LITTLE GADDESDEN. 1 85 



was little better than our barren ling heaths, Ljung- 

 hedar, in Sweden. This plain extended nearly four 

 English miles across, with a proportionate area.* The 

 subsoil was brick-coloured clay. 



An abundance of the common ling grew upon it. 

 Otherwise the plain was overgrown with ling-tufts, 

 Liung-tufvor, between which were found a great 

 quantity both of brackens, Ormbunkar, and mosses, 

 but only some isolated blades of grass. Sheep were now 

 pasturing here. In some places grew hornbeam enough, 

 six feet high, and tolerably thick. The tops were cut off 

 for fuel, otherwise it was of no particular use. This was 

 a common land or allmanning, and may have been left 

 in [T. I. p. 185] such a neglected state, without any 

 improvement having been effected there, for that reason. 

 [Northaw Common.] 



Kaniner, rabbits, occur wild in many places in this 

 country. We saw on the afore-named heath some of 

 them on a bank, of a grey colour. Now, in the middle 

 of the day, there were only a few up, but the great multitude 

 of holes which were seen everywhere in the bank, together 

 with the information of our guide, that they are especially 

 to be seen in the evenings, assured us that there were pro- 

 bably a very great number of them, although they were 

 now down in the ground. They were said to belong to a 

 lord [the Earl of Salisbury] who lived not far off, and that 

 no one without his permission had leave to disturb them. 



Par, sheep, were feeding almost everywhere on the 

 hills where there are pastures. In some places, where 

 the hills were long-sloping, the water-furrows appeared 

 drawn with the plough in a direction straight down the 

 field, and sometimes obliquely down the sides. The 



* From Gough's Oak to Bell Bar (4 miles) the road runs most of the way 

 on gravel-capped ridges of London clay. [J. L.] 



