most rational, and most beneficial, to every sheep county, to strive to the utmost to improve its native breed-foregoing the little advantage that may be derived from the improved quality of the wool, for the more permanent and solid one, of having a thrifty breed, congenial with the soil."

SWINE.-P. 45. "The quantity of swine fatted in Berkshire, is certainly very great. In the small town of Faringdon only, 4000 are slaughtered for the London, and Oxford markets, between the beginning of November, and the beginning of April. This however, is in a part of the county, where the dairy farms are situated; but nevertheless, when it is considered how many store pigs, are sent annually to the distillers and starch-makers, in the vicinity of London, Berkshire receives no inconsiderable return, from this profitable kind of stock."

POULTRY.-P. 45. "At the east end of the county, the poultry becomes very profitable from its vicinity to London. A great number of hucksters are constantly employed, in purchasing them, and the number weekly sent away is prodigious. At the northern, and western sides, the farms running large, these useful and necessary articles, which the little farm rears up, are overlooked, or rejected, and perhaps will account for the dearness of this kind of provision."

DOCTOR

BY WILLIAM MAVOR, LL, D.

1813"!

OCTOR MAVOR is known to the public, as a "literary man." His QUALIFICATIONS, as a public writer, re

quire

A prefix, by the author, is dated November 1808, and, by incidental mentions made in the course of the work, the materials of it would seem to have been principally collected in 1807.

quire not to be spoken of, here. His acquirements as a Reporter of Rural Practices, are to be looked for in his performance. They will be seen in the ensuing extracts.

The MATERIALS of this Report appear to have been obtained by some considerable portion of personal examination; by enquiries and incidental communications; and, probably, through the more efficient assistance of a FRIEND†; who, as a zealous and veteran amateur of the Rural Science, was well enabled to supply Dr. M. with valuable information; as well as to guard him from the errors and impositions into which inexperience is ever liable to be led, by the ignorance, and the interested views, of informants,

In addition to the materials, collected as above, we find a paper of Mr. Kent (formerly presented to the Society of Arts &c.) on the improvements in WINDSOR PARK*.—Also a paper of Mr. Page, concerning the best means of perfecting the navigation of the Thames.

Those papers, together with a list of indigenous plants, and other details not connected with the subjects given out, in "the Plan of the Board," afford sufficient matter to furnish an octavo volume of nearly five hundred and fifty pages; among which are interspersed thirtyseven engrav ings;-none of which require, to be noticed, here.

In a prefatory "advertisement," which I transcribe, we read Doctor Mavor's own account of his work.-P. iii. "It is now upwards of three years since the Report of Berkshire was delegated to me; and I.feel that some apology is due to the Honourable Board of Agriculture and to my numerous friends, for this apparently long delay. Had not ill health clouded many of the intervening days, had not various avocations, as well as the duties of an active profession occupied many more, the undertaking would probably have been completed in a much shorter space.

"This, however, I can aver, that though I have been almost wholly engaged for the last eight months in arranging and drawing up the materials, previously collected, I could have spent as many more on the composition, before I could have pleased myself.

"It was my attachment to Berkshire, and my wish to oblige a most respectable and kind friend+, that first induced me to enter into this engagement. To that friend, who was ever ready to encourage my endeavours, to obviate my difficulties, and to satisfy my doubts, this Report owes whatever

"Edward Loveden Loveden, Esq. M. P. one of the Vice-presidents of the Board."

*Varying, in many particulars, from that furnished by Mr. Pearce, in his original sketch of Berkshire; which is, I think, a plater account.

whatever merit it may be found to possess. Should I have unfortunately failed in doing some degree of justice to the subject, let the fault be ascribed to my own want of knowledge, not to my want of industry and zeal.

For the County, which has been the scene of my present labours, I had long borne a partial regard; and I have every reason to retain my attachment, now that I know it better. To its gentry and yeomanry in general, I can only express my gratitude for their kindness, and assure them that the impression of it will be indelible. Particular acknowledgements in this place would be ill timed, where so many have claims to receive them; but I cannot withhold my best thanks from Frederick Page, Esq. of Newbury, for the valuable information with which he favoured me on the subject of the Berkshire Navigations; and for his readiness to assist my enquiries, in every way that his extensive local knowledge could suggest.

WOODSTOCK,

November 20, 1808."

W. M.

SUBJECT THE FIRST.

NATURAL ECONOMY.

EXTENT

XTENT.-P. 3. "From astronomical observations which have settled the longitude of Oxford, and the trigonometrical survey by government, makes Berks, including its insulated parts, to contain about 464,500 acres, according to the following distribution:

Acres.

