WEST DEVONSHIRE. 33 



ferinJT the land to revert to a ilate of grafs 

 and commonage. 



In the infancy of fociety, and while the 

 country remained in the foreft flate, this 

 Avasa moil rational and eligible way of pro- 

 ceeding. The rough fides of the dells 

 and dingles, with which it abounds, were 

 moft fit for the produdion of wood -, the 

 flatter better parts of the furface of the 

 country were required for corn and paf- 

 turage ; and how could a more ready way 

 of procuring both have been fallen upon, 

 than that of giving due portions of it to the 

 induftrious part of the inhabitants, to clear 

 jjway the wood, and adjull: the furface i 

 and, after having reaped a few crops of 

 corn, to pay the expence of cultivation, to 

 throw it up to grafs, before it had been too 

 much exhaufted to prevent its becoming, 

 in a few years, profitable fward ? In this 

 manner, the country would be fupplied 

 progreflively, as population increafed, with 

 corn and pafturage, and the forefts be con- 

 verted, by degrees, into common paftures, 



or HAMS. 



Vol. I. B The 



