6 MR. COKE-SUFFOLK. [1760-1783. to let his estate even at five shillings an acre, he determined to become a farmer himself. He did not set about his work with the self-conceit that might have been produced by a large fortune and high connections. Hel gathered about him all the practical agriculturists of his district, who came once a year to partake his hospitality, and to communicate their experience to the spirited young man who wanted to learn. He very soon was enabled to become an instructor himself. The annual sheep-shearings of Holkham grew famous throughout the civilized world. Men came from every quarter to see a great English gentleman-who had raised his rents from tens to hundreds, and had yet enriched his tenants as much as himself,-mixing, with a far nobler simplicity than that of the feudal times, with guests of every rank; seeking from the humblest yeoman who was earnest in his calling the knowledge of some new fact that would benefit his district and his country. Mr. Coke's agricultural knowledge was not mere theory. He taught the Norfolk farmers to turn their turnip-husbandry to a better use than that of producing manure, by teaching them how to improve the qualities of their stock, in the judgment of which he was thoroughly skilled. During his long life he had the satisfaction of seeing most of the triumphs of scientific husbandry; and his example pointed the way to that continued course of improvement, which has effected such marvels since the British agriculturist became self-reliant, and saw that his prosperity needed no protective laws to maintain a supply of food quite commensurate with the rapid multiplication of the people. The farmer was no The agriculture of many parts of Suffolk is described by Arthur Young as emphatically "true husbandry." He says, "those who exalt the agriculture of Flanders so high in comparison with that of Britain, have not, I imagine, viewed with attention the country in question." Thomas Tusser, who was a Suffolk farmer in the middle of the sixteenth century, attributes the plenty of Suffolk-the mutton, beef, corn, butter, cheese, and the abundant work for the labouring man-to the system of inclosures, which he contrasts with the common fields of Norfolk. Suffolk, as well as Essex, was very early a county "inclosed into petty quillets," according to Fuller, whence the proverb "Suffolk stiles," and "Essex stiles." Sir John Cullum, in 1781, describes the drainage of the arable lands as the great improvement that had fertilized spots that before produced but little. longer content to let his soil be "water-slain," the old expressive term in Suffolk for undrained wet land. He knew nothing of draining-tiles; but he cut drains two feet deep, and wedge-shaped, filling them with bushes, and with haulm over the bushes. Sir John shows how the cultivators had learned the value of manure, instead of evading the compulsory clause of their leases by which they were bound not to sell the manure made in their own yards. He paints, as "the late race of farmers," those who "lived in the midst of their enlightened neighbours, like beings of another order. In their personal labour they were indefatigable; in their dress, homely; in their manners, rude." Their "enlightened neighbours," he says, lived in well-furnished houses; actually knew the use of the barometer; 'and instead of exhibiting at church the cut of a coat half a century old, they had every article of dress spruce and modern. The ancient farmers had, however, a spirit of emulation amongst them, which they displayed in the drawing-matches of their famous Suffolk punches-that wonderful breed of which two would plough an acre of strong wheat land in one day. We have the details of a drawing-match in 1724.* Young says of this breed, that "they are all taught to draw in concert; that teams would fall upon their knees at the word of command, and at a variation of the word would rise and put out all their strength."t Improving as was the general agriculture upon the good lands of Suffolk, the sandy districts on the shores of the Channel were in a miserable condition, before some tincture of geological science had taught the cultivator to look for the elements of fertility in the organic matter below the sand. Crabbe, with his exquisite fidelity, has described the husbandry of his own native district of the river Alde. It is a most impressive picture, not only of the peculiar barrenness of that district, but of other districts where slovenly cultivation had not called forth the resources of art to aid the churlishness of nature: "Lo where the heath, with withering brake grown o'er, Where the thin harvest waves its wither'd ears; Rank weeds, that every art and care defy, O'er the young shoot the charlock throws a shade, The Suffolk labourers were fed abundantly, but somewhat coarsely. They ate their country's rye-bread with their country's stony cheese-“too hard to bite," as Bloomfield found it; whilst the farmer luxuriated in his "meslin bread," half wheat and half rye. The plough-boy's breakfast was the brown bread soaked in skimmed milk. When the country was over-run with rabbits, before the improved system of agriculture was introduced, the in-door servants stipulated that they should not be fed with "hollow-meat," as rabbit flesh was termed, more than a certain number of days in the week.