12 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



On one of the bridges over the Severn, which here divides 

 into two small streams, between which most of the town is 

 beautifully situated, we saw a number of anglers with cur 

 ricles, a light portable boat made of hide stretched out like 

 an umbrella-top by a wicker frame. It is easily carried on 

 one arm, and it forms a usual part of the angler s or salmon- 

 fisher s equipment in Wales. 



In the afternoon J. and I walked on to Church Stretton, 

 thirteen miles; our road, most of the way, through a level 

 valley, with high, naked, bleak hills on each side. A man 

 joined us who had been most of his life a miller, and had 

 lately rented a sheep-walk of sixty-three acres on one of 

 these hill-tops, or, rather, mountain-tops. They are to all ap 

 pearance totally barren, except of gorse, and he said he could 

 only stock at the rate of one and a half sheep to the acre. 



I have heard a strange story of the effect of draining on 

 soils of this sort. A considerable estate, mainly on the tops 

 of such hills, (but not in this county,) having come into pos 

 session of a gentleman, he immediately commenced under- 

 draining it in the most thorough and expensive manner. The 

 whole country thought him crazy : &quot; Why ! the hills were too 

 dry already ; the man was throwing away his money ;&quot; and 

 his friends, in great grief, endeavoured by expostulation and 

 entreaty to get him off from his ruinous hobby. But he pa 

 tiently carried it on, and waited the result ; which was, that 

 the increased rental, in a very short time, more than paid for 

 the whole outlay, and the actual value of the land was trebled. 

 (This account I had from a friend of the gentleman, and? 

 though he could not give me the figures, he assured me, from 

 his personal knowledge of the circumstances, that it was to 

 be relied upon.) 



GORSE, (furze or whins,) is an evergreen shrub, growing 

 about three feet high, rough, thorny, prickly ; flourishes in the 



