2 
Agriculture of Nottinghamshire. 
A narrow belt of the lower new red sandstone accompames this 
on the west, and divides it from the coal formations of Derbyshire. 
With this general foundation, the top soils throughout the 
county will be found in every gradation from light sand to strong 
clay. The sand will be found to pre\ ail on the western side of 
the county from Nottingham to East Retford, as has been before 
observed. The clays are prevalent in the districts, which have in 
consequence been called the north and south clay divisions of the 
Hundred of Bassetlaw, on the eastern side of the county; and 
also, south of the Trent on the borders of Leicestershire, in the 
districts of the vale of Belvoir and the Nottinghamshire Wolds, 
leaving an extensive tract of land between the two last-named 
districts on the one hand and the River Trent on the other ; in the 
southern parts of the county a " mixture of both, or what consti- 
tutes a rich loam, whicli amply repays the toil and exertions of the 
agriculturist.'' 
In the extreme north-east, a small district called the " Cars" 
presents some peculiarities which will be noticed when we come 
to speak of that district. 
The Western or Sand District. 
Mr. Lowe published his Report of the Agriculture of Notting- 
hamshire in the year 1794, exactly half a century ago; and per- 
haps it is not assuming too much to say that since that time no 
county or district in England has undergone a greater change for 
the better. Nearly the whole of this division was, at the time Mr. 
Lowe wrote, a vast tract of waste land, the remains of the ancient 
forest of Sherwood. And although it is now shorn of the beauty 
it once boasted, when described by Camden, as " anciently thick 
set with trees, whose entangled branches were so twisted together, 
that they hardly left room for a single person to pass;" and may 
be regarded as scarcely identical with its former self; still some 
chosen spots remain untouched by the hand of time, which may 
be seen by a visit to a tract known by the name of Birkland, form- 
ing part of the Earl Manvers's park at Thoresby. Many thanks 
are due from the lover of the picturesque to the noble owner and 
his ancestors, for the hand of care so long extended to those 
ancient oaks still existing in all their primeval beauty, interesting 
relics of bygone days. 
Here, in imagination, the visitor may be transported back to 
the days of Robin Hood and Little John, whose exploits have 
rendered them famous in legend and romance; or picture to 
himself the inimitable scene in Ivaiihoc, when the Rev. the Clerk 
of Co})manhurst, the confessor of those freebooters of jovial 
notoriety, exhibits in the first instance a grudging hospitality of 
parched peas and water to the chivalric Richard Cceur de- Lion ; 
