THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 231 



of Huntingdon, having an area of not quite two hundred 

 and fifty thousand acres, and a population of only sixty 

 thousand. Small though it be, it plays a great part in 

 English history, as being the country of Cromwell. In 

 an agricultural point of view, nothing recommends it 

 specially to our attention. 



If Norfolk has long held the first rank among the 

 English counties for agricultural development, Lincoln- 

 shire, which a century ago was more waste and sterile, 

 now disputes the palm. Lincolnshire contains about 

 1,800,000 acres, and may be divided into three very 

 distinct agricultural districts : fens in the south and east, 

 wolds or plains in the north, and moors in the west. 



The fen district goes by the name of Holland, which, 

 in fact, it much resembles. The advancing dykes, which 

 gain more and more from the sea every day, are the 

 same, the meadows are the same, and the flocks nearly 

 similar ; the appearance of the country, too, is the same, 

 low and wet. In some parts the high price of grain 

 gave encouragement to the cultivation of cereals ; but 

 these now give way on all hands to grass, which is better 

 suited to the soil. Kent there rises to an average of 30s. 

 per acre. The wolds are dry and bare uplands, with a 

 calcareous subsoil, which the four-course system has 

 entirely transformed. They are let at an average of no 

 less than 25s. per acre. The breeding of cattle is there 

 carried on to some extent ; and, excepting in winter, the 

 animals have rarely any other feeding than that which 

 the marsh ground usually attached to each wold farm 

 supplies. The Norfolk rotation is there modified, inas- 

 much as the clover crop holds possession of the land two 

 years, and wheat comes only once in five. But this 

 modification, which had been adopted for the purpose of 

 saving manual labour, has rather fallen into disfavour, 



