ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 79 



of the land is such that it requires very superior horses and 

 excellent horsemanship. Still more important to us as 

 agriculturists is the fact that we have there a fine dairy 

 district; the rich deep pastures of Leicestershire are well 

 known in connection with the manufacture of Stilton cheese'. 

 Next we pass into Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, and Worcester- 

 shire, and further south into Gloucestershire, where the lias 

 clay soils form three extensive vales well known to all 

 agriculturists of the south and west as the Vale of Evesham 

 in Worcestershire, the Vale of Gloucester, in which the city 

 of Gloucester and the town of Cheltenham are situated, and 

 the Vale of Berkeley three extensive valleys of rich fertile 

 land, extending from the north flanks of the Cotswold Hills. 

 There is, in fact, abundant resemblance in landscape and 

 general features between these valleys and the Vale of 

 Cleveland in Yorkshire, all of them extending in a northerly 

 and westerly direction from the outlying spurs and escarp- 

 ments of the lower oolite. The valley of Stroud is another 

 example of the same thing, the valley being deeply cut and 

 >w, resting upon the lias clay, and surrounded by the hills 

 of the lower oolite. 



It has been remarked by Mr. Bailey Denton, who is a 

 great drainage authority, that there is no clay north of the 

 lias. That of course we cannot receive as absolute, but when 

 we travel north of the lias no more extensive clays are to be 

 met with, and so far we may agree with him that the last of 

 the great clays of this country have been noticed, these clays 

 being first the London clay, secondly the Weald clay, thirdly 

 the Kimmeridge clay, fourthly the Oxford clay, fifthly the lias 

 clay ; and beyond them there is no other great or continuous 

 clay band which can be traced geographically and geologically. 



The next formation is the new red sandstone, which again 

 may be described as applied immediately and at once to the 

 northerly and westerly boundary of the lias clay. I have 





