154 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



country, and of land which, from its own resources, without 

 further expense than that of ordinary attention, is capable of 

 keeping up its fertility, and, at the same time, to such an extraor 

 dinary extent administers to the fertility of other lands, and, 

 to a degree, may be said almost to defy the seasons, it would 

 seem that such an improvement would almost justify any ex 

 pense incurred in effecting it. In any event, I could not help 

 reflecting, with the highest delight, upon so useful, instructive, 

 and beautiful an application of wealth ; upon the important agri 

 cultural lessons which it explained and illustrated, upon the 

 powerful stimulus to improvement, which such an example at 

 once supplies and applies to all who witness it ; and upon so 

 striking a monument, which the proprietor has thus erected in 

 honor of himself, adapted, not to astound, but to instruct ; not to 

 provoke envy, but to awaken gratitude ; to carry down his mem 

 ory to posterity in letters of universal respect, and more eloquent 

 in his honor than the loftiest Corinthian granite column, or even 

 the proudest regal mausoleum of ancient Egypt. But putting 

 the actual pecuniary profit out of the question, the sum total of 

 the expense of all these improvements, the actual creation of all 

 these three hundred acres of most productive lands, with all its 

 collateral and reduplicating advantages, does not half equal the 

 expense of many a contested election, as formerly conducted, 

 squandered in drunkenness, profligacy, and riot. 



4. TEDDESLEY, STAFFORDSHIRE. The next great improve 

 ment in irrigation, which I had the pleasure of witnessing, was 

 at the highly and most judiciously improved estate of Lord Hath- 

 erton, at Teddesley Park, in Staffordshire.* 



Here he has undertaken, under the superintendence of a most 

 competent manager and steward, to drain completely between 

 five and six hundred acres of land, and has managed to convert 



of 36GO, at a cost (from their commencement, in 1816, to their completion in 

 1837) of 40,000. The profit upon each acre, after defraying all expenses, is 

 computed at nearly 12 a year, without taking into consideration the great benefit 

 they are to the arable land adjoining them.&quot; Coiringhani s Report of Not 

 tinghamshire. 



* To this gentleman s constant kindness, and, T may he allowed to add, intimate 

 personal friendship, I am indebted for many of the advantages, and very much of 

 the pleasure, which have attended my visit to England. 



