34. 
chiefly dire&ted towards the improvement 
of his eftate, beautifying the country, and 
rendering the people about him happy. 
My prominent obje&t in making this di- 
grefion from the direét road, was to fee 
fome remarkable improvements of peat 
mofs, which I underftood Sir William 
had been making. I was fortunate enough 
in meeting with that gentleman at home, 
who readily gaye me every information 
relative thereto. After traverfing the 
country along crofs roads for about two 
miles, I came to the mofs I was in queft 
of, was fhewn every operation by Sir 
William’s people, and mult acknowledge 
I never before {aw any improvement equal 
to what I here obferved. This, in June, 
1797, was a peat mofs, many feet deep, 
and its annual value-had never been worth 
6d. per acre. The firft operation was to 
cut out a field of about ro acres, and 
furround it by a ditch four feet and a half 
deep, eight feet at top, and about two 
feet and a half at bottom; then the mofs 
was dug ever about 6 inches deep, leaving 
furrows two feet wide, as if plowed in 
ridges of fix or feven yards broad. The 
next proceeding is to top-drefs the ridges 
with lime, at the rate of 160 Winchefter 
bufhels to double that quantity per acre. 
The lime is applied in as quick a ftate as 
poflible, that is, immediately after being 
flacked. The ipring following, potatoes 
«are planted, with about 18 or 20 fingle 
cart. loads of dung per acre. Trenches 
are now made acrofs the ridges, at about 
five or fix feet diftance, and the mofs taken 
thereout thrown over the potatoe fets. 
Afterwards, when the potatoes begin to 
appear, the trenches are a little deepened, 
and the mofs again thrown over the 
plants. ‘The potatoes on this field at 
prefent have an appearance of producing 
the greateft crop I ever faw; and Sir Wil- 
liam is proceeding in the fame manner 
with another Jarge tract adjoining, and 
intends to continue that {pecies of im- 
provement. 
Sir William, in thus reclaiming peat 
mofs, adopts the mode of Mr. Smith, of 
Swinding Moor, in the fhire of Ayr, who 
has practifed it for many years with the 
moft, aftonifhing: fuccefs. From an au- 
thentic account of his {fyfiem in a printed 
Jetter, of which Sis. Wilham was fo kind 
as to give me a copy, it appears that, 
after potatoes, he. fows oats for three 
years fucceffively ;the lait year he fows 
erafs feed with the cats, cuts the fri crop 
ef grafs for hay, and aiterwards lets, i 
continue in paftere, for, which. purpole it 
is then worth 25s. per acre annually, 
On the Commedia of Dante. 
~ [Feb. x, 
There is alfo in that letter a calculation of 
every expence and profit for the firft five 
years, by which it is fhewn that a clear 
gain of 12]. 13s. 9d. per acre may reafon- 
ably be expected in that time. 
I have left the mountainous country for 
fome miles, and have now an open view 
to the fouth, with the greateft part of 
Cumberland, and a corner of Weftmore- 
land, under my eye. The ground fiom 
the frontier range of hills, in which Burnf- 
wark makes fo prominent an object, has 
one general fall to the Solway Frith ; and 
on the Englifh fide there is alfo.more or 
lefs declivity towards the fame line from 
the mountains above Burgh-under-Stain- 
moor. ‘This circumftance brings a great 
extent of country in view, and forms the 
fineft profpects from both fides. Some- 
thing fimilar is obfervable near the mouths 
of the rivers Severn and Merfey, but not 
in an equal degree This fteril country 
contains great quantities of mofs and 
moor-land, but which is now, and has 
been for fome time back, in a progreflive 
ftate of improvement. I pals the re- 
nowned village of Gretna, covered with 
trees, about a mile on my right, which 
place I propofe to pas through in my 
nexttour. Springfield, a pleafant modern 
built village, the property of Sir William 
Maxwell, appears alfo on the borders of 
the Frith, near the former place. Solway 
Mots, where the remarkable eruption hap- 
pened in 1771, is. feen a little way from 
the road on my left. I now crofs the 
river Sark, and again enter England on 
Sir James Graham’s eftate, through which 
I travel for feveral miles by way of Long- 
town, and thence through Carlifle toCorby. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
INCLOSE you fome remarks in the 
celebrated Poem of Dante, which, if 
you think proper, you will give a. place! 
in your valuable Repoftory. 
It was my intention to have fubjoined 
to them a fpecific detailed defcription of 
the different component parts of thelufernal 
Regions, as, made out by the commenta- 
tors, which I have extracted to ferve as 
a fort of chart for my own guidance in the 
perufal of this work of exquifite genius, a 
plan I purpofe to purfve with regard to 
his Purgatory and Paradife, but fis Hee 
hen I relinquifh, from the confideration 
that your readers would not thank you or 
me for involving them in this labyrinth of 
perplexity,, excepting, perhaps, that clafs 
ci them who may already kave been en- 
tangled 
