ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 67 



destroyed a vast number of villages, hamlets, and churches. 

 It would scarcely support such a population in the nineteenth 

 century, and what it was in the eleventh century I leave the 

 reader to imagine. The ground is exceedingly poor, sandy, 

 gravelly, and miserable, varied by good strong land around 

 Southampton, where the clay forms the surface. 



In the next place, we must take a brief survey of the chalk 

 formation. The first development of the chalk occurs north 

 and west of Holderness, forming the Yorkshire wolds. The 

 wolds terminate at the coast in the bold escarpment known 

 as Flamborough Head, and north of Flamborough Head there 

 is no chalk. Extending inland from Flamborough Head, and 

 bounding Holderness on the north and west, is the well- 

 defined district of the Yorkshire wolds. On its southern 

 boundary the Humber cuts it ; but if we take the ferry-boat 

 and cross the Humber, we shall find ourselves upon a corre- 

 sponding and similar district, namely, that of the Lincolnshire 

 wolds, resting upon the same geological horizon as the York- 

 shire wolds. 



Standing upon the eastern spurs of the Lincolnshire wolds, 

 we look over the flat tracts of the Lincolnshire marsh, just 

 as looking over the spurs of the Yorkshire wolds we looked 

 over the flat tracts of Holderness. The Lincolnshire wolds 

 run down as far as Burgh, and there they disappear underneath 

 the accumulated drifts of the Wash, and the alluvial deposits 

 which occupied our attention so recently. Now let us pause 

 for one moment m order to describe the peculiarities of the 

 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire wolds. Both are elevated tracts, 

 composed in some cases of precipitous ground, which cannot 

 well be brought under cultivation, in other cases of rounded 

 hills cultivated to the summits. They are well adapted for 

 sheep farming, and also for the cultivation of barley, tur- 

 nips, and clover crops ; it is a fair-cropping, easily-worked 

 boil, divided into large farms and large fields, supporting a 





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