228 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



he is under a good landlord, who does not tie him down 

 too strictly, and who will help him at a pinch. Again, 

 the clean and comfortable cottages provided for his 

 labourers are not given them for nothing ; they pay a 

 good rent ; and it is quite understood that a proprietor 

 who builds a village should get a return of at least three 

 per cent for his money. 



The Duke has likewise cut down all his large hedges ; 

 and he was one of the first to give up the greater part of 

 his shootings. With him everything is subordinate to 

 utility. In the middle of his park, adjoining his home 

 farm, is a factory which employs a hundred workmen, 

 who are engaged in the manufacture of all that is 

 necessary for the construction of the numerous works 

 constantly in train upon some part or other of his exten- 

 sive domain. From the windows of his mansion he views 

 the chimneys of his steam-engine and factory smoking 

 opposite to each other, not far from the last herds of deer 

 which still bound over the lawns, but which are every day 

 giving place to sheep. 



In Northamptonshire, adjoining Bedford, rents, during 

 the last sixty years, have tripled from the same causes. 

 The Bedford family holds considerable property in this 

 county ; and Lord Spencer is another large proprietor, 

 who, as an agriculturist, deserves equal celebrity with Mr 

 Coke and the Duke Francis. 



Of the ten counties which compose the eastern region, 

 the three last, Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Lincoln, 

 form a division by themselves the fens. In looking 

 at the map of England, we observe a large bay running 

 into the land to the north of Norfolk, called the Wash. 

 All round this muddy bay the land is flat, low, and con- 

 stantly being covered by the sea. These marsh-lands, at 

 one time uninhabitable, now rank among the richest mea- 



