t 330 ] 



it was afterwards much neglected. They were 

 the firft people among the modems, who ploughed 

 in green crops for the fake of fertilizing the foil ; 

 and who confined their fheep at night in large 

 fheds built on purpofe, the floors of which were 

 covered with fand or virgin earth, &c. which the 

 fhepherd carted away each morning to the com- 

 port dunghill. 



Let us now return to England. During the 

 reign of Charles the Firft, our fatal domeftick dif- 

 fentions and wars reverfed the true order of things, 

 changing our ploughs and pruning-hooks into 

 martial weapons. But in the general revolution 

 of affairs, which took place on the death of that 

 unfortunate Monarch, artful and avaricious men 

 crept into the confifcated eftates of fuch of the 

 nobility and gentry as had fteadily adhered to the 

 royal caufe; and as many of thefe ueiv incroachers 

 had rifen from the plough, they returned with 

 pleafure to their old occupations, being chiefly 

 animated with the love of gain. About this time, 

 Tlsser, Platt, Plattes, Hartlib, Blythe, 

 and fome others, feized this favourable opportunity 

 of encouraging the difpofition of the common peo- 

 ple, by writings, which have been equalled by few 

 jn later times. 



This 



