XXVI INTRODUCTION. 



acre.'* Middleton says, and the practice is not likely to have changed, 

 that ' the cattle are removed on the tenth day of October or sooner, if 

 rain falls in quantity sufficient to wet the ground, as it is well known 

 that wherever a bullock makes a hole with his foot in this kind of 

 soil, it holds water and totally destroys every vestige of herbage, 

 which is not quite replaced till several years after the hole has 

 disappeared. The rest of the aftermath is eaten off by sheep, which 

 are continued till the second day of February.' According to Mr. 

 Clutterbuck, the practice if not the prejudices of the county are 

 against the removal of the water by imder-drainage, lest the land 

 should become too dry. He says that the hay of Middlesex must 

 be allowed to be often of good quality. Heudon produces the hay 

 which has the best name in the market, and the Hendon Bent {Cytro- 

 surus cristatus), the Crested Dog's-tail, is well known to the dealers, 

 and is seldom found except on good meadow-ground (p. 25). 



The ^1 alley drifts form 'wide flats slightly sloping upwards from 

 the river, often broken b)' low terraces and cut through by the side 

 valleys' {Whitaker, p. 97). There is a considerable breadth of low 

 meadow adjoining the western and south-western boundary, part of 

 it flooded at certain seasons by the waters of the Thames and Colne. 

 To the east there is the same condition on the banks of the Lea, such 

 as Hackney Marsh ; and meadow land interspersed with garden cul- 

 tivation, which is found in that district, is again varied by some part 

 being under ordinary arable cultivation (^Clidterhuck, p. 14). With 

 these exceptions almost the whole of the south-western portion of the 

 county south of the Uxbridge and London Road is covered by a fine 

 sandy loam (brick earth), beneath which is the low-level gravel 

 resting on the London clay. Professor Wrightson describes the 

 district south of the Brentford and Colnbrook Road as fine, deep, and 

 dry land. Nortli of it the soil is a light sandy loam from eighteen 

 inches to five feet deep, and possessing tliat happy medium of texture 

 which fits it alike for the production of every kind of corn, pulse, and 

 roots. The tradition that Queen Elizabeth would have none other 

 than bread made from wheat grown at Heston, is still preserved in the 

 neighbourhood.f To this day the finest qualities of wheat, chiefly 

 Chidham, are grown on the brick earth of Middlesex, and it is 

 for the wheat grown on this district, which extends far into Bucking- 

 hamshire, that Uxbridge market is famed {Clutterbuck, p. 7). 



* Caird's English Agriculture, 1850-51. 



t Norden says that it was reported that Queen Elizabeth had ' the manchets for her 

 Highness' own diet from Hobton ' (Spec. Bnl. 26). See also Camden (Cough's ed.), ii. 2. 



