TUENIP TOWNSHEND AND THE NOEFOLK SYSTEM 45 



sometimes be a mile abreast of eacli other in pursuit of tlie 

 best track. Now there is au excellent turnpike road, en- 

 closed on each side with a good quickset hedge, and tlie 

 whole laid out in enclosures and cultivated in the Norfolk 

 system in superior style. The whole is let at 15s. an 

 acre, ten times the original value.' 



It was not till the close of the century that this description 

 of the improvements effected by the Norfolk system applied 

 to the whole of the county. Still later was it before the 

 methods which turned Lincoln heath from a rabbit-warren 

 to a sheep market were generally adopted in Lincolnshire. 



Among the improvements adopted by Townshend was 

 the practice of marling. ^ In ancient leases in Normandy 

 tenants covenanted to marl. In England the practice had 

 died out, owing, as Fitzherbert thought, partly to • j'dleues,' 

 partly to want of confidence between landlord and tenant. 

 Markham says that marl was once largely used, since trees 

 200 or 300 years old grew in spent marl-pits, but that it 

 had been discontinued after the wars of the Roses. Most 

 of the agricultural writers of the seventeenth century, such 

 as Hartlib, Houghton, Worlidge, Plot, agree with Markham 

 in urging the revival of the practice. Farmers believed 

 that marl was ' good for the father, bad for the son,' till 

 Townshend proved its value on the light sands of Norfolk. 

 The tide of fashion set once more in its favour, and farmers 

 found another proverb for their purpose : — 



He who marls sand 

 May buy the land ; 

 He that marls moss 

 Suffers no loss ; 

 He that marls clay 

 Throws all away. 



By means of marl alone, Young calculated that ' three or 



