AGRICULTURAL DETAILS. 



parture the vegetable kingdom had scarcely responded to the 

 vivifying influence of spring the buds of the hawthorn and 

 the larch were expanding only in sheltered places. England 

 did not present a more advanced vegetation. We were fortu 

 nate, however, in obtaining the first good weather of the 

 season for our journey ; and, notwithstanding the bleakness 

 of nature, the ever varying scene afforded many objects fitted 

 for contemplation. We crossed the line separating England 

 from Scotland early on Sunday morning, and for many miles 

 afterwards the roads were covered with herds of cattle and 

 flocks of sheep, travelling towards the south. This was a 

 novel sight to a Scotsman ; such practices on Sabbath being- 

 prohibited by the laws of his country. The desecration of 

 the Lord s day may, perhaps, to a certain extent, be traced in 

 the customs of every Christian country, but in no case what 

 ever ought appearances to be regarded as the measure of 

 religious feeling, the seat of which is hid from human eye. 

 Without assigning to my countrymen purity and intensity of 

 religious emotion, I may be permitted to say, a Scottish Sab 

 bath is marked throughout by a still, quiet, external decorum, 

 seldom met with in other parts of the world, which fosters 

 piety, and checks an open display of profanity. I trust her 

 inhabitants will ever respect and preserve its solemnity of cha 

 racter. 



The land from Carlisle to Manchester seemed, generally, 

 poor and indifferently cultivated. The enclosures are small 

 in size, often surrounded by irregular fences, formed and 

 maintained at a sacrifice of soil and labour. Many of the 

 grass fields were studded with lean young horses and cattle, 

 industriously seeking a repast which nature still sparingly 

 supplied. Betwixt Manchester and Liverpool, much of the 

 grass lands had been ploughed with a furrow slice, only two 

 and three inches in depth. Three stout horses yoked in line, 

 the first of which was led by a boy, were seen dragging a small 

 harrow, kept on a narrow convex ridge, by means of a man 

 with a rope operating like a rudder, and he was apparently the 

 only severely worked animal engaged in the operation. The 

 agriculturists of Britain being deemed enlightened, and her 

 soil not producing a sufficient quantity of food for the popu- 



