14 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF 
tract^ noticed by Hutton in his " History of Birming- 
ham" as famous for its sterility^ has been almost 
entirely reclaimed^ and now waves with luxuriant 
corn. Oldfield Common^ near Ombersley^ covered 
with chesnut trees, which used to support troops of 
squirrels, has been enclosed, and the chesnut trees 
cut down. Numerous other commons have been 
drained and enclosed^^ and even the Malvern Hills are 
now cultivated almost upon the summit. 
Great changes have also taken place of late years in 
the surface of this county from the system of draining 
that has been carried on. Many mosses and bogs 
have been in this way obliterated.^ From the drain- 
ing of the bogs which formerly overspread the county, 
* Since the publication of Pitt's " Agricultural Survey of Worcestershire," 
part of Hartlebury and Lynall commons, near Kidderminster ; and Burlish 
common, near Stourport, comprehending several hundred acres, have been enclosed. 
Enclosures have also been effected at Stock and Bradley, Feckenham, Hagley, and 
various other places, so that Hartlebury, DefFord, and Welland commons are almost 
the only wastes of any extent remaining in the county. 
Bredon Hill has been made productive in a similar manner, and an ancient 
encampment on the hill, near Overbury, which had hitherto been left luxuriating in 
its native virgin turf and wild flowers, is now transformed into a potatoe garden. 
2 A great change has taken place in the aspect of the county from the extensive 
drainage that has been carried on in modern times, Mr, Pitt observes that the 
Croome demesne, belonging to Earl Coventry, '*was a morass not half a cen- 
tury back ; " and a writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine," describing Croome, 
observes, that " a vast extent of ground, formerly a mere bog, is now adorned with, 
islands, and tufts of trees of every species, and watered round in the most pleasant 
and natural manner possible," An urn, near the water, is dedicated to Brown, the 
designer of these grounds, which records the fact, that " his inimitable and creative 
genius formed this garden-scene out of a morass." Deatis Hortus Croomensis. 
Mr, Pitt also states, that Mr, Carpenter, of Chadwick Manor, on the west side of 
Bromsgrove Lickey, drained a peat bog sixty acres in extent, and converted it into 
good meadow land. Thus the indigenous botany of the county has been altered, 
and many bog plants, formerly common, are now become very scarce. 
