HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [95 



practical and substantial agricultural improvement. We have be- 

 fore stated that the public are much indebted to Sir JOHN WROT- 

 TESLEY, when he represented Lichfield in Parliament, for obtain- 

 ing an exemption of duty for the Draining Tiles. He has amply 

 availed himself of the benefits arising from his own exertions in 

 that important measure, having for a great number of years an- 

 nually made use of from forty to seventy thousand tiles. The 

 draining at Wrottesley is executed very scientifically. The wor- 

 thy Baronet has himself laid out the plan of all the drains, and is 

 so particular in their arrangement, as to use the spirit level to as- 

 certain the exact slope of the land, that the drains may be formed 

 with the greatest exactness, and have the fullest effect. His usual 

 method is to carry up the tailing drain, so as to form a right 

 angle with the slope, and to carry the side drains or herring 

 bones (as we call them), as nearly as the situation will allow at 

 right angles, into the tailing drain. The surface-drains range 

 from four to two feet in depth. The spring draining of course de- 

 pends upon the depth of the water. These drains Sir John Wrot- 

 tesley has carried to very great depth ; in some instances he has 

 been obliged to keep up the sides with a well-formed scaffolding, 

 and under such circumstances, that the getting-in of a single 

 tile was considered a great achievement. The effects of these 

 deep drains have been wonderful, and have amply repaid the cost 

 and trouble incurred in making them. Any other attempt to drain 

 such land would have been fruitless, and the money expended 

 would have been thrown away. By the scale upon which this 

 most substantial of all agricultural improvements has been carried 

 on upon the demesne of Wrottesley, that which was for the most 

 part a cold wet backward soil, is now made perfectly dry ; and the 

 turnip husbandry has been extended to lands that formerly pro- 

 duced nothing but rushes and other noxious aquatic plants. The 

 arable farm is chiefly managed upon the Norfolk rotation. The 

 turnips are sown upon the Northumberland ridge. The corn is 

 for the most part drilled. The land is ploughed with two horses 

 a-breast, without a driver. The implements are of the most im- 

 proved sorts ; and the whole farm, which consists of about 6 or 

 700 acres, is cultivated in an exemplary manner. The stock con- 

 sists of short-horned cows, Leicester sheep, and pigs of a small 

 but very good sort. 



At PATTESHULL, Sir GEORGE PIGOT cultivates his demesne upon 

 a magnificent scale. His farm consists of about 1/200 acres. The 



