322 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



Oolite is quarried in Somersetshire and Portland. 

 The city of Bath, St. Paul's Cathedral, Somerset House, 

 and many London churches show with what favour it 

 is regarded for building. Lime is made from the chalk 

 that stretches from the South Downs to Lincolnshire. 

 Fuller's earth is dug at Reigate ; and millions of bricks, 

 for railways, sewers, and buildings, are made from the 

 London clay. 



In the mining region, properly so called, we .observe 

 that Cornwall has scarcely any manufactures and very 

 limited agriculture : its commerce and shipbuilding are 

 comprised within, the smallest bounds ; but it has an 

 apparently exhaustless supply of tin and copper, which 

 make the country both interesting and important. 



The South Wales coal-field is the parent of several 

 industries. Besides the smelting of copper from Corn- 

 wall, and also from Ireland and abroad, and its produc- 

 tion of fuel, it is the seat of the iron manufacture, 

 Merthyr Tydvill and Cardiff being the most important 

 towns thus engaged, while Swansea is the centre of 

 copper-smelting. Our other coal-fields, with one excep- 

 tion, are also productive of ironstone, and originate the 

 characteristic pictures of the " Black Country " covering 

 the Dudley coal-field, and of the congeries of iron-works, 

 collieries, and factories which give to South Lancashire 

 the aspect of one densely-populated town. The cele- 

 brated coal-field of Northumberland is deficient in iron- 

 stone, although the neighbourhood of Hexham produces 

 iron of very fine quality. 



The wonderful supply of coal and iron casts every 

 other mineral into the shade, or Great Britain would 

 be called rich in lead, zinc, and the minor metals. The 

 precious metals are rare, and seldom worth the working. 

 Burat has computed that the production of the useful 

 metals and coal in Great Britain is four times that of 

 France and Russia, six times that of Austria, eight times 

 that of Spain or Scandinavia, nine times that of Prussia, 

 and eleven times that of Belgium. What is the result? 

 The metal and coal of Great Britain, transformed into 

 machines, are computed to equal in productive power 

 the hand-labour of every human being living. It is as 

 if the population of a second world were contributing 

 to lessen the toil of the thirty millions in this small 

 corner of Europe. Manchester and Liverpool were 

 small towns till machinery made our gigantic cotton 

 industry possible. The imports of raw cotton have been 

 over a thousand millions of pounds yearly, and are 

 rapidly returning to that amount. 



Eastward of a line drawn between the Tees and Exe, 

 the surface exhibits fertile plains, varied by rivers, valleys, 

 and green undulations, by a few wild and sterile heaths, 

 and in the north by bogs. The Bedford Level and the 

 Lincolnshire fens are the principal marshes. The soils, 

 like the rocks upon which they lie, are not distinguished 

 by their extent so much as by their variety. Clay loam, 

 sand, chalk, gravel, peat, are all represented, simply and 

 in many forms of combination, and impress distinctive 

 characters upon an indefinite number of districts. The 

 largest tracts of uniform soil are in Norfolk and the 

 wealds of Kent and Sussex. Surrey, for its size, has 

 more beds of sand than any other county, of which the 

 heaths Bagshot, Wimbledon, Weybridge, Woking and 

 the suburban commons of London are illustrations. 

 Few of the plains are quite barren, and none of the 

 sandy tracts are so large as the Landes of France. 

 South of the wealds, from Beachy Head to Salisbury 

 Plain, runs a low line of chalk downs, with a velvet pile 

 of herbage, trodden and cropped by sheep of the finest 

 breeds, famous both for flesh and wool. Kent is the 

 garden of England. The trailing hops of Canterbury 

 and Farnham vie with the vineyards of France, and 

 the scene at hop-picking resembles the animation of 

 the vintage. Between Sussex and the Wash, wide tracts 



wave with corn. Barley for malting is a great object 

 of culture in the same tracts and in the midland counties, 

 while oats grow chiefly in the fens and in the north. 

 Potatoes thrive in Leicestershire and Cheshire, and the 

 turnip tribe has spread from Norfolk all over the kingdom. 

