Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF SHROPSHIRE. 



1103 



the least ornamental, or indeed the most disgusting, of their 

 appendages, cease to shock, when supiwrted by the relative 

 situation they stand in, showing their necessity and their use. 

 A dunghill in a farm-yard creates no disagreeable idea ; but 

 connected with a gothic gateway, or embattled tower, it is 

 bad. Cattle protected by the side of a bam, form a pictu- 

 resque group ; but sheltering under a Grecian portico the im- 

 propriety is glaring. Linen hanging to dry on the hedge of a 

 cottage garden, may he passed without displeasure; but the 

 clothes of men, women, and children, surrounding the cell of 

 an anchorite, or the oratory of a monk, have their natural un- 

 seemliness increased by the contrast. On the other hand, a 

 fine-dressed lawn with miserable cottages may be com- 

 pared to the laced, clothes and dirty Unen some foreigners 

 were formerly accused of wearing. The whole of a gen- 

 tleman's estate should be his pleasure-ground ; the village 

 should be one object in the scene ; not shut out from it. There 

 may be a little more polish about the mansion, but it should 

 not be an unnatural contrast to the surrourfding objects. The 

 face of no country is bad, but as it is disfigured by artificial 

 means ; and the cheapest and best improvement is, merely to 

 remove what offends, and to take care that the buildings or 

 fences that are wanted are neat and appropriate, exhibiting 

 distinctly their real intention. Plymley is a friend to single cot- 

 tages, because two families under one roof may have more 

 causes of contention arise between them. On the other hand, 

 in illness, poor people have frequently the merit of forgetting 

 their differences ; and then the assistance they are inclined to 



five each other, is made more easy by nearness of situation, 

 t is possible, however, where two, or even three houses are 

 joined together, to contrive the gardens in such a manner, that 

 there may lie a little inter-ference ; and sometimes three neigh- 

 boring families may do better together than two. 

 ' 4. Occupation. 



On the borders of Wales the farms are small, many not ex- 

 ceeding twenty acres ; on the east side of the county from one 

 to 500 acres; farmers in general very industrious; work along 

 with their servants ; wives brew, bake, dairy, and at spare 

 hours spin and get up a piece of linen cloth for sale every year. 

 Leases for lives formerly very common. Bishton, of Kilsall, has 

 taken great pains to prepare printed leases, which answer very 

 well ; the term he recommends is seven, fourteen, or twenty- 

 one years ; by being printed the farmer can read them at his 

 leisure. 



5. Implements. 



Plough with two wheels, drawn by four or five horses, or 

 six or eight oxen in the strong lands, and two horses with a 

 boy to drive in the turnip soils. Various improved imple- 

 ments and threshing machines ; some excellent mills on Lord 

 Stafford's estates, driven by steam. 



6. Enclosing. 



Much practised and still going on. Plashing hedges is usu- 

 ally very ill done in Shropshire ; it is a business which requires 

 great nicety and judgment, and has the most ignorant oj)era- 

 tors to perform it in general ; who, in the first place, cut 

 downwards through mere idleness, instead of upwards, and so 

 expose the heart of the plant to the weather. Many mUes of 

 hedges lately planted on the Stafford estates. 



7. Arable Land. 



Fallowing very badly done on the strong lands. Common 

 crops of the county wheat, barley, oats, pease, and turnips. 

 Pease found not to boil well unless grown on a sharp gravel 

 or sand ; those grown on clay given to pigs and horses. Some 

 hemp and hops cultivated. 



8. Grass. 



Some natural meadows on the Severn and other rivers ; not 

 much attention paid to them. Artificial herbage and grasses 

 grown on the turnip soils. 



9. Gardens and Orchards. 



Many farmers have small orchards, from 'whence they make 

 a little cider for home consumption, and on the confines of He- 

 refordshire and Worcestershire the orchards are larger, and 

 cider is made for sale. 



10. Woods and Plantations.. 



A good deal of hedge-row timber, and some fine oak woods ; 

 also numerous young plantations. Narrow-leaved elm reck- 

 oned an excellent hedge-row tree, but the broad-leaved better 

 timlier, and less difficult is to soil and situation. In this county 

 few persons will bury their relations in any but the best oak 

 timber, which contributes much to its scarcity. 



11. Improvements. 



Marl used, and some irrigation. A good deal of draining 

 done with brick, stone, and wggot wood. Some bogs drained in 

 Elkington's manner. On the Lilleshall estate of Lord Stafford, 

 (fig. 785.) in 1816 and 1817, there has been executed about 

 17,000 yards. of embankment; 5(7,000 yards of watercourse 



deepened and scoured; 46,000 yards of main ditches made or 

 deejiened; 315,000 yards offencc-ditchesdeeiiened, scoured, and 

 straightened ; 49,000 yards of old fences stocked ; 30,000 yards 

 of new quick fimces made ; 21,000 yartls of turf draining ; and 

 462,000 yards of under-ground draining, laid with tiles and 

 filled wiUi stones. Besides the erection of many new farmeries 

 of the most commodious plans and substantial execution. But 

 to havie itn adequate idea oi these and other improvements eftect- 



ed by this munificent and patriotic nobleman, it is necessary to 

 peruse^the very interesting work of Loch already referred to. 



On the Wiltlmoor estatc'of Lord Stafford {.fig. 786.) excellent 

 roa<ls have been fonned, so that several parts before inaccessi- 

 ble in^winter and.during wet weather, may now be apwroached 

 at allitimes with ease. The eflect, as Loch observes, nas thus 

 been to add so many acres to the estate. But the most consi- 

 derable work executed upon these estatesi is the drainage oi 



