54 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



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

 mode of conveyance which necessarily prevented the 

 conveyance of bulky articles to any considerable 

 distance. 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 com- 

 munication, the value of the crops is so diminished 

 by the expense or impracticability of carriage on 

 ill-constructed roads, that cultivation is generally 

 neglected.* 



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 

 centuries have brought about, did they afford me, 

 after the last workman had whistled his willing way 

 homewards, and I stood upon their 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. 



