44 AGRICULTURE IN THE 



Englebcrt, in the fen lands of Lincoln, Cambridge, and Nor- 

 folk. He then mentions meadow lands of surpassing excellence 

 in England, as for instance at Crediton and Welsh-pool ; 

 explains how water meadows may be laid out, and land, use- 

 less for other purposes, can be utilised for ozier beds. He 

 tells us that hops are grown profitably in Suffolk, Essex, and 

 Surrey, and that the cultivation of the carrot had become 

 common in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex upon sandy soils. He 

 counsels the planting of fruit-trees in hedgerows, and speaks 

 of the Kentish orchards, especially at Feversham and Sitting- 

 bourne, as profitable. He tells us that some husbandmen are 

 resolute in plodding on in the course of their forefathers, and 

 neglecting the new lights of experience ; dwells on the necessity 



! of planting forests, and mentions incidentally that the Sussex 

 furnaces (140 in number) and the Surrey glass-houses are 



, gradually consuming the woods. He strongly advises the 

 making of fish-ponds, and asserts that London will always buy 

 the produce of these ponds, while he insists on the wisdom of 

 marling land, as was done in generations before his time and 

 is now strangely neglected. The mixture of lime and sand 

 with clays, the den sharing of grass, the spreading of river mud 

 over sandy ground, a practice in Hampshire and Middlesex, 

 are commended, as also the employment of London soil on 

 land at Chelsea, Fulham, Battersea, and Putney. 



But Norden dwells with great satisfaction on the agriculture 

 of the western counties, particularly at Tandean, near Taun- 

 ton in Somersetshire, which he calls the Paradise of England. 

 Here he says the landowner, the farmer, and the labourer are 

 equally diligent in the due cultivation of their land, which is 

 indeed naturally fertile, but is admirably and successfully 

 cultivated. Sometimes, he says, the produce of this land 

 rises to four, five, six, eight, even ten quarters of wheat to the 

 acre. He also praises the soil and the agriculture of Ilchester, 

 Long Sutton, Somerton, Audrey, Midlesey and Weston, the 

 sheep-farming of Dorset, Wilts, Hants, and Berks, and states 

 that the very trampling of a sheep's hoofs adds fertility to 



