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ral years longer than one confined in the stable. Of the Suffolk hogs it may be observed, that the short white breed of the cow district has great merit. These animals are well made, with thick, short noses, small bone, and light offals, but are not quite so prolific as some worse made breeds.

With poultry this county is very well supphed, and especially with turkies, for which it is almost as celebrated as Norfolk.

Great quantities of pigeons are reared in the numerous pigeon houses, in the open field part of the county, bordering on Cambridgeshire.

Bees are very little attended to in general; though in the neighbourhood of uncultivated lands they would probably admit of a considerable increase.

Suffolk contains many rabbit-warrens, especially in the western sand district. One of them near Brandon, is estimated to return about 40,000 rabbits in a year. Of late years, however, considerable tracts occupied by them have been ploughed up, and converted into arable and pasture land.

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Among the implements of agriculture peculiar to Suffolk, or invented and first employed in this county, may be reckoned, the Suffolk swing plough; the horse-rake for clearing spring-corn stubbles; the new drill-plough invented by Mr. Henry Balding, of Mendham,

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who was ten years in bringing it to perfection, at a considerable expense; threshing mills on the improved construction of Mr. Asbey, of Blithborough; and the extirpator, or scalpplough, a machine for destroying weeds, and clearing ploughed lands for seed, invented by Mr. Hayward, of Stoke Ash. At the present time Ransom's ploughs are almost universally used.

Mr. Berry, of Swords, New England, has invented a machine, simple in its construction, by which with it and the attendant, an acre of potatoes can be dug out in an hour, or an acre of ground previously ploughed for grain, can be harrowed by it in an hour, a saving of nearly one hundred per cent.

To agricultural societies, which in other parts of the kingdom have been productive of great and extensive benefit, Suffolk is perhaps less indebted than any other county. The only institution of this kind, was the Melford society, which met alternately at Bury and Melford. On its first establishment, some of the members read memoirs of experiments, which appeared in the Annals of Agriculture; but for some years this has been dropped, A few premiums. were offered, but never claimed, for which reason they have likewise been discontinued.

COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES,-The commerce and manufactures of Suffolk are inconsiderable in comparison with those of other counties of England.

The imports are the same as in all other maritime counties: and corn and malt are the principal exports. Lowestoff is celebrated for its herring fishery, which was formerly more productive than at present; and of which further notice will be taken in treating of that town.

The principal fabric of the county was, till lately, the spinning and combing of wool, which extended throughout, the greater part of Suffolk, with the exception of the district in which the manufacture of hemp is exclusively carried on. In the year 1784, the woollen fabric was estimated by Mr. Oakes, of Bury, to employ 37,600 men, women and children, whose earnings amounted, upon an average, to 150,0001. per annum. The Norwich manufacture alone employed nearly half of the above number. At present this fabric is far from being so flourishing in this county, having been chiefly transferred to Yorkshire.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT, of this county is in the bishop of Norwich, assisted by the archdeacons of Sudbury and Suffolk. But here we must except the following parishes, they being not subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop of Norwich, viz. Hadleigh, Monkseleigh, and Moulton, which are peculiars to the archbishop of Canterbury; and Frekenham, which (with Isleham in Cambridgeshire) is a peculiar to the

bishop of Rochester. The Diocesan had but one archdeacon, till about A, D. 1126, when Richard archdeacon of the whole county of Suffolk, being made a bishop in France, Eborard or Everard then bishop of Norwich, divided the county into the archdeaconries of Sudbury and Suffolk, and made the western part of it (together with such parishes in Cambridgeshire as belong to the diocese of Norwich, on account of their haying been anciently part of the kingdom of of the east-angles) subject to the archdeacon of Sudbury. The archdeaconry of Sudbury is subdivided into eight deanries, viz. those of Sudbury, Stow Thingoe, Clare, Fordham in Cambridgeshire, Hartismere, Blackbourn, and Thedwastre; and the archdeaconry of Suffolk into fourteen, viz. the deanries of Ipswich, Bosmere, Claydon, Hoxne, Southelmham, Wangford, Lothingland, Dunwich, Orford, Loes, Willford, Carlford, Colnies, and Samford.

The Civil Government is in the high sheriff. for the time being; and in this respect the coun. ty is divided into the geldable and the franchises. In the geldable part of it, the issues and forfeitures are paid to the king; in the franchises, to the lords of the liberties. The geldable hundreds are Samford, Bosmere and Claydon. Stow, Hartesmere, Hoxne, Blything, Wangford, and the two half-hundreds of Mutford, and Lothingland; for these the sessions are

holden at Beccles, and Ipswich; viz. at Beccles, for Wangford, Blything, Mutford, and Lothingland; and at Ipswich, for the hundreds of Hartesmere, Hoxne, Stow, Bosmere, Claydon, and Samford,

The franchises are, first, the franchise or liberty of St. Ethelred. belonging anciently to the prior and convent, and now to the dean and chapter of Ely; it contains the hundreds of Carlford, Colnies, Willford, Plomesgate, Loes, and Threadling; for which the sessions are holden at Woodbridge. The prior and convent had this liberty in king Edward the confessor's time, and when the prior and convent were changed into a dean and chapter, A, D. 1541. it was said to be of the yearly value of 20 £.

Secondly, the franchise or liberty of St. Edmund, which was given to the abbey of Bury by king Edward the confessor; it contains the hundreds of Cosford, Babergh, Risbridge, Lackford, Blackbourn, Thedwastre, and Thingoe, and the half-hundred of Ixning; for which the sessions are holden at Bury.

Thirdly, the duke of Norfolk hath also a liberty (by letters patent of king Edward the fourth, dated 7th December, 1468,) of returning writs, and having a coroner; and all fines and amercements, &c. within his manors of Bungay, Kelsale, Carlton, Peasenhall, the three Stonhams,

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