1 6 THE BLACKMOOR VALE 



lay over the Upper Greensand, which there formed a 

 comparatively elevated country of stiffish soil, nearly 

 all laid down in grass and divided into small fields by 

 tall, rough hedges. Though it was the end of July, 

 haymaking was still in full swing; farms ran small, 

 and labour-saving machinery was rare. It was essenti- 

 ally a dairying country, and the occasional fields of 

 roots and corn we saw were not of much account. 

 From Wincanton we struck into the Blackmoor Vale, 

 and an improvement in the agriculture was quickly 

 manifest. The country was always undulating, 

 through the alternations of clays and limestones 

 which characterize the Jurassic formations ; on the 

 tops and down the eastern dip slopes of the low scarps 

 would lie workable arable land, with retentive clays at 

 the bottoms and for some distance up the western face 

 of the ridges. In the hamlets brick and timber had 

 given way to stone cottages, and though fine thorn 

 hedges were still to be seen, the fields, still of no great 

 size after the large areas prevailing on the chalk, 

 began to be divided by stone walls. Mixed farming 

 prevailed, and the general impression one received was 

 of a fairly fertile country that was farmed in rather an 

 easy-going way and might be made to yield more. 

 We visited one farm lying on the Oolite, where the 

 soil was of a red brashy nature, full of fragments of 

 rock, and varying in consistency from a light, free- 

 working loam to a sticky clay, often difficult to 

 manage with the comparatively high rainfall prevail- 

 ing. The lighter members of the Oolitic series give 

 rise to typical corn-growing land all over England 

 witness the name of " Cornbrash " which old William 

 Smith gave to one of the most representative of the 

 formations. On this farm, and indeed generally in 

 the district, the Wiltshire rather than the Norfolk 



