THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 247 



farming upon his own account. The Duke's conduct was 

 severely censured in England, where public opinion re- 

 quires landlords to be very lenient towards their tenants. 

 It is more than probable, too, that the experiment has not, 

 in a pecuniary point of view, succeeded. All along the 

 Thames and other rivers there are excellent meadows, 

 which furnish the means for supplying butter to the 

 London market. Between Oxford and Buckingham rises 

 another ridge of calcareous hills or downs, called the 

 Chiltern Hills. 



Upon the whole, whoever wishes to see an epitome of 

 the agriculture and soil of England should visit Oxford 

 and the counties adjoining it. Other attractions than 

 these, however, take the traveller to this part of the 

 country. Oxford is one of the most interesting towns 

 in the three kingdoms, and Blenheim, with its magni- 

 ficent collection of paintings, is also deserving of a visit. 

 The county affords an example of every kind of crop, 

 every sort of land, all grades of rent, and every method 

 of cultivation, and the average of the whole agrees with 

 the general average. We may add that Oxford is now 

 only a few hours by rail from London. Manufacturing 

 and commercial England alone are unrepresented there, 

 the vicinity of London and Bristol supplying only im- 

 perfectly their absence. 



Wiltshire is divided into two very distinct parts, north 

 and south. These two districts differ as well in agricul- 

 tural production s as in geological formation. The northern 

 portion, consisting of verdant valleys, through which flow 

 the tributaries of the Avon, is a country of grass and 

 dairies. The southern, composed of extensive calcareous 

 downs like Dorset, is a region of cereals and sheep : 

 here we have the famous Salisbury Plain, containing the 

 Druidical remains of Stonehenge. In the north rents rise 



