ff wm J 
of corn when. at the higheft I ever knew it. The 
fa& is, in fome parts fuel is not to be got for money; 
even in Hampfhire and Berkthire, counties formerly 
refpectable for the growth of wood, it is now become 
fearce and dear, and has been long comparatively 
fo. Inthe latter county, if happily for the inhabi- 
tants, immenfe quantities of peat had not fupplied 
_ their wants during the whole of the prefent cen- 
tury, their neceffities would have been great indeed; 
but it is now a melancholy truth that that fource 
of fupply is nearly exhautted. Indeed the gentry, 
and even the middling clafs of the people there, have 
long burnt Newcaftle coals, which are brought in 
barges from London to Reading and Newbury, and 
afterwards carried by land through the adjacent 
country twenty or thirty miles about. Newcaftle 
coals are likewife burnt in many parts of Hamp- 
fliire, even near the New Foreft, where it is faid, 
there are obvious reafons for wood being cheaper 
than in moft places; yet under all the difadvan- 
tages of fo long a carriage by land and water, coals 
are found to be much cheaper fuel than wood. 
That fuel fhould become in moft places fo fcarce 
and dear, is not difficult to account for. Till lately 
the commons, and indeed many inclofures, were 
very well covered with furze fufficient to fupply, 
not only the wants of the labourers and poor cot- 
tagers with as much fuel as they wanted, but the 
farmers and others with fufficient for brewing, 
wafhing, 
