creased pay of 1s. 6d. or 2s. extra per week, over every groupe of four or five men along the road, who is to labour with them, to see that they do their duty, and to report from time to time to the surveyor, whose utmost vigilance will often be ineffectual without such assistance. I have seen the beneficial effects of this plan, both as to the quantity of labour performed, and the mode in which it is done, and I humbly beg leave to recommend it where it has not hitherto been acted on."

Not even a well experienced Road Surveyor, retiring from business, could have dictated more appropriate directions, on the management of roads, on a large scale. They are evidently the dictates of much thought and experience. They might well be brought forward in evidence that, had the writer of them turned his attention to practical agriculture, for a due length of time, he might have demanded a place among the first class of cultivators.

MARKETS.-lu a compound section (a tough morsel for an analyser to digest)-entitled "Towns, Fairs,Weekly Markets, Commerce and Maufactures,"—the several market towns of Berkshire are topographically, but briefly, described; and their specific differences spoken of, under the above named heads

Ilsley-Fairs.-P. 455. "August 26; usually called lamb fair, the largest in the year. At this fair, upwards of 30,000 sheep, of various breeds and ages, and many from a great distance, have been exposed to sale. Stationary pens for sheep line the streets, at all times of the year.

"An All Hallows tide fair was mentioned to me; but I do not find it noticed in the almanacks.

"Markets. The market-day is on Wednesday. Little business done, except in sheep. The grand sheep markets begin at Easter, and continue every fortnight till shearing time. Twenty thousand sheep have been collected at one of these markets, which are six or seven annually: the average number during their continuance may be taken at 15,000, as I learned from the principal proprietors of the pens."

Newbury.-P. 458. "The weekly market is on Thursday, and is one of the largest for grain, in this part of the kingdom. The quality, as it arises from various soils within the distance of 20 miles in some directions, is adapted for every purpose that can be required. One sack out of a parcel is pitched; the rest is delivered into granaries, erected near the wharf. The corn-porters, a body of men who are much trusted, though under no particular responsibility, transact the greatest part of the business. They probably owe their origin and support, to the indolence and opulence of the farmers.

"Though

Though a pitched market, small quantities of corn are not easily procured. The market commences about eleven o'clock, and is over by one. After dinner, the sales are paid for; the waggons return with the sacks, and the farmer with his money.

"Tolls are taken at the rate of a quart in a quarter, or eight bushels. They are now let for 365 l. per ann. and probably produce double that sum in gross to the renter; which may give some idea of the quantity of grain sold here."

Reading.-P. 464. "The principal market-day on Saturdays. Corn pitched. Not less than 100 loads of wheat sold weekly, and other grain in proportion. Begins at nine o'clock, and is finished in about an hour and a half, when the farmers return with their money and sacks. Toll a quart per quarter. The Winchester bushel used here.

"The wheat sold at Reading market is peculiarly excellent, and the flour is much esteemed."

Windsor.-P. 470. "The weekly market by charter is on Saturdays, and is well attended. Corn is pitched, but it is said that too much is sold privately, by sample. The tolls are a pint out of every sack."

In all other markets of Berkshire, corn is sold by sample. An evil of pitching markets appears in a note, p. 398. (section "Horses")" The first teams, as they are called, which may be seen every market day at Newbury and Read ing, are a most wanton expence. These pampered animals seem only intended for pomp and parade; and the first carter, who attends them, is probably equally useless. But why, it will be asked, may not state horses be kept for a waggon as well as for a coach? I confess the question is not easily answered."

SOCIETIES of AGRICULTURE.-P. 498. "An Agricultural Society was established in this county in 1794, on a scale so extensive, and for purposes so multifarious, that if its objects could have been accomplished, a parochial report of Berkshire would have long since been in its archives, from which the most valuable and minute information might have been obtained. Unfortunately the wheels of the machine were too numerous and complicated, to act by voluntary motion. Sub-committees were appointed in eight different districts, consisting of the chief proprietors and practical farmers in each, with their separate local clerks; and queries were circulated, and premiums proposed with judgment and discrimination, but without producing the intended effect. Subscribers were to pay a guinea or half a guinea annually; and a general committee, consisting of the most intelligent and respectable gentlemen, selected from the sub-committees, was to carry on the correspondence, and to convene the subscribers when they judged it expedient." P. 499.

P. 499. "At length, in 1800, many gentlemen who had belonged to the original institution, and others who felt the propriety of supporting such an useful establishment, and who were animated, by royal example, to give a new stimulus to agricultural pursuits, agreed to subscribe in the same proportions as before, to simplify the mode of conducting business by having only one committee and one clerk."-An institute, this, which, it appears, continued at the time of the Reporter's survey.

SUBJECT THE THIRD.

RURAL ECONOMY.

ESTATES.

TENANTED ESTATES.

