THE ENGLISH GENTRY 169 



hard by have also their niche in agricultural history. 

 Buscot must ever be associated with Shire horses if 

 with nothing else, and Pusey possesses more than 

 ecclesiastical associations, for it was the seat of Philip 

 Pusey, one of the founders of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society, an indefatigable writer and experimenter, and 

 one of the foremost of that select band of landlords 

 who in the early years of Victoria's reign were real 

 captains of rural industry. The associations of 

 Burford are of another class ; but if we know nothing 

 of Speaker Lenthall's farming, he yet was a member of 

 the same class of smaller English gentry who have 

 served the State so well. They yet command the 

 loyalty of the whole agricultural community and may 

 lead it for many years to come, on the one condition 

 that they will learn to farm and bring some intelligence 

 to the business of being landlords. Burford itself may 

 well claim to be considered as the most beautiful 

 of English villages ; the dignified houses, the long 

 street descending to the bridge, the bridge itself, and 

 the charming stream with its fringe of tree and meadow, 

 not only compose so deftly but fill the mind with 

 satisfaction as a complete representation of the most 

 honourable English tradition. 



From Burford the road runs up to the high 

 Cotswolds, that broad ridge of Oolitic limestone which 

 traverses England parallel to the chalk, though it 

 changes considerably in character and gives rise to 

 comparatively light sandy soils in the East Midlands. 

 But in the Cotswolds themselves the soil is a strong 

 loam kept friable and suitable for the plough, even at 

 comparatively high elevations, by a certain amount of 

 sand and carbonate of lime derived from the parent 

 rock. Once on the elevated plateau that stretches 

 from Burford to the escarpment overlooking the Severn 