§ Fuller speaks of the rabbits of Norfolk as an army of natural pioneers"-the great suppliers of the fur for the gowns of grave citizens, and of " half beavers," the common hats. The trencher was not then superseded by pewter and earthenware. The old simplicity was not gone out: "Between her swagging panniers' load A farmer's wife to market rode." ¶ The good matron looked impatiently for the "pack man," who came to her gate periodically with fineries from Norwich or Ipswich; and with smuggled tea from the eastern coast, when three-fifths of the tea used was clandestinely imported. She delighted in the housewifery of the "horky," when the last load had come home with garlands and flags, and the lord of the harvest, the "History of Hawsted," chap. iv. Il "Worthies." +"Eastern Tour," vol. ii. p. 174. $ Forby's "Vocabulary of East Anglia," vol. ii. p. 423. ¶ Gay. 8 HUSBANDRY IMPLEMENTS-ESSEX. [1760-1783. principal reaper, led the procession, to be led home himself when the strong ale had done its work. Norfolk and Suffolk are now the principal seats of the manufacture of those implements which, in 1851, were held to have saved one-half of the outlay of a period only twelve years previous, in the cultivation of a definite amount of crop. The Suffolk "Farmer's Boy" describes the rude plough (probably almost wholly made of wood) in which "no wheels support the divingpointed share." The boy did not take kindly to the swing-plough, which was more difficult to guide. From ridge to ridge moves " the ponderous harrow;" "midst huge clods he plunges on forlorn." He breaks the frozen turnip with a heavy beetle. The seed is sown broad-cast. Arthur Young laments that, "if a person, the least skilled in agriculture, looks around for instruments that deserve to be called complete, how few will he meet with."* At Lawford, near Manningtree, he rejoices to have found "a most ingenious smith," who has made a new iron swing-plough, a horse-rake on wheels, and a handmill for grinding wheat.† Out of the persevering ingenuity of such men have proceeded the manifold instruments of modern agriculture-the lighter ploughs; the "cultivators," that save ploughing; the clod-crushers and scarifiers; the drills; the horse-hoes; the threshing and winnowing machines; the turnip-cutters and chaff-cutters; the draining ploughs and drain-tile machines. The application of machinery and chemical science to the production of food has produced results as important as in any other branch of manufacture, under which term we must now include the modern achievements of the spirited farmer. The limited economical observation of the author of "The Farmer's Boy," suggested a lament that "London market, London price," influenced the production of his county; that "dairy produce throngs the eastern road;" that along that highway were travelling "Delicious veal and butter, every hour, From Essex lowlands and the banks of Stour; Thirty years later, William Cobbett, who from his farm at Botley sent the earliest lambs to the London market, expressed his rabid indignation that the fat oxen of Wilts were "destined to be devoured in the Wen "—his favourite name for the metropolis. The demagogue knew full well that the demand of the markets of London, and of other great cities, gave the natural impulse to the productiveness of the country; and that the greater part of "the primest of human food" was not there devoured by "tax-eaters and their base and prostituted followers." The profits derived in the olden time from Essex calves furnished the capital whose gradual increase gave Essex landowners and farmers the means of draining their marshes, and of rescuing land from the sea. "It argueth the goodness of flesh in this county, and that great gain was got formerly by the sale thereof, because that so many stately monuments were erected anciently therein for butchers-inscribed carnifices in their epitaphs."§ Essex veal preserves its reputation, and so Essex oysters. * "Eastern Tour," vol. ii. p. 498. +Ibid., p. 212. § Fuller's "Worthies." 1760-1783.] BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 9 Essex saffron is a thing of the past, though its former celebrity lingers in the name of Saffron Walden. The use of saffron as a condiment in food has long been at an end; its value as a medicine is very equivocal. We now import the small quantity of saffron that we consume. The husbandry books of a century ago contain the most elaborate directions for its cultivation upon a large scale. Coriander, and carroway, and canary are extensively grown in the clay district of Essex; but the good roads, the coast navigation, and the vicinity to London give this county the full power to maintain its old superiority in producing the great staples of human food. Several of the South-Midland counties have their records and traditional traces of old modes of husbandry, and of their accompanying manners, which strikingly contrast with the course of modern improvement. Buckinghamshire had an ancient reputation for fertility. "A fruitful country, especially in the Vale of Aylesbury," says Fuller. Arthur Young journeyed through this famous Vale a hundred and ten years after Fuller wrote, and found the husbandry almost as bad as the land is good. The wheat crops only yielded fifteen bushels per acre; the barley crops sixteen bushels. The poverty of the crops is chiefly imputed to the want of draining. Young expresses his surprise that the landlords have made no attempt at inclosing. "All this