©f waste lands. 



74 ■ AGIUCULlTftE. 



XII. 



An Account of the Improvement of an extensive Tract of 

 Land*. By Richard Phillips, Eaq. 

 SIR, 



I^Fo^ment IN the year 1804 the waste lands in the township of 

 Bron-y-garth, in the parish of St. Martin in Shropshire, were 

 divided and allotted by an agreement entered into by the pro- 

 prietors of land, without any application to Parliament. 



This township is separated from the county of Denbigh 

 by Ofia's Dyke, the boundary in ancient times between the 

 kingdoms of Mercia and Wales : the boundary here, as in 

 other uncultivated parts of the demarkation, still remains 

 entire, after a lapse of 1000 years. Upon the ground, 

 where the improvements detailed in ray paper to you are 

 made, the descendants of the ancient Britons fought for 

 their independence, and for what remained of their ter- 

 ritories. Upon this spot the bands of Henry II. headed 

 by that monarch himself, were foiled in the battle of Ceiriog 

 by Owen Gwenydd, at the head of his brave Welshmen., 

 Thertownship on the west of Offa's Dyke, is called Crogen, 

 i. e. a place of graves, because there the slain, who had 

 fallen in battle, were buried. The posterity of the two, 

 once hostile nations, now contend which shall excel most 

 in the arts of peace. This rude soil is now no longer fer- 

 tallized by the blood of warriors, but by the united labours 

 of Englishmen and Welshmen. The dyke is still pretty 

 accurately the line which separates the two languages: 

 Welsh is generally spoken on the western side; English on 

 the eastern. The hills, of which these wastes form a part, 

 arc at least as high as any in the county. Mr. Archdeacon 

 Corbet, in his account of the agriculture of the county of 

 S^lop, asserts, that the hills near Oswestry are the highest 

 in Shropshire. 



The lands in question are part of the same chain which 

 composes the skirts of the Berwyn, a mountainous tract^ 

 extending widely over the west of Denbighshire, and the 

 contiguous part of Merionethshire. As a traveller ap- 



* Society of Arts, 179(5. 



proach?& 



