18 EARLY YEARS. 



by the sewage and washings of the town of Mans- 

 field, is distributed by minor cuts, tiled drains, 

 and sluice-gates along the slopes below it, con- 

 verting the previously barren valley, whose sides 

 were a rabbit-warren overgrown with heath and 

 gorse, and its bottom a swamp, producing hassocks 

 and rushes, into a most productive tract of meadow 

 and pasture land, yielding three crops of grass 

 annually. The river is diverted near the vale- 

 head, and led along the hillside ; and the bottom 

 has been drained. The canal extends to near 

 Ollerton, and the latter portion of it is applied to 

 the lands of Earl Manvers. 



"These famous meadows have been often quoted, 

 together with those near Edinburgh, in sanitary 

 and agricultural discussions. The canal - water, 

 after depositing all its more valuable ingredients 

 upon the land, runs off through the bottom of the 

 valley in a stream as clear as crystal and full of 

 trout, though angling is forbidden. The domain 

 of Clipstone exhibits a fine specimen of good farm- 

 ing, and is well worth a visit from all interested 

 in agricultural improvements." 



One of his Grace's favourite undertakings was 

 to transplant large oak-trees by the aid of very 

 powerful machinery ; and so successfully was this 

 effected, that many of these trees are now great 

 ornaments of the park at Welbeck. Clad in 

 appropriate costume that is to say, in a rough 



