e439. 3} 
fuch a fituation, is certainly unfavourable to many 
of the-purpofes of agriculture. 
—— ee 
STATE OF PROPERTY, 
Tue regular divifion of the manors in this dif- 
trict fhews that a great number of them were ori- 
ginally in one hand, and that their difpofition was 
a matter of choice, and not of neceffity or accident. 
The vallies of this diftri€t are (almoft without an 
exception) interfected longitudinally by rivulets. 
The fides of thefe rivulets, being the moft eligible 
fituation for building, became of courfe crowded 
with houfes as much as poffible, Thefe vallies, 
with their accompanying rivulets, (provincially 
called bourns) are frequently from three to five 
miles apart, and hills intervene between bourn and 
bourn. The fhape of manors, therefore, neceflarily 
became a narrow oblong. It was neceffary that 
each manor fhould have water, fhould have mea- 
dow ground, and fhould have wood for fuel, (pit- 
coal being very little, if at all in ufe at that time.) 
The proper fituation of the meadow ground was 
always near the river; for the wood, ufually on the 
fummit of the hills, the greateft part of them being 
evidently once covered with it, and many of them 
are {till fo. 
The natural divifion of the manors of this dif- 
trict was therefore into long narrow ftrips from 
river 
