l8oo. Revieiv of Middhfex Survey. ''^3 



Middlefex, from local circumftances, does not poflefs within 

 its bounds fuch extenfive means of agricultural information as 

 many other counties. It contains only 179,200 ftatute acres, 

 of which not above one tenth, or 17,500 acres, are under 

 COTH crops ; the remainder being either occupied by houfes, 

 gardens, or^rurfery grounds \ or ufed for raifing hay or paf- 

 ture grafs for fupporting milch-cows, which in this diflridil: 

 are neceflarily very numerous. Such a fmall portion of it 

 being therefore under the plough, and the cultivation not of 

 the mod perfecl kind, renders this diftricl (fertile as it other- 

 wife is) rather barren in the fources whence agricultural 

 knowledge can be colle6led. 



Mr Middleton has, however, amply fupplied this local de- 

 fe«3: i and, by extending his inquiries to general fubjecls of 

 rural and political economy, his, upon the whole, prefented 

 to the public a work well calculated for conveying, not only 

 inflrudiion, but amufement. Whether the extraneous matter 

 he has introduced, be confillent with the title of the work, is 

 a problem we do not pretend to folve ; nor are we difpofed to 

 call in queftion the propriety of extending the furvey of the 

 metropolitan county, or of difcuffing fubjefts therein, which 

 generally afFe6t the intereft of the whole empire. 



After a fenfible introdutftion, wherein Mr Middleton ex- 

 prefles his furprife that Agriculture, ' to which we owe not 

 only many of the comforts and conveniences of life, but even 

 the means of exiftence, (liould fo long have been negle£led and 

 almofi; defpifed, ' he proceeds, in the execution of the work, 

 agreeable to the plan laid down by tlie Board for the direc- 

 tion of their furveyors ; and to this he has added a number 

 of additional fe^tlons. We have heard feveral obje£llons to 

 this plan, which we are inclined to think have fome weight. 

 Uniformity, however defirable in other refpefts, cannot be 

 obtained in a detail of rural affairs-, for different dlftrifts 

 contain different means of information •, and hence we meet 

 v/ith fome of thefe publications, like Sterne's works, with 

 little more than blank chapters and fedions. Befides, this 

 uniformity occations a fanienefs in the furveys, which, not to 

 fay worfe of it, is calculated rather to tire, than inilru6l or 

 entertain, the reader, and fomev/hat like what he feels on a 

 journey through a long flat country, where no variety prevails 

 in the profpe<!i^ before him. 



Mr Middleton, notwithllanding his good fenfe, feems very 

 much under the influence of proieHional prejudices. la tlie 

 chapter on the State of Property, page 34. <d'feq. he dt;fcribcf>, 

 in a very animated manner, the lofs fuliained by landed pro- 

 prietors, from having their citatcs under the management of 



London 



