THE CHEESE-MAKING COUNTIES. 121 



ning of July. The making of cheese is carried on in 

 nearly every county in England, but there are parti- 

 cular districts which have long been famous for their 

 cheese, and from which the different sorts of cheese in 

 our shops are named. The kinds most generally known 

 are Stilton, Chedder, Cheshire, double and single Glou- 

 cester, Derby, Lancashire, Suffolk, and Wiltshire cheese. 

 There is a wide difference in the qualities of these 

 several kinds of cheese. While some, as Stilton and 

 Cheshire, are famous for their excellence ; others, as 

 Suffolk, are noted for their inferior quality. The ex- 

 cellence of Cheshire cheese, whether justly or not, has 

 been attributed to the abundance of saline particles in 

 the earth, arising from the salt springs which abound 

 throughout a large portion of that country. Fuller, 

 in his " Worthies," when speaking of Cheshire, says, "It 

 doth afforde the best cheese for quantitie and qualitie, 

 and yet the cows are not, as in other shires, housed in 

 the winter. Some essaied in vaine to make the like in 

 other places, thoughe from thence they fetched their 

 kine and dairie-maides : It seems they shoulde have 

 fetched their grounde too, wherein is surelie some occult 

 excellencie in this kind, or else so goode cheese will not 

 be made." However rich the pastures, it cannot be 

 expected that good cheese can be made from milk that 

 has been deprived of all its cream. This is generally 

 the case with Suffolk cheese, and hence the complaint of 

 the poet Bloomfield, who, in speaking of the cheese of 

 his county, says 



" Its name derision and reproach pursue, 

 And strangers tell of ' three times skimm'd sky-blue ; ' 

 To cheese converted what can be its boast ? 

 What, but the common virtues of a post ! 

 If drought o'ertake it faster than the knife, 

 Most fair it bids for stubborn length of life ; 

 And, like the oaken shelf whereon ' tis laid, 

 Mocks the weak efforts of the bending blade ; 

 Or in the hog-trough rests in perfect spite ; 

 Too big to swallow, and too hard to bite. 



