46 Apri culture of Shropshire. 



District No, III. 



This is by far the most important of the districts into which 

 I have divided the county. It preserves throughout points of 

 character which render any subdivision of it unnecessary and 

 undesirable. 



The south portion of this district is dotted over witli a number 

 of hills, such as Hopton Hill, Caer-Caradoc, and many others, 

 which give a great boldness of character to the scenery, and 

 render the land exceedingly irregular and uneven : level ground 

 can scarcely be seen, except along the base of the A'alleys, which 

 twine amongst the numerous liills. The soil is generally light, 

 often quite sand}', at other times thin, and near the rock ; most 

 of it is poor, and of inferior quality, but along the valleys there 

 is land of good quality. This portion of the district is bounded 

 on the west by the Welsh hills, and on the east by the hills 

 which prolong the Wenlock Edge. From amongst these also 

 many vallevs run into the district, and by their superior quality 

 add much to its general fertility. 



Proceeding northwards, but still keeping near the Welsh 

 borders, we find in the neighbourhood of Middleton, Wilmington, 

 and Shelve, an inferior yellowish clay soil, yielding only a poor 

 pasturage, but still more unprofitable as tillage land. Around 

 Church Stretton we come again on land of superior quality, and 

 the whole of the valley in which this town is situated is dis- 

 tinguished by the good quality of its pasture land : in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Woolstaston, Cardington, and around the base of 

 the Lawley Hill, gravelly loams are found occasionally intermixed 

 with sand and clay. 



At Shrewsbury we find some land of first-class quality, vary- 

 ing from strong rich loams, to sandy loams of inferior value. 

 Here we meet the river Severn, a river second only to the 

 Tliames for importance and length ; it is navigable through- 

 out the entire length (above 60 miles) of its passage through 

 the county, and adds not only to its commercial wealth, but 

 also to its agricultural prosperity. Along the banks we have 

 some beautiful meadows, but the floods to which they are 

 liable very much reduce their value. It is a great loss to the 

 proprietors that they cannot unite for securing the embankments 

 of this river, as has already been done in other cases. Pro- 

 ceeding northwards towards Oswestry we meet with extensive 

 tracts of deep loamy soil, but occasionally Ave find gravels lying 

 amongst them ; the latter, however, are not of much extent ; marl 

 is often met with in this part. In the neighbourhood of Aston, 

 and between this place and Sandford, peaty land exists, but this 