Vale would make as fine meadows as any in the world." It was very long before this county discovered that open fields, and large tracts of waste capable of cultivation, presented effectual barriers to improvement. Nevertheless, many of the wastes of the Chilterns could not be profitably cultivated. But the long ranges of hills covered with beech--such as were the indigenous growth of the chalk in the earliest times —are picturesque to ride beneath, recalling the memory of Hampden and the stout yeomen who chose to fight rather than be taxed out of their liberty. Buckinghamshire is finding uses for the beech, in manufacturing cheap chairs, at the rate of a thousand a day, at High Wycombe and the neighbourhood. She is using up her resources, and getting rid of her nuisances ;-administering the relief of the poor so as not to drive land out of cultivation; and extirpating the game, instead of having a fertile county little better than a large preserve, especially as it was once in one ducal domain. § The county has discovered that large dairy-farms are better than wheat crops of fifteen bushels per acre. Butter is now produced here as a great manufacture. It is held that there are 120,000 acres in Buckinghamshire devoted to dairying, on which, with the aid of some arable land, 30,000 cows are kept, producing annually the almost incredible amount of 6,000,000 lbs. of butter, chiefly sent to the London market by railway. It was stated before the Aylesbury Railway Committee that 800,000 ducks were reared in the county, for the early supply of the all-devouring metropolis-a possible exaggeration. Butter and ducks will never want a ready market and command a fair price. The old Buckinghamshire trade of pillow-lace making— the "bone-lace" of former times-leaves "the free maids" to the miserable pittance of sixpence for a day's labour. "Journal of Royal Agricultural Society," vol. v. p. 39. "Eastern Tour," vol. i. p. 23. "Journal of Agricultural Society," vol. xvi. p. 306. § Ibid., p. 315. 10 OXFORDSHIRE-NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. [1760-1783. Oxfordshire cultivation was, a century ago, somewhat below the average of the inland counties. Its progress has not been very remarkable. The chief bar to improvement was the existence of large tracts as common field. There were few wastes. The culture of green crops and root crops has gone on, though not very rapidly. The farm buildings are generally old and inconvenient; the implements are of old fashion; the occupation roads are execrable. The large farmers are described as intelligent and industrious; but not so spirited or progressive as the tenantry of some other counties. The lesser yeomen too often "crawl on in the same track their ancestors jogged over a century ago." They have inherited the prejudices of former times, with their sterling qualities of industry and hospitality.* Fuller exults that his native county of Northampton has “ as little waste ground as any county in England--no mosses, meres, fells, heaths." It was a county full of "spires and squires "—a grass country, where fox-hunting was carried to perfection by its resident gentry, and its graziers grew rich without much pains of cultivation. Arthur Young grows almost poetical in his contemplation of the large grazing farms. "The quantity of great oxen and sheep is very noble. It is very common to see from forty to sixty oxen and two hundred sheep in a single field, and the beasts are all of a fine large breed. This effect is owing in no slight degree to the nature of the country, which is wholly composed of gentle hills, so that you look over many hundred acres at one stroke of the eye, and command all the cattle feeding in them, in a manner nobly picturesque." But in this bright picture there is a dark shade. The fine grass on the excellent soil is over-run with thistles, and is full of ant-hills; none of its wet places are drained; one-eighth of the whole is really waste land. The great improver exhorts the Northamptonshire farmers to get rid of rushes, ant-hills, thistles (which were regularly mown), nettles, "and all the et cæteras of slovenliness."+ The arable husbandry was little better. The light land was considered only fit to grow rye-soils which now yield abundant crops of wheat. Common fields, with all their evils, were almost universal. Their general inclosure has made some local terms obsolete, such as "balk,-a narrow slip of grass dividing two ploughed or arable lands in open or common fields;" and "meer,—a strip or slip of grass land, which served as a boundary to different properties." § As late as 1806, some tracts continued in this state of imperfect cultivation. In a Report of that year on the farming of the county, a celebrated locality is thus described: "From Welford, through Naseby, the open field extensive, and in as backward a state as it could be in Charles the First's time, when the fatal battle was fought." Naseby field, according to Young, contained six thousand acres. The miserable farm-buildings of the days when "the master" always sat in his "long settle" in the kitchen (which was called "the house"), have survived in many places to our days; small barns and stabling, ill-contrived yards, no capacity for stall-feeding, with the horse-pond ready to receive all the soluble parts of the manure. In some grazing districts there has been retrogression instead of improvement. The land has |