14 INTRODUCTION. 



A third foreigner might travel from the coast of Dorset 

 to the coast of Yorkshire, over elevated plains of oolitic 

 limestone, or of chalk; without a single mountain, or mine, 

 or coal-pit, or any important manufactory, and occupied by 

 a population almost exclusively agricultural. 



Let us suppose these three strangers to meet at the ter- 

 mination of their journeys, and to compare their respective 

 observations; how different would be the results to which 

 each would have arrived, respecting the actual condition of 

 Great Britain. The first would represent it as a thinly 

 peopled region of barren mountains ; the second, as a land 

 of rich pastures, crowded with a flourishing population of 

 manufacturers; the third, as a great corn-field, occupied by 

 persons almost exclusively engaged in the pursuits of hus- 

 bandry. 



These dissimilar conditions of three great divisions of our 

 country, result from diflferences in the geological structure 

 of the districts through which our three travellers have been 

 conducted. The first will have seen only those north- 

 w^estern portions of Britain, that are composed of rocks be- 

 longing to the primary and transition series : the second will 

 have traversed those fertile portions of the new red sand- 

 stone formation which are made up of the detritus of more 

 ancient rocks, and have beneath and near them, inestimable 

 treasures of mineral coal : the third will have confined his 

 route to wolds of limestone, and downs of chalk, which are 

 best adapted for sheep-walks, and the production of corn.* 



duced by Gardner from Mr. Greenoiigh's large map of England, published 

 by the Geological Society of London. 



* The road from Bath through Cirencester and Oxford to Buckingham, 

 and thence by Kettering and Stamford to Lincoln, afford-, a good example 

 of the unvaried sameness in the features and culture of the soil, and in the 

 occupations of the people, that attends the line of direction, in whicli tlie 

 oolite formation crosses England from Weymoutli to Scarborough. 



The road from Dorchester, by Blandford and Salisbury, to Andover and 

 Basingstoke, or from Dunstable to Royston, Cambridge, and Newmarket, 



