold worse condition than they were in a state of nature."-This practice has formerly been common to the West of England; and still is continued in different parts of it.

P. 106. Mr. Wallis, Secretary to the Cornwall Agricultural Society, has favoured me with the following remarks on waste lands.

"It is computed that there are in Cornwall, at least from 150,000 to 200,000 acres of unenclosed waste lands, which are appropriated to no other purpose than a scanty pasturage for a miserable breed of sheep and goats throughout the year; and about 10,000 acres to the summer pasture of cattle and sheep: the principal and most profitable tract of these waste lands extends from south to north, between the towns of Liskeard, Bodmin, Camelford, and thence to within a few miles of Launceston; particularly those called Roughtor, Temple, and Alternoon Moors: some of these wastes are stocked in the summer by large flocks of sheep and cattle, which are taken in to pasture by the tenants of the neighbouring farmers, from about the middle of May until October, at 2s. to 21s. per head for neat cattle, and 18. to 3s. per score for sheep. Herdsmen M m 2

are

are employed by these tenants to look after the flocks during these months, whose business it is to restore them to their owners, at the end of the time agreed on.

"The sheep pastured on these moors will not remain there healthy during more than a month or two at a time, but become what is called moor-sick, and are removed into the inland country, when the change of a few weeks renders them fit to return to the moors again.

"These wastes also produce some furze, and excellent turf, which are the chief fuel of the neighbouring inhabitants.""

FUEL.-P. 160. "The principal article of fuel in the western parts of Cornwall is turf, furze, and Welsh coals: in the eastern part, hedge and coppice-wood, and coaisWith the poor in Cornwall it may be said, this necessary article of comfort is scarce, and many of them are obliged to take a great deal of pains to collect a scanty burtbeu of miserable furze (a short kind called the Cornish) from the commons."

MANUFACTURES.-P. 165. " These are very few and inconsiderable; some coarse woollen, several paper, and a carpet manufactory, make up the principal."

For the evil effects of spinning mills, see Poor Rates, ensuing.

MINING.-P. 179. "The observations which perpetually occur against mining, as an obstacle to improvement, amongst over-jealous friends to agriculture, require some animadversion. Where the mines are situated, they undoubtedly spoil some good land; but the mines are generally situated in the poorest part of our county. In spite however of these natural disadvantages, every where in the neighbourhood of them may be seen excellent crops of corn, crops produced by the labour and savings of the industrious miner; on spots which, in any other county, or under any other circumstances, must have remained in a state of perpetual barrenness: and the fact is, that some of our greatest improvements in agriculture, have been made by profits from the mines, and from the trade which they create and maintain."-For their effect on the poor rates, see below. POOR RATES.-P. 33. "These, as in other parts of the kingdom, have been some years on the increase.”

"In the mining parishes the estates have been so burthened with poor-rates, in scarce seasons of grain, or when employment for the miners has failed, as to be of little value to the proprietors, and the remedy has been resorted to, of calling upon the hundred for aid.

[ocr errors]

Carding and spinning were formerly found profitable employments for the female poor; and to the total decline

of

« PreviousContinue »