Sugf/ested Improvements. 
317 
old country-house, any (in formCT times) more liiguly cultivated, 
and more valuable land, than the Vyne ? And if the Vyne be the 
■first, Beaurepaire and Old Basing are not far behind. All three 
are on the London and plastic clay ; and the two first in the 
thickest of the thick, the heaviest of the heavy — the " bowl of 
Hampshire." 
The Romans farmed. at the Vyne. Lord Sandys' " very great 
and sumptuous manor-place, with a fair base court, at thys 
time one of the principale houses in goodly building of all 
Hamptonshire," is commemorated by Leland in 1540. Its high 
state of cultivation, and value, are sufficiently commemorated in 
the land-tax, once the chief source of English revenue. After 
many variations in assessment, a rate was made under 4 William 
and Mary (1692), c. 1., by commissioners named in the Bill (the 
chief gentlemen in each county), at " four shillings in the pound, 
on what the, lands are now worth, to be leased at a rack-rent, 
without respect to repairs, taxes, parish duties, or other charges." 
This valuation has remained ever since, and affords a convenient 
means of comparing rentals then and now. There are three 
farms on the Vyne estate, measuring respectively 158, 183, 248 
acres, the land-tax being 22/. 14s. M., 20/. 13s. 6rf., 25/. The 
rental, therefore, in 1692 may be assumed to have been 113/. 
13s. M., 103/. 7s. 6rf, 125/. ; that is, 342/. Os. IQd. for 589 acres, 
or lis. Id. per acre. The rent in 1844 (it has since been raised, 
but merely to pay a moderate percentage on improvements) was 
80/., 90/., 200/. (a tithe-free farm on a drier soil) ; that is, 370/., 
or 12s. Id. (nearly) per acre. In other words, while the lighter, 
more easily worked lands throughout Hampshire, according to 
the same method of computation, have, during a century and 
a half of national prosperity, increased in value 100, 200, and 
even 300 per' cent., the heavy clays of the north have advanced 
less than 9 per cent. — niJiil amplius. 
1. And this brings me to my first inquiry, Has steam cultivation 
received sufficient attention from the agriculturists of this county, 
particularly in the north ? 
It may be conceded, that all means of applying steam to the 
cultivation of the soil previous to 1856 were tentative and costly 
experiments, such as the tenant farmer could hardly be expected 
to do more than admire ; but since that date, it may be said to have 
passed from the region of experiment to that of practical applica- 
tion, in the ordinary way of farming business. Accordingly, we 
find that to the north-Avest, the north, and on the east of Hants, 
steam cultivation is in full progress. Mr. T. H. Redman, of Over- 
town, near Swindon, in Wiltshire, has given me the names and 
addresses of sixteen persons, who in his neighbourhood are using 
Fowler's steam-ploughing apparatus on the chalk, gault, and 
z 2 
