266 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



avast table-land (plateau) of not less than 400,000 acres, 

 which rises 1000 to 1500 feet above the level of the sea ; 

 these are called the Yorkshire Moors. Human ingenuity 

 has discovered a way of turning them to good account. 

 Both hill and valley are almost entirely in pasture ; and 

 the stock reared upon them, horses, oxen, and sheep, 

 are all held in great repute. The best English carriage- 

 horses are bred in the North Riding ; they belong originally 

 to the valley of Cleveland, but the breed now extends be- 

 yond its native valley. The sheep of the Yorkshire 

 mountains are a distinct race, improved after Bakewell's 

 principle, and these supply the principal markets of 

 the north. As to cattle, the North Hiding nowadays 

 furnishes the largest quantity of the short-horned breed. 

 This breed took its rise on the southern bank of the 

 Tees, which river divides Yorkshire from the county of 

 Durham ; but since the death of the brothers Collins it 

 has crossed to the northern side, where the finest speci- 

 mens are now to be found. There are at most some half- 

 dozen breeders, who to a certain extent have a monopoly, 

 and who spare neither pains nor expense to keep up and 

 improve the stock : it is not uncommon to see their bulls 

 fetching 200 to 400 ; and they let them out for the 

 season at. corresponding prices. 



The county of Durham is only half the size of 

 the North Eiding. Its population, however, is nearly 

 double ; this is as much as to say that it is not exclu- 

 sively agricultural. Its principal wealth consists in coal 

 mines, the inexhaustible produce of which is exported from 

 Newcastle and the neighbouring ports. The two largest 

 proprietors in the county are Lords Durham and London- 

 derry, who, during the last thirty years, have made enor- 

 mous sums by their coal. One may judge of the capital 

 required for the working of these mines by a single fact : 