STATES.-P. 49. "On a moderate calculation, the landed property, including houses, mills, and other productive revenue, arising from, or attached to the soil, can-. not amount to less than 500,000l. per annum. Of this sum, the largest possessor in the county may probably have about 8000l. a year; a few more may have estates to the value of 5, 6, or 7000l.; but great land owners are rare, either among peers or commoners: of the former Earl Craven has the largest possessions; of the latter E. L. Loveden, Esq. In the lower part of the county, indeed, property is least divided, though every where we find a respectable number of yeomanry; in the upper part, we see several handsome seats with land not exceeding 100 acres."

PURCHASE of Estates.-P. 51. "It is difficult to say, with any degree of accuracy, what may be the present value of freehold estates. An old, or an improved rent, exoneration from tithes or from land tax, the advantages of situation, and the magnitude of the purchase, are all to be taken into the account, and considerably influence the price. According to circumstances, the minimum may be about twenty-six years purchase, and the maximum thirty-five, at a fair nett rent. The average, however, will not exceed twenty-eight years." TENURES.-P. 52. "By far the greatest part of the land is freehold, a kind of tenure which possesses the most numerous advantages with the fewest inconveniences.

"I have found, however, in different parts of the county considerable portions of copyhold lands, held by different tenures, according to the customs of the respective manors. In some places, the lords are disposed, on equitable terms, to enfranchise their tenants. Lord Kensington has done so

at

at Cholsey, and the practice is to be commended; as holding courts is seldom beneficial to the lord, and is often attended with expences and disadvantages to the tenant."

P. 54. "Leases on lives, and leases renewable every seven years under deans and chapters, and other corporate bodies, are not unfrequent in this county."

"Some few estates are held by leases of 1000 years: others are leased on single or on three lives, by individual land owners; but this practice is not common, and renewals, where it exists, are generally refused."

EMBANKMENT. For a want of it, see Grass Lands, ensuing. IRRIGATION.-P. 370. " About Abingdon are some water meadows; and the practice on a small scale has been introduced in other places; but on the long line of the Thames winter floods are the principal fructifiers of the soil, and they sometimes lie too long. Common meadows, which are frequent, are the best excuse for the neglect they they experience.

"On the Kennet there are several hundreds of acres of water meadow, more especially between Hungerford and Newbury; between the last named place and Reading they are less frequent*."

TENANCY.-Leases.-This subject is twice brought forward; and treated of at some length. The Reporter's remarks upon it however, tho sometimes ingenious, are altogether unavailing, under existing circumstances.--Having repeatedly offered my sentiments on this topic, in the course of my present undertaking, I will confine my attention, here, to what is reported of the present practice of Berkshire.

P. 112. "Except some old leases of twenty-one years, nearly expired, I found few recent instances of so long a term, certain. Fourteen years appears to be the longest term granted within the last seven years, and I heard of several leases for only five, seven, or ten years certain. The prevailing practice undoubtedly is determinable leases, at the option of either party, for seven, fourteen, and twenty-one years."

P. 90. "Many instances occur where the same race of tenants, and the same race of proprietors have for generations maintained an unbroken connection, which is equally creditable to both."

RENT.

"Were Theale meadow, in the parish of Tilehurst, thrown into severalty and watered, it would be astonishingly valuable. In many other parishes, irrigation is rendered impossible from the nature of the tenure. It is the want of a general inclosure, not the farmer that is to be blamed, for many apparent neglects in improvement."

RENT. In the section, "Size of Farms," the average rent, in each parish, in every district of the County, is set down. The general average" of land of every description" is put (p. 88.) at about 17. 18."

66

RECEIVING RENTS.-P. 89. " According to the best information, they allow from three to six months rent in hand,"

WOODLAND S.

I HAD vainly hoped that I should have passed through

the volume now under review, without being subjected to the painful task of censure; until I entered on the chapter "Woods and Plantations;" where my approbation was forcibly arrested, by the following passage.

P. 307. "Oak, elm, and ash, within the last twenty years, are nearly doubled in price; * yet this has not operated in favor of new plantations, in any degree equal to the consumption of the old. The cause is obvious, and nothing but legislative authority can check the evil. When neither the interests of descendants, nor the public welfare, have any effect on the conduct of proprietors of woodlands, it is time that the controul should be delegated to other hands, and that the sanctions and inflictions of laws should be called in as auxiliaries to produce what a sense of duty fails to do.

"On private estates in general, no sooner is a difficulty felt, or an incumbrance to be wiped off, than the axe is applied to the patrimonial groves, and the fond hopes and prudent cares of a virtuous ancestry are sacrificed to some temporary accommodation of their posterity. It is nothing unusual, indeed, for a father to join his next heir, even when estates are entailed, and waste cannot be safely committed by either singly, in cutting down timber, and dividing the produce, in order to support their respective extravagance and love of dissipation, But no sooner does a young man come to the possession of his estate, than he commonly strips it of its woods; and lets in the light, as it is termed, on his native mansion, in order to discharge the debts he has often wantonly contracted. A law, therefore, to restrain any person from cutting down trees, not arrived at perfection" (!)" and to oblige him to plant two in a suitable

situation

* The market value of money had, at the time of reporting, been reduced, during that period, in nearly equal proportion.