148 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



more than three hundred acres ; but they have since been consid 

 erably extended, and, when I was there, the improvement was 

 still going on. 



The land, before the improvement was commenced, was in 

 part a thin, gravelly, and barren soil, and in part a peat bog, or 

 swamp, and full of rushes and aquatic plants. The River Maun, 

 which we should scarcely deem entitled to much more than the 

 name of a brook, after sweeping through the town of Mansfield, 

 a town of a population of a few thousand, made its way through 

 the lower portion of these grounds. At what may be called its 

 upper end, a portion of its water was diverted from its natural 

 course, and, by an artificial channel, led along the margin of 

 the meadows, which were to be irrigated, varying, in its passage, 

 as the shape of the land varied ; and this for a distance of five 

 miles and a half, until, from the nature of the land, the artificial 

 channel was brought into contact with the old channel ; and here, 

 a new dam being formed, the artificial channel crosses the bed 

 of the river, and goes down on the other side, a distance of two 

 miles farther. 



At successive places, in the course of the artificial channel, 

 sluice-ways are opened on the side, for the purpose of letting out 

 the water ; and these sluice-ways, besides being furnished with 

 gates and valves, all of a perfect description, are most substan 

 tially laid with stone, wherever the inclination was more than one 

 inch in five yards, so that no injury might be done to the mead 

 ows by too rapid a current of water. From these sluice-ways 

 lateral gutters extend at right angles, into which the water is 

 received, and thus diffused over the whole grounds. I subjoin a 

 partial sketch of the general plan of the improvement, (p. 149,) 

 which will render my description much more intelligible, and 

 likewise an elevation of one of the shuttles, or, as we should 

 call it, one of the gates, for the regulation of the passage of the 

 water, (p. 150,) the construction of which appeared to me some 

 what novel and ingenious, and so may be to some of my readers, 



out offence, that, taken together, a class of men more polished and courteous, 

 better educated, more enlightened, or more moral, has adorned no country and no 

 period. The kindness which I have experienced has not, however, been limited 

 to any class ; and my numerous friends, in a condition of life more humble, may 

 be sure that their strong claims upon my grateful respect are most cordially 

 acknowledged, and can never be forgotten. 



