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Art. XIV. 



An Hijiorical Account of the Marfi-Lattds of 

 the County of Somerfet, 



[By Richard Locke, efq.] 

 In a Letter to the Secretary. 



MY GOOD FRIEND, Highbrtdge-Houfe* 



IN obedience to your wiflies I here fend you an 

 hiftorical account of the Pajiure-Land, fituate in 

 the flat part of Somerfetfhire. It is chiefly ftated from 

 my own obfervations, in bufy Hfe, during a feries of 

 little more than fifty years. 



If we go fo far back as Domefday-Book, we fhall 

 find that the annual average value of marfli-Iand was 

 at that gera eftimated at one farthing per acre, allow- 

 ing the fame quantity of acres to have then exifted 

 as are at prefent charged upon our parifh books. 

 For the firfl: four hundred years after this period, 

 lands doubled their value every century; and from 

 the Reformation to the prefent time the value of land 

 has been doubled every fifty years. This enormous 

 increafe of landed property, within the interval of 

 700 years, may be eftimated as two thoufand is to 

 unity, fuppofing we reckon a litde more than 40s. 

 per acre for the prefent annual average value. 



As I drew my firfl: breath in Burnham, and have 

 always refided in it, my calculations fliall be fupported 



from 



