Class 1. O X. 



thro' all its parts: this general fertility Is owing to 

 thofe clouded fkies, which foreigners miftakenly 

 urge as a reproach on our country; but let us 

 chearfully endure a temporary gloom, which 

 cloaths not only our meadows but our hills with 

 the richeit verdure. To this we owe the num- 

 ber, variety, and excellence of our cattle, the rich- 

 nefs of our dairies, and innumerable other advan- 

 tages. Cafar (the carlielt writer who defcribes this 

 ifland of Great- Britain) fpeaks of the numbers of 

 our cattle, and adds that we neglected tillage, but 

 lived on milk and flefli*. .S/r^i'tf takes notice of our 

 plenty of milk, but fays we were ignorant of the 

 art of making cheefef. Mela informs us, that 

 the wealth of the Britains confided in cattle: and 

 in his account of Ireland reports that fuch was the 

 richnefs of the paftures in that kingdom, that the 

 cattle would even burft if they were fuffered to 

 feed in them long at a time J. 



This preference of pafturage to tillage was deli- 

 vered down from our Britijh anceftors to much 

 later tim.es ; and continued equally prevalent du- 

 ring the whole period of our feodal government : 



* Lib. 5. t Lib. 4. 



X Adeo luxuriofa herbis non Isetis modo fed etiam dulclbusj 

 ut fe exigua parte diei pecora impleant, ut nifi pabulo pro- 

 hibeantur, diutius pafta difTiliant, Lib. iii. c. 6. 



Hollinjhed hysy (but we know not on what authority,) that 

 the Romans preferred the Britijh cattle to thofe of Liguria, 

 Defc. Br. log. 



C 1 the 



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