90 STATE OF LAND 



raising a crop of wheat or of oats, was double 

 the price it now is; and could only be ob- 

 tained at enormous cost, from the Peak 

 Forest Canal Company's wharfs, or by send- 

 ing your team of three or four horses to the 

 lime-kilns in Peak Forest, at three o'clock 

 in the afternoon, and considering yourself 

 fortunate if you saw it safe back again, and 

 your carter sober, after his bivouac in dove- 

 holes, at the same hour on the afternoon of 

 the following day. The exactions levied 

 upon you in those days, in tonnage and 

 wharfage and canal dues ; and by land, in a 

 succession of toll-bars and concomitant weigh- 

 ing-machines ; were grievous to be borne, 

 and rendered it difficult for a tenant-farmer 

 to do his land justice, where there was a 

 desire in him to do so. There was one ad- 

 vantage at least in sending direct to the 

 lime-kilns in Peak Forest for your lime, 

 for you bought it by estimated loads, and 

 you had what you paid for ; whereas if you 

 bought it at second-hand, and within a certain 



