6 
a cottager's garden 
five. The soil of this ground,, when inclosed 
by the cottager long ago, was a thin covering 
of about three "or four inches of strong loam 
over a clay, impregnated with iron, called in 
Shropshire catbrain, and considered as the 
worst soil. It is now changed, but the 
original soil is still to be seen in the adjoin- 
ing parts of what was the common. They 
pay three shillings of yearly rent" for the 
house and land ; it was leased to them thirty- 
eight years ago, by the present Lady Malpas,. 
for three lives, one of which is dead. 
The wife has managed the ground in 
a particular manner for thirteen years with 
potatoes and wheat, chiefly by her own 
labour; and in a way which has yielded good 
crops, and of late fully equal, or rather 
superior, to the produce of the neighbouring 
farms, and with little or no expense ; but 
shehasimproved her modeof cultureduring 
the last six years. 
.The potatoe and wheat land, exclusive 
of the garden, contains sixty-four digging 
poles of land; eight yards square to the 
