SOIL AND SURFACE. 
9 
that city, a most beautiful landscape presents itself: 
the whole of the back ground, which, at its greatest 
distance, does not exceed twelve, and no where ap¬ 
proaches nearer than eight miles (allowing something 
for the openings to the south-west and north), appears 
to be one continuation of noble hills; forming, as it 
were, the frame of the delightful picture that presents 
itself in the centre, diversified with all the beauties of 
hill and dale, wood and water. If the Aberley and 
Whitley hills occasion some irregularity in the frame, 
they will scarcely be thought to take off from the 
beauty of the piece; these, and the adjoining hills, 
rising with a bold front, and most of them cultivated 
to their summits, recalls to the mind the enthusiastic 
description of Italy ; and the sheep, hanging as it were, 
from the brows of others, illustrate the much-admired 
idea of the Rom an bard. 
The soil is various: to the north of Worcester, 
which is situated nearly in the centre of the county, 
it chiefly consists of rich loamy sand, with a small pro¬ 
portion of gravel; there is some very light sand; a 
few spots of clay ; of black peat earth the same; but 
chiefly inclining towards the east. In this quarter (the 
east) the prevailing soil is, for the most part, a strong 
clay. The waste land, which is not very considerable, 
in general a deep black peat earth. To the south, be¬ 
tween Worcester and the Vale of Evesham, the soil is 
partly of red marl, and part strong loamy clay ; other 
parts sandy loam; and there is a small vein of land 
which partakes of each of these qualities; the sub-soil, 
more especially under the second division, limestone. 
In the vale, the soil is particularly deep, of a darkish 
colour earth, with a sub-stratum of strong clay and 
* some 
