'298 On the Agricultural Iinprovernents of Lincolnshire. 
in the hands of all farmers ; but immense tracts are very well managed 
and, by many persons, in as capital a style as any in Norfolk." 
After all these improvements, however, there still remained 
many wide wastes, as we find in "fathering the state of these 
hills from the scattered remarks of Mr. Young, in 1 799. Thus 
he says in one place, " From Louth to Caistor, 18 miles, 10 
of it are warrens, chiefly silvers" (that is, the rabbits); "rent 
2x. an acre." 
Again, — 
" The wold land about Loutli, to the west and south-west, is good ; 
very generally a dry, friable, loamy sand, on a flinty loam, and, under 
that, chalk everywhere • this is the soil on the warrens between Gayton 
and Tathwell, which ] passed, and / was much hurt at seeing such land 
so applied. I exclaimed to Mr. Clough on seeing it : he replied, ' Oh, 
it is good for nothing but rabbits : what would you do with such poor 
land, 2 or 3 miles from tlie farms 1 ' When men have long been accus- 
tomed to see rabbits on such deserts, and hear only that they are good 
for nothing else, they come to think with their neighbours, let the absur- 
dity be what it may." 
Turning from the south of Louth towards the north, Mr. Young 
says again, — 
" The tract of wold north of Louth, by Elkington, Ormetby, Wyham, 
Binbrook, Swinhop, Thoresby, &c., exhibits a great variety of excellent 
soil — all calcareous, friable, sandy loams, on a chalk bottom — dry enough 
to feed turnips, and much good enough for wheat. The red chalks are 
particularly good, being almost without exception excellent for turnips 
and barley. At Thoresby Warren the vales are red, and nettles are 
among the spontaneous growth. Nettles and rabbits together ! " 
These warrens have all disappeared ; but let it not be imagined 
that we have no similar waste of land in our own days. Often, 
I must say, on the shooting-moors of Somersetshire and Derby- 
shire, and Scotland, have 1 also wondered at seeing such land so 
applied, and passing among bright fern that tufted the strong 
heather, could have exclaimed, " Fern and blackcocks together !" 
But on those moors 1 will venture to make a few remarks pre- 
sently, and will only quote one more passage, which I met with 
in Mr. Young's Report, describing the Lincolnshire chalk-hills in 
1799, towards their northern extremity : — 
" Near Brocklesby, &c., there are large tracts of excellent land under 
gorse; and at Caburn and Swallow I passed through the same for miles. 
It is a beautiful plant to a fox-hunter. Lord Yarborough keeps a pack 
of hounds : if he has a fall, I hope it will be into a furze-bush ; he is 
too good to be hurt much, but a decent pricking might be beneficial to 
the country." 
1 must say that when Mr. Handley pointed out to me this 
estate in 1842, then entirely unknown, its fine farm-buildings, on 
which 150,000/. have been expended, surrounded by lofty ricks. 
