ii. YORKSHIRE. 85 



birds were its only occupiers. At length, 

 however, the graflcs, by fome myfterious 

 proccfs of nature, would begin to make their 

 appearance. But their progrefs was flow : it 

 was twenty years, perhaps, before a full crop 

 of them was produced. 



Before the cultivation of grafles was known 

 in the Ifland, fuch barbarous management 

 was excufable ; but how this and other coun- 

 ties could continue it more than half a cen- 

 tury after the cultivation of them was fully 

 eftablifhcd in a neighbouring county (Nor- 

 folk), is a matter of fome aftonifhment. 

 Thirty years ago the cultivated grafles were 

 flrangers in the Vale. The production of 

 perennial leys was left wholly to nature; and 

 even yet there are fome few individual who 

 remain bigots to Nature's practice. 



It is, no doubt, a fact as notorious as it is 

 interefting, that all the charming old grafs- 

 lands with" which this neighbourhood at pre- 

 fent abounds is of NATURE'S LEY ING. For 

 richneis and variety of herbage (as will ap- 

 pear in the next lection) it is no where, per- 

 haps, exceeded. It is alib notorious that 

 there has been very little, if any, well-her^ 

 G 3 baged 



