530 ENG] 
and fea profpeft, and richnefs of pafturage, which lias 
given fo much celebrity to the South-down breed of 
Iheep, quite to the eaftern extremity of the county of 
Suffex, after palling the towns of Steyning, Brighthelm- 
ftone, Lewes, &c. and ferving as a barrier to the fea on 
the fouthern coaft. 
Wales is lift abundant in alpine mountains, efpecially 
the northern provinces ; but their orology remains inde¬ 
terminate, and it would require the ,aftual furvey of 
an experienced' engineer, to reduce them to chains or 
gfbupes. To begin with the North, Snovyden commands 
the firft attention, a mountain of eminent height and 
fame. The. top is called Y Widdfa, or the confpicuous, 
forming aimolt a point, and prefenting a view of the 
county ot Chefter, the mountains of Yorkfhire, parts of 
Scotland and Ireland, and the iffes of Man and Angle- 
fey. Mr. Pennant obferves, that large coarfe cryftals 
are often found in the filfures, and very frequently cubic 
pyritae, the ufual attendants on alpine trafts. From 
Snowden, a line of mountains extends by the fea to Plen- 
limnion, whence iffue the noble rivers, Severn and Wye. 
Ol thefe hills, Urrou Seth, Caer Idris, and Moyle Va- 
diau, are the molt memorable. The hills on the eafl of 
North Wales, are far from attaining fuch confiderable 
elevation, and gradually decline to the hills of Shrop- 
fliire, of which rfie Wrekin is one of the mod: noted. 
A chain alfo proceeds due fouth to near Cardiff, in South 
Wales; it is of far, inferior height, and a fmall branch 
diverges to the weft, confiftingof Cwn Cothy, Mynydd; 
Carreg, Briiley, and Cwm Kerrun-hills. On tjie eaft of 
South Wales, are the hills of Hereford (hire, the Black 
Mountain, Cufop-hill, Hargeft, Stockley-hill, See. 
In the northern and weftern mountains and hills, chalk 
is unknown, while it forms a chief material of thofe of 
the fouth and eaft. Mr. Pennant obferves, that a line 
drawn from Dorchefter, in the county of Dorfet, to the 
county of Norfolk, would form a boundary of the great 
chalky ftratum which interfefts the kingdom, none being 
found in any quantity to the north or weft of that line. 
The northern mountains are moftly compofed of lime- 
llone, free-ftone, date, or fchiftns, with mines of lead 
or coal ; thofe of Derbydiire prefent vaft maffes of lime- 
ftone, interfered with thick veins of toad-ftone, by fome 
afferted to be the’produce of fire, while others affign an 
aqueous origin. See the article Earth, p. 177,0!' this 
volume. 
The fummit of Skiddaw prefents white (hivery date, 
or argillaceous fchiftns ; but fome of the Weftmorelalid 
mountains contain filiceous fchiftns; and it is probable 
that granite mafy exift in thofe of Cheviot. The vaft 
bafe of Ingleborough, near thirty miles in circuit, con- 
iifts of linie-ftone ; on the eaft fide full of (hells to near 
the fummit, which is of grit and fand-ftone (lag; the 
foffils, black and brown marble, thip (late near Ingleton, 
rotten-done or tripoli, and fome lead-ore. And fuch is 
this chain to its termination ; while further to the fouth, 
the eafterly elevations are of chalk ; and thofe on t he weft, 
as Mendip-hills, in Somerfetfliire, are wholly calcareous. 
The granite begins at Dartmoor, in Devonfhire, and con¬ 
tinues through Cornwall, where it occurs of various co¬ 
lours, the grey granite, ormoorftone; thered, or oriental; 
the white, the yellow, and the bluifh, or pigeon-coloured. 
Near the Lizard and Mullion, are rocks of ferpentine 
and fteatites, the latter being alfo found in a fingular va- 
riolite, at Thorverton, between Exeter and Upton Pyne. 
The china-ftone, or petunfi, ufed in making fine porce¬ 
lain, is here a decompafed granite, the felfpar having 
become foft like lithomarga. 
The Welfti mountains abound in various granites, with 
large maffes of quartz and ferpentine : a French mine- 
rafogift, Coquebert, obferves a fimilarity between the 
fubftauCes of the Welfti mountains, and thofe of Wick¬ 
low in Ireland, whence he infers a primitive junction. 