 Pulse grows everywhere. Flax and coarse hemp of excel- 

 lent quality are cultivated, though the quantity is small. 



The husbandry of Scotland ranks very high even 

 within the mineral lines, but the soil capable of tillage is 

 limited. Comparing one kingdom with another, Eng- 

 land has half its surface in pasture, a third under tillage, 

 and a sixth in wastes, towns, roads, and waterways; 

 while Scotland has only one-fourth under cultivation, 

 with three-fourths in wastes and ways. For the opera- 

 tions of husbandry a granitic district offers few facilities : 

 the bare pinnacles weather slowly, and form too scanty 

 a soil for cultivation. The Grampians are naked and 

 sterile, as are also the broken islands of the north; 

 while large counties, such as Sutherland, can only be 

 laid out in sheep-walks. The most fertile parts of Scot- 

 land are the tract between Perth and Dundee, Teviot- 

 dale, Fife, the Lothians and Berwick. From climatic 

 causes the Scotch crops arrive at less perfection than they 

 do in England : the solar heat is inconstant, and, as in Ire- 

 land, often insufficient to ripen grain and secure harvest. 

 Barley of the same weight as English barley contains 

 less sugar, and does not malt well. Fruits which ripen, 

 in one division seldom mature in the other, and never 

 become so choice; but different berries acquire in Scot- 

 land somewhat of the delicious flavour which distin- 

 guishes them in still higher parallels of latitude. 



Owing to the broken, nature of the Welsh counties, 

 sheep and cattle are pastured upon the hills, which, 

 unlike the Scottish highlands, are covered with grass 

 to their summits, and tillage and dairy work are carried 

 on in the valleys. Welsh mutton is small, but renowned 

 for the delicacy of its flavour. 



Food products are the special objects of British 

 husbandry. Barley and hops for beer, cider apples and 

 flax, arc exceptional; but none assume the importance 

 of the vine in France or of flax in Holland. 



LESSONS IN LATIN. XLIII. 



IRREGULAR VERBS. 

 WE now come to those verbs which custom characterises as tho 

 Irregular Verbs, inasmuch as they greatly depart from the 

 models supplied in the four conjugations ; and first we present 

 Possum. 



I. POSSUM, POSSE, POTUI, to be able. 



Possum consists of potis, able, and sum, I am. The potis 



is contracted into the stem pot, and po before the s in sum, 



becomes pos ; whence comes pos-sum. 



INDICATIVE. SUBJUNCTIVE. 



Present. 

 Pos-sum, I am Pos-sim, I may 



able. 

 P6t-es. 

 Pot-est. 

 Pos-sumus. 

 Pot-estis. 



INDICATIVE. 



Perfect. 



SUBJUNCTIVE. 



Pos-suut. 



be able. 

 Pos-sis. 

 Po.-sit. 

 Pos-simus. 

 Pos-sitis. 

 Pos-sint. 



Imperfect. 



Pot-Bram, I Pos-sem, I 

 was able. might be able. 



Pot-eras, etc. Pos-ses, etc. 



1st Future. 



Pot-Sro, I sliall be able. 

 Pot-eris, etc. 



Infinitive. 



Pres. Pos-se, to be able. 

 Per/. Pot-uisse, to have been able. 

 Put. (None.) 



Pot-ui, I have Pot-uerim, I 



been able. mayliavebeen, 



Pot-uisti. Pot-ueris. [etc. 



Pot-uit. Pot-uerit. 



Pot-ulinus. Pot-uerlms. 



Pot-uistis. Pot-ueri'tis. 

 Pot-uerunt (-uere). Pot-uerint. 



Pluperfect. 



Pot-ui5ram, I had Pot-uissem, I 



been able. might have 



been able, etc. 



Pot-ueras, etc. Pot-uisses, etc. 



2nd Future. 



Pot-uSro, I shall have been able. 

 Pot-ueris, etc. 



Participle. 

 Pot-ens (only as an adjective 



(None.) [powerful) . 



(None.) 



No Imperative. 



