[ 41 } 



feveral eminent authors, and botanifls. Camden, 

 in his Britannia, fpeaks of its producing grafs twenty- 

 four feet long, which he calls, " Gramen Caninuin 

 fupinum longiifimum nondum defcriptum." Stil- 

 LiNGFLEJiT, in his Trafts, concludes that this grafs is 

 the Flote Fefcue, (fejluca fiuitans.^ Mr. Curtis, 

 author of the Flora Londinenfis, is, I believe, the 

 firft who informed the publick that the fertility of 

 the meadow is not owing to any new grafs. The 

 Rev. Mr. Swayne, in his Gramina Pafcua, concurs 

 with him in opinion ; but, from information, pro- 

 nounces that the meadow foxtail (alopecurus pra- 

 tenfis) is the famous long-grafs. 



Convinced that the true caufe of the fertility had 

 not been difcovered, on the 3d of November 1 790, 

 I enquired at the neighbouring villages for an intel- 

 ligent labourer, who had been ufed to work in the 

 meadow, and was recommended to William Ford, 

 of Tilfliead, who had from lime to time worked 

 there for 36 years. I defired him to procure a fpade 

 and mattock, and when on the fpot aiked him whe- 

 ther there was any part of the meadow more fertile 

 than the reft? He afuired me there was, and pointed 

 it out. I then enquired whether there was any part 

 lefs fertile than the average of the meadow ? He an- 

 fwered that there was a fpot, containing about twenty 

 perches, not near fo fertile as the reft, and which pro- 

 duced little, if any, more grafs than the adjoining 

 meadows. This part he (hewed me, as he alfo did 



thofe 



