i 



POULTRY AND HOPS 171 



might feed on the stubble by the way ; * and thus they hold 

 on to the end of October, when the roads begin to be too 

 stiff and deep for their broad feet and short legs to march on.' 

 There was, however, a more rapid method of getting poultry 

 to the great market, by means of carts of four stages or stories, 

 one above another, to carry the birds in, drawn by two horses, 

 which by means of relays travelled night and day, and covered 

 as much as 100 miles in two days and one night, the driver 

 sitting on the topmost stage. 



Hop growing in 1729, according to Richard Bradley, paid 

 ell ; he says, ' ground never esteemed before worth a shilling 

 an acre per annum, is rendered worth forty, fifty, or sometimes 

 more pounds a year by planting hops judiciously. An acre 

 of hops shall bring to the owner clear profit about £;^o yearly ; 

 but I have known hop grounds that have cleared above ^^50 

 /•early per acre.' At this date 1 2,000 acres in England were 

 planted with hops. 



The great market for hops was Stourbridge Fair, once the 

 greatest mart in England and still preserving much of its 

 former importance : ' there is scarce any price fixed for hops 

 in England till they know how they sell in Stourbridge Fair.' ^ 

 Thither they came from Chelmsford, Canterbury, Maidstone, 

 and Farnham, where the bulk of the hops in England were 

 then grown, though some were to be found at Wilton near 

 Salisbury, in Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. Round 

 Canterbury Defoe says there were 6,000 acres of hops, all 

 planted within living memory-; but the Maidstone district 

 was called ' the mother of hop grounds ', and with the country^ 

 round Feversham was famous for apples and cherries. 



The finest wool still, it seems, came from near Leominster, 

 where the sheep in Markham's time were described as small- 

 boned and black-faced, with a light fleece, and apparently 

 they still had the same appearance at the beginning of the 



' Defoe, Tour (3rd ed.), i. 81. 



^ Defoe, Tour {cd. 1724), ii. i, 134. 



