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 undertakinsfs was 

 to transplant large oak-trees by the aid of very 

 powerful machinery ; and so successfully was this 

 eftected, 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 



