NATURAL HISTORY. 
19 
It appears from the foregoing statement that the 
greatest proportional increase of population has heen 
in the city of Worcester^ (suburbs included,) Dudley, 
Kidderminster, Stourbridge, Bromsgrove,^ Stourport, 
and Droitwich ; these are all places considerable for 
their commerce, and of manufacturing celebrity ; 
whereas, in Evesham, Bewdley, Pershore, Upton, 
and Tenbury, where no particular manufactures are 
carried on, the population has increased in a much 
less ratio, and in Upton has remained nearly sta- 
tionary. 
We cannot but be forcibly struck in passing our 
eye over the population returns of this county, with 
the little apparent tendency there is in the agricultural 
population to increase. In many, indeed, of the 
parishes there has been a decided decrease ; ^ thus, in 
Shelsley, the number of inhabitants in 1821 was 282, 
in 1831 it was 271 ; in Wiclienford in 1811 the 
number was 398, in 1831 it was 355 ; in Spetchley 
in 1821 the population was 121, in 1831 it was 117 ; 
in Suckley the population in 1821 was 622, in 1831 
it was 575. Local circumstances may in some of 
* As a singular instance of fecundity, it may be observed that the wife of a 
cottager near Bromsgrove had hm children at a birth fourteen years ago, all girls, 
and they are at present growing up, and in good health. 
2 This decrease in the population of certain rural parishes may be ascribed 
perhaps rather to the swarming off of the rustic inhabitants to engage in the lucrative 
employments great cities present, than to any real declension in their marriages or 
increase. A friend who recently accidentally entered the church-yard of Broadway 
in this county, meeting with the ringers, enquired their numbers and the amount of 
their families, when he found that the six ringers were all married, and had 
altogether 48 children. 
