64 THE PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 



many old mansions, and a fairly old country with good 

 timber. If, further, we ride or drive along the wall which 

 has been erected in the Victorian period, we shall see a great 

 deal of land, very recently in cultivation, not carrying any 

 large timber, and much of it scarcely yet free of its brackish 

 character. It has been suggested to still further increase this 

 area by taking in the Wash, but enterprise in agriculture has 

 been sadly checked of late years, and we have lately heard 

 nothing of the project. There is no doubt that a great deal 

 of land might be reclaimed from the sea. It is now only ooze, 

 and is covered and laid bare alternately by the tide twice every 

 day. I have endeavoured to sketch the general character 

 of the fen country of East Anglia in order to show that by 

 following the geological order, a certain similarity in soils 

 passing from county to county may be traced. Instead of 

 considering Holderness and the Lincolnshire marsh as isolated 

 and separate from each other, we look upon them as con- 

 nected, as both belonging to the same geological conditions, 

 as both being in a great measure formed by the action of the 

 river Humber, and also by certain ocean currents which are 

 still acting, and which will in due time increase the amount 

 of fertile soil in those regions. 



Having spoken of this particular class of soil, I must in the 

 next place point out the peculiarities of some other geological 

 formations, beginning with the London clay and proceeding 

 with the chalk. 



