1 203. Agr'icuhural Intelligence — Enghnd. 491" 



tops of the hills. They have no winter, unlcfs fometimcs wet wcatlier 

 dm-ing the mo?iths of Januaiy and February. 



* In the neighbourhood of Exmouth, I found an indiiftrious intel- 

 ligent Yorkrtiire man, who, about ten years ago, fetiled there, and 

 was the firll that introduced the burning of hmellone. The ftoiie i« 

 "brougiit from tlie oppofite fide of the bay, and the coals from Wales or 

 Sunderland. The lime is of a fhie white colour, and colls nearly the fame 

 price as the Sunderland lime. The faiTners are now beginning to nfe 

 it upon fuch grounds as they fallow. Wood of diifereiit kin-Is grows 

 here to a large ^viq. Myrtles, and many of our plants, \\hic!. are con- 

 fined to the green or hot-hoiife, flourifii in the open air with great lux- 

 airiancy. 



* The banks of the river Ex, which is navigaHe for fmall vcfTels as 

 far as Topfliam, afford^ in my opinion, the richeft profpc6l in England. 



* Nature has fliaped the grounds, and art has eanbelliflied them with 

 noble featSj villas, gardens, orchards, &c. It appear-s, for miles, as 

 one continue<i garden or orchard. On the 1 6th July, when I pafTed, 

 many fields of wheat and barley appeared nearly fit for cutting. 



* After all this, it is a painful tailc to cenfurc, particularly to a 

 llranger who received many civilities. Would you imagine that, in 

 fuch a country, they have not what deferves the name of a read, nay, 

 fcarcely of a foot-path ? Many of the turnpike roads do not ex- 

 ceed nine fett in breadth ; and, for miles, it is impofiible for two 

 ^carriages of any kind to pafs. A pcrfon is obliged to no before, to 

 give warning for you to flop at certain places ; otherwife a meeting 

 becomes a dangerous bufinefs, as you cannot get off the road, the 

 hedges being ten or twelve feet high. The roads run, in the fame 

 manner as they did five hundred years ago, over the tops of all rhe 

 hills ; as they feem to think it better to out down a hill, than go round 

 k. The roads are covered with enormous banks of earth, full of thorns, 

 briars, brambles, and weeds of all kinds, under the name of a hedge, 

 planted fo full of trees that no loaded cart can pafs, if the load is 

 higher than the top of a conimon poil-chaife. You will fcarce, then, 

 believe me, when I tell you, that a great part of their work here is 

 performed by horfes, with packets or creels affixed by a faddle to their 

 back, in the fame manner as in the moft northern Highlands of Scotland. 

 Even In the great city of Exeter, you fee a poor horfe bending under 

 a great load of brick or ftone, affixed to his back by thefe means. 

 Their coals, and, in fiiort, every thing, is carried in this manner upon 

 horfes backs. 



* Their fields, 35 in mod; parts of England, without any regard ta 

 the fituation of the grounds, or convcniency of tilling them, are thrown 

 into every fhape the imagination can form, furronndcd by immenfe 

 banks, under the name of hedges, full of all the noxious weeds that 

 <:.an grow. Thefe are allowed to flied, and confcquentlv fcatter tlicm- 

 felves all over the adjoining fields. This has often Itrnck me, in my 

 travels throu£h England, as a moil Hiameful defc<ii in their agriculture. 



T t t 3 s ii. 