Arable land about

255,000

Meadows and dairy land in the vale

72,000

Sheep-walks, chiefly uninclosed, on the chalk

hills

25,000

Dr. M. thinks the quantity of Woodland is somewhat underrated.

CLIMATURE.-P. 19. "In a track of such considerable extent, with a surface and a soil so various, there must be some diversity of climate; but in almost every part of Berkshire, the air is pure and salubrious, and this is more particularly the case on the chalky and gravelly soils which prevail through the greatest part of its limits."

WATERS.-P. 36." The principal rivers and streams of Berkshire are the Thames, the Kennet, the Loddon, the Lambourn, the Ock, the Aubourn, the Emme, and the Broadwater."

DISTRICTS.-(Section." Divisions.")-P. 16. "The four grand natural divisions of Berkshire are:

"1. The Vale, beginning at Buscot and terminating at Streatley. It is bounded by the Thames on one side, and by,"

2. The Chalky Hills, which run nearly through the centre of the lower part of the county."

"3. The Vale of the Kennet."

"4. The Forest Division, which commences on the east of the Loddon, and extends the breadth of the county to Old Windsor."

6

SOILS. Of the Vale Lands.-(Section "Soil and Surface.")-P. 22. "The prevailing soil of the Vale is a strong grey calcareous loam, which evidently owes it excellence to the intimate mixture of vegetable mould with cretaceous earth.' In fact, a considerable portion of it is alluvial land; and its fertility differs according to the various proportions of the component materials."

"The downs are chiefly

Of the Chalk Hills.-P. 25. composed of a blackish light earth.

"On the south side, these hills throughout their whole extent gradually descend to the vale of the Kennet, and contain some intermediate tracks of considerable fertility, of flint, chalk, loam, and gravel, with occasional beds of clay, but almost wholly with a chalky substratum."

Of the Valley of the Kennet.-P. 27. " In the soil of the vale of the Kennet gravels predominate, but they vary considerably in their qualities, admixtures, and depths from the surface. On the north side of the river the soil is generally a reddish loam, with a gravelly substratum, easily tilled, and, with proper management, not much inferior in the produce of some kinds of grain to the vale of White Horse. On the south side of the Kennet, between Hungerford and Newbury, the soil is of gravel, loam, and clay near the river; but towards Inkpen, Shalbourn, and West Woodhay, we come to a track of deep, white maumy land, well adapted for the growth of wheat, beans, and oak timber."-Doubtlessly, the base of the Chalk Hills of Hamp

shire, which there breaks out.-Other remarks on the same peculiar species of soil will appear in the course of this volume.

Of the Forest District.-P. 29. "The more northern parts of this division, towards Maidenhead, Bray, and Clewer, is gravel, strong loam, and clay; in the central parts, about Old and New Windsor, Winkfield, and Warfield, a tenacious clay prevails; and in the southern parts of the forest, sand and gravel. In many spots, however, within these limits, I found a good kind loam, in others a stiff loam mixed with clay."

FOSSILS.-P. 32. "Berkshire possesses no minerals of considerable value, nor any uncommon variety of curious fossils. The chalk hills in general contain nothing very remarkable, as far as excavations have been made. The substance in general is too much mixed with heterogeneous matter to be applied to any useful purpose; but it is nevertheless found sufficiently pure in some places, particularly in the eastern direction of the stratum, to be dug for manure, and occasionally for building."..

P. 34. "The Sarsden stones or grey wethers, as the country people call them, are irregularly scattered over the Wiltshire and Berkshire downs. They are pretty numerous in a valley near Ashdown park, in the road from, thence to Lambourn, and seem as if they had been showered from heaven in some convulsion of nature, being totally unconnected with the soil on which they lie, which is here chalky; whereas, towards Compton Beauchamp, where they are likewise found, it is clayey. The Honourable Daines Barrington has made some observations on these stones in the Archæologia. They are composed of a fine siliceous grit, and are frequently blasted with gunpowder, and used for pitching; but they resist the mason's tools."

See the note, p. 1, aforegoing; which was written, some considerable time, before I saw the work that is now before

me.

SUBSTRUCTURE.-P. 32. " At Catsgrove, near Reading, a stratum of chalk has been found, thirty feet in thickness, below which no experiments have been made in sinking, because a stratum of flint, where the water accumulates, lies immediately under. Above the chalk is a stratum of sandy clay, of about a foot thick, on which rests a layer of oyster shells, two feet more. Above the shells, is a stratum of sandy clay, one foot and a half thick; then four feet of greenish sand, and over this three feet of coarse fuller's earth. Above all, is a very deep bed of clay, fit for tiles and bricks."

SUBJECT