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The peat found in the middle of a valley, across which the town 
of Newbury lies, north and south. The river Kennet runs along 
the middle of this valley, which is about a mile broad, and the peat 
is found on each side of it, extending in all, for about a quarter of 
a mile, to about half a mile in breadth ; and in length, along the 
valley, about nine miles westward, and about seven miles eastward ; 
and it is supposed to reach much further ; though, perhaps, with 
some intermissions. 
The top of the true peat is found at various depths, from one foot 
to eight feet below the surface of the ground ; and the depth or thick- 
ness of this peat is also very different, from one foot to eight or nine 
feet ; the ground below it being very uneven and generally a gravel. 
The best and most perfect peat has very little, if any, earth in it ; 
but is a composition of wood, branches, twigs, leaves, and roots of 
trees, with grass, straw, plants, and weeds ; which lying continually 
in water becomes soft, and easy to be cut through with a peat-spade. 
The colour is of a blackish brown, and if it be chewed between the 
teeth, it is soft, and has no gritty matter in it. It is, indeed, of a 
different consistence, in different places ; some being softer, and some 
firmer and harder ; which may, perhaps, arise from the different 
sorts of trees it is composed of. 
Great numbers of trees are plainly visible in the true peat, lying 
irregularly one upon another; and sometimes even cart loads of 
them have been taken out, and dried for firing : but the nearer these 
trees lie to the surface of the ground, the less sound is the wood ; 
and sometimes the small twigs, which lie at the bottom, are so firm, 
as not to be easily cut through with the usual peat-spade. These 
trees are generally oaks, alders, willows, and firs, besides some others 
not easily to be known. The small roots are generally perished ; 
but yet have sufficient signs to shew, that the trees were torn up by 
the roots, and were not cut down, there being no sign of the axe or 
saw ; which, had they been felled, would have been plainly visible. 
