54 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



total want of roads precluded the interchange of com- 

 modities ; when goods were carried on pack-horses, a 

 mode of conveyance which necessarily prevented the 

 conveyance of bulky articles to any considerable dis- 

 tance. The price of grain was thus materially affected, 

 for while some districts were suffering from scarcity 

 others were overflowing with a surplus, and it was 

 enhanced beyond its real value in one place, while it 

 sunk below it in another : just as at the present day, 

 in many parts of Poland that are distant from great 

 towns, and without water communication, the value of 

 the crops is so diminished by the expense or imprac- 

 ticability of carriage on ill-constructed roads, that 

 cultivation is generally neglected. 3 '* 



In a word, cheap labour and dear carriage were the 

 tools that dug those ancient marl-pits ; and many a 

 long and lonely reverie upon the changes that centu- 

 ries have brought about, did they afford me, after the 

 last workman had whistled his willing way home- 

 wards, and I stood upon their dark brink with the 

 silenced field around me, and the evening sky draw- 

 ing its noiseless curtain overhead ; till some peeping 

 twinkling spangle reflected in the water at my feet, 



* Introduction to British Agriculture. U. K. S. 



