"TKUTH AT THE BOTTOM OF A" MARL-PIT. 77 



difficulty of communication arising from the nearly 

 total want of roads precluded the interchange of 

 commodities ; when goods were carried on pack- 

 horses, a mode of conveyance which necessarily 

 prevented the conveyance of bulky articles to any 

 considerable distance. The price of grain was thus 

 materially affected, for while some districts were 

 suffering from scarcity, others were overflowing 

 with a surplus, and it was enhanced beyond its real 

 value in one place, while it sunk below it in an- 

 other : just as at the present day, in many parts of 

 Poland that are distant from great towns, and with- 

 out water communication, the value of the crops is 

 so diminished by the expense or impracticability of 

 carriage on ill-constructed roads, that cultivation is 

 generally neglected" * 



In a word, cheap labor and dear carriage were 

 the tools that dug those ancient marl-pits ; and many 

 a long and lonely reverie upon the changes that cen- 

 turies have brought about, did they afford me, after 

 the last workman had whistled his willing way home- 

 ward, and I stood upon their dark brink with the 

 silenced field around me, and the evening sky draw- 

 ing its noiseless curtain overhead ; till some peeping, 



* Introduction to British Agriculture. U. K. S. 



