252 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



all, at least by name. With us, on the contrary, what 

 numbers of smiling valleys, fertile plains, and beautiful 

 hills display their unknown beauties to the sun without 

 a single curious eye to visit them ! Our neighbours 

 are justly proud of the magnificent mansions they can 

 show ; in this respect, however, we are not so much 

 inferior to them as people suppose : our fields have not 

 always been so deserted by the wealthy families as dur- 

 ing the last hundred years ; and previously to 1789 we 

 were fully as rich as the English in fine country residences. 

 After all the demolitions, effected as much by revolu- 

 tionary fury as by a barbarous speculation, we could 

 still show a tolerable number of chateaus of the last three 

 centuries to oppose to the most celebrated English man- 

 sions ; only, while ours are in a state of ruin, theirs, 

 preserved with religious care, and enlarged every gene- 

 ration, respected by all as national heirlooms, remain in 

 good repair. Even their ruins, when these are to be met 

 with, which is not often, are kept with care. They even 

 go so far as to build imitations of them when they have 

 not got them, and the taste for what is called the Tudor, 

 or pointed and turreted style of architecture, is carried to 

 a ridiculous extent. 



What I have remarked in respect to Warwickshire 

 applies equally to the neighbouring counties of Worcester 

 and Leicester. The valley of the Avon runs into Wor- 

 cestershire, carrying along with it the same beauty and 

 fruitfulness. Leicestershire, perhaps, is even richer still. 

 Grass husbandry succeeds well on lands situated upon 

 the lias, and there is a great deal of such land in Leices- 

 tershire. The small town of Melton Mowbray, which 

 is greatly resorted to in the hunting season, owes its 

 popularity to the nature of the country ; the ground is 

 slightly undulating, with full and sluggish rivers wind- 



