LITTLE GADDESDEN. 1 89 



and description in Mr. Ellis's Agriculture improv'd. Item, 

 a sieve with steel wires, et S&ll med st&l-tr&, to 

 separate the small wheat and barley-corns from the large, 

 by that means to obtain a choice and much-sought-after 

 seed-corn; item, three small treatises which lay ready 

 and fair-copied for the press. They treated of the 

 management of sheep and the duties of the shepherd. 

 These treatises waited for the printer who would pay 

 most for them. The} 7 have since been printed under the 

 name of " The Shepherd's Sure Guide," together with a 

 lot of letters to him, and several which he himself had 

 written. 



I asked Mr. Ellis whether he had at his own house 

 all the kinds of ploughs which he describes in his 

 writings, and particularly those which he praised so 

 highly for their usefulness. He answered " No," and 

 gave as a reason that if he had them at home he could 

 not have them in peace, partly because gentlemen took 

 them away, partly that they were stolen by others. 



I then asked if he had not at home the useful ploughs 

 and other kinds of machinery which he himself had 

 invented. He answered "No," and gave the same reason 

 for not having them. I asked, supposing anyone wanted 

 them how one could get them made, and if there was any- 

 one in the village who constructed them ? He answered 

 that none can make them here, for it requires a singu- 

 larly intelligent head for the purpose, but he had a man 

 who lived 30 or 40 English miles from Little Gaddesden 

 at whose place he had all such things made for one and 

 all of the eminent persons and others, who ordered them. 

 It is, therefore, obligatory on those who wish to have 

 [T. I. p. 190] such a plough or implement to pay the 

 cost of its carriage from the maker to Mr. Ellis, as well as 

 thence to London, or to any place one might wish. 



During my visit to Little Gaddesden I enquired on 