While on the eaft of England the lime-ftone fucceeds the 
, A N D. 
chalk, (of which change the noble promontory of Flam- 
borough-head affords a ftriking inftance,) on the coaft 
towards Wales, are found granite, and other primitive 
rocks. The Wrekin, about ten miles eaft of Shrewfbnry, 
is chiefly compofed of reddifli chert, or petrolilex, with 
filece'ous fand-ftone', bafalt, and a kind of granite. The 
great coal diftrift of Colebrook-dale, refts-on indurated 
clay, while that near Briftol is accompanied by black 
freeftone, and even the calcareous freeftone ndar Bath is 
interfperfed with numerous veins of coal. The Malvern- 
hi 11 s, on the fouth-weft of Worcefterfliire, run north and 
fouth about ten miles, .and afford many granitic rocks, 
with chert and hornblende (late. Thefe notices mull 
fuffice on the compolition of the Englifh mountains; a 
fubjeft (fays Mr. Pinkerton) which only begins to at¬ 
tract that attention which its curiolity merits. 
England, in its primeval Hate, muft have been half 
covered with woods and forefts. Many of the forefts in 
the Anglo-Saxon times, were efteemed royal demefnes ; 
and the Norman monarch-s were fo much addifted to the 
chace, that upwards of dxty forefts at one time apper¬ 
tained to the crown ; of which the chief now remaining 
are the forefts of Dean in Gloucefterlhire ; Sherwood, in- 
Nottinghamlhire ; Windfor,.in Berkfliire; the New Po¬ 
red, and the Foreft of Bere, in Hampfliire. Beddes thefe, 
other diftrifts (till retain the name, as Dartmoor-foseft, 
in Devondiire ; Enfield-chafe, in Middlefex ; Witham 
and Epping-foreft, and that of Henault, in Effex ; Sacy 
and Wittleborough-foreft, and Rockingham-foreft, in 
Northamptondiire ; Peak-foreft, in Derbydiire ; Malvern- 
cliafe and Wyre-foreft, in Worcefterdiire ; Cannock-chafe 
and Neidwood-foreft, in Stafforddiire', Mogg-foreft and 
Clun-foreft, and that of Hays and Mocktree, in Slirop- 
flifre ; Macclesfield-foreft, in Clielhire ; Netherdale-foreft 
and Langfter-chafe, in the Weft; Riding of Yorkfhire ; 
the foreft of Galtres, and Arkengarth and Stainmore, 
and Leyne, in the North Riding; Teefdale and Were- 
dale-forefts, in the county of Durham ; Rofendale-foreft, 
in Lancaftiire; Sleddell and Murtindale-forefts, &c. in 
Weftnloreland ; Geltfdale and Inglewood-forefts, in Cum¬ 
berland. The relics of a fob-marine foreft on the coaft: 
of Lincolnfhirc, manifeft a ftriking proof of the mutations 
and changes on the face of the globe, occafioned by vol¬ 
canic, eledtric, or other, difturbance in the bowels of tlie 
earth, whereby fome trafts of country are abforbed by 
the fea, wliilft others are thrown up from the bottom of 
the ocean, and converted into dry land. See the article 
Earthquake, p. 207 of this volume. 
Of luxuriant fruits, and rich vegetable productions, 
England is by nature very fcantily fupplied. The freJ 
quent rains, the blafting winds, the nipping frofts, and 
the uncertain and -irregular heat of the fun, deny to 
this country thofe vegetable tr-eafures, which, in the tro¬ 
pical regions, offer themfelves in,abundance as food for 
man. The humidity of the climate, however, clothes 
the vales and meadows, and even the hills and moun¬ 
tains, with a rich verdure alnioft unknown to any other 
country, and Ihevvs how admirably England is adapted to 
the growth and fupport of graminivorous quadrupeds. 
This partiality of nature in fcanting to the aboriginal in¬ 
habitants the fupply of vegetable food, while it is pro- 
fufely offered to the grazing herds of every kind, obliged 
them to depend for their fupport principally on the flefh 
of animals; and thus inducing a robuft and vigorous ha¬ 
bit, gave them (Longer motives to perfonal exertion, 
than a more favoured (late in a warmer climate could 
have afforded. While the native of the tropical climates 
was receiving from the bountiful hand of nature an exu¬ 
berant fupply of bread-fruit, bananas, and cocoa-nuts, 
the aboriginal Briton was obliged to earn his daily food 
by the hard labour of each returning day, to chafe tlie 
flying deer through the woods, or to difpute his prey 
with the boar or the wolf. Thus, the feverity of climate, 
and paucity of vegetable food, was the firft germ of in- 
duftry 
