HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 37 



a breadth of fifty or sixty square miles. The quantity of lime- 

 stone here is inexhaustible, and in many places of immense thick- 

 ness. This is the best part of the Moorlands : the soil seems 

 to have a natural aptitude for producing a fine herbage of grass.* 



The Weaver-hills are of considerable extent, and composed of 

 immense heaps of limestone, covered with a good calcareous earth 

 capable of being improved into arable and pasture land : they 

 are inclosed in large tracts by stone walls, but not subdivided, and 

 large breadths have never undergone the least improvement. These 

 hills are very lofty, and nearly as high as the Moorland or Derby- 

 shire Peak-hills, which may be seen from their summits : the fall 

 even from the foot of them to the highest parts of the Dove or the 

 Churnet, is very great ; and those rivers are here very rapid. f 



Stanton Moor, to the east of these hills, is a considerable waste 

 on a limestone surface : the limestone is intermixed with gyp- 

 sum or alabaster. Lime being much used here as manure both 

 on ploughed land and turf, large quantities of it are burnt in this 

 neighbourhood: it has<been observed, that after liming a coarse 

 turf, white clover has flourished abundantly where that plant had 

 not before been noticed. 



The fences, in a large tract of this country, are almost wholly of 

 stone walls, built without cement or mortar, and consequently 

 liable to gaps and breaches : quickset-fences are certainly much 

 superior, both for shelter and appearance, and particularly 

 as these walls do not admit of drains or ditches alongside them. 



reserved for gardens to cottage tenements, and cultivated with the spade and 

 hoe. Upon one of these rocky declivities, to the north-east of Oakamoor, is a 

 thriving plantation of Scotch fir, spruce, oak, lime, birch, sallow, and mountain 

 ash : this is perhaps the highest improvement to which the sides of barren pre- 

 cipices can possibly be brought by human industry ; and it were to be wished 

 that all public and patriotic societies that offer premiums for planting, would 

 limit such premiums to grounds impracticable to the plough, or of small value, 

 not exceeding per acre a specified sum. The practice of planting extensively 

 upon rich level arable or pasture land, may be considered a national evil, 

 such land being much more useful in culture. 



* The breed of cows of the long-horned kind, in this district, is generally 

 superior to those of the south of the county : this may be attributed to the 

 plough and the growth of corn being chiefly attended to in the latter division, 

 whilst here stock forms the principal object : but this general rule, like many 

 others, must be admitted with some exceptions. 



t On these summits, in a very red soil, the Upland Burnet (poterium san- 

 guisorba) grows in profusion among the limestone : it would be worth while 

 to transplant the young roots, and save the seed for cultivation as winter food 

 for sheep, the plant being remarkably hardy, and good food for sheep or cattle. 



