In making our promifed extracts, we will endeavour to catch, in running the eye over the volumes, what we think will give a fpecimen of the work, and at the fame time be acceptable to the general reader. The first which strikes us relates to inclpfures.

"This District has no traces of common fields. The cultivated lands are all inclofed; moftly in well fixed inglofures; generally large in propor. tion to the fizes of farms.

"They have every appearance of having been formed from a itate of common patture; in which tate, fome confiderable part of the District hill remains; and what is obfervable, the bet. ter parts of thofe open commons have evidently heretofore been in a state of aration; lying in obvious ridges and furrows; with generally the remains of hedgebanks, correfponding with the ridges; and with faint traces of buildngs.

From thefe circumstances, it is underfood, by fome men of obfervation, that thefe lands have formerly been in a ftate of permaneat inclofure, and have been thrown up again, to a ftate of commonage, through a decrease in tae population of the country.

"But frem obfervations, made in different parts of Devonthire, thefe appearances, which are common, perhaps, to every part of the county, would rather feem to have arifen out of a cuftom, peculiar perhaps to this part of the land, and which till remains in ufe, of lords of manors having the privilege of letting portions of the cominon lands, Jying within their respective precincts, to tenants, for the purpofe of taking one or more crops of corn, and then fuffering the land to revert to a state of grafs and

commonage.

In the infancy of fociety, and while the country remained in the foreft ftate, this was a molt rapional and cli

gible way of proceeding. The rough ndes of the delis and dingles, with which it abounds, were most fit for the production of wood; the flatter better parts of the furface of the country were required for corn and pasturage; and how could a more ready way of procuring both have been fallen upon, than that of giving due portions of it to the induftrious part of the inhabitants, to clear away the wood, and adjust the furtace; and, after having reaped a few crops of corn, to pay the expence of cultivation, to throw it up to grafs, before it had been too much exhausted to prevent its becoming, in a few years, prontable fward? In this manner, the country would be fupplied progreffively, as population increafed, with corn. and palturage, and the forests be con• verted, by degrees, into common paf

tures, or HAMS.

"The wild or unreclaimed lands being at length gone over in this way, fome other fource of arable crops would be requifite. Indeed, before this could take place, the pafture grounds would be difproportionate to the corn lands; and out of thefe circumftançes, it is highly probable, rofe the prefent IN CLOSURES."

Thefe remarks we find corroborated by obfervations made in the eastern parts of the county, where the custom of tilling commons in a partial manner fill remains in a degree of use.

On the fizes cf Farms, a fubject at this time before the public, we mark fme ftrictures that tend to reconcile the violent, whether they are for large or finall farms.

The fizes of farms are, as they ought to be, extremely various. BARTONS (a name which perhaps was originally given to demefne lands, or manor farins, but which now seems to be applied to any large farm, in contradiftinction to the more common defcription of farms) are generally of a full fize; as from two or three to four or five hundred acres of culturable lands. Ordinary farms run from ten to a hundred pounds a year.

"The humiliating fituation in which this country is placed, at prefent (1795), through a milguided attachment to SPECULATIVE COMMERCE, and through a neglect, not lefs to be lamented, of the PERMANENT INTE RESTS of the country,-has given us an opportunity of feeing the utility which arifes from a GRADATION OF

FARMS;

ARMS; and from having farmers of different degrees and conditions, to furnifh the markets with a regular fupply of grain.

"Were the whole of the cultivated lands of the Island in the hands of fmal! needy farmers, unable to keep back the produce from the autumn and winter markets, it is highly probable that the country, during the paft fummer, would have experienced a fcarcity, nearly equal to a famine; and would, every year, be at the mercy of dealers or middle men, during the spring and fummer

months.

"On the contrary, were the whole in the hands of men of large capitals, a greater fcarcity might be experienced, in autumn and the early part of winter, than there is under the prefent diftribution of farm lands.

"I do not mean to convey, that the prefent diftribution of farm lands is perfect, or precifely what it ought to be, in a political point of view. Neverthelefs, it might be highly improper, in Government, to interfere in the difpofal of private property. It is therefore to the confideration of proprietors of eftates I beg leave to offer the following principle of management, in the te nanting of their refpective eftates: namely, that of not entrusting their lands whether they lie in large or in fmall farms, in the hands of men who have not capital fkill and induftry, taken jointly, to cultivate them, with profit, to themselves and the community; nor of fuffering any man, let, his capital be what it may, to hold more land than he can perfonally fuperintend; fo as to pay the requifite regard to the minutiae of cultivation."

The practice of clouting cream, for which the Weft of England has long been celebrated, muft not escape unnoticed.

"The only particular of manage ment, which requires to be noticed, in the Devonshire Butter Dairy, is the fingular METHOD OF RAISING THE CREAM; a practice which is, or lately was, common to Devonshire and Cornwall. This peculiarity confifts in employing culinary heat, to affift in foreing up the cream, with greater rapidity and effect, than fimply depofiting the milk in open veffels in the ordinary way, produces.

"The milk having flood fome hours, in broad pans or veffels, either of brafs or earthen ware, it is placed in thefe

pans over a gentle heat generally, over the wood embers of the ordinary hearth: but fometimes over charcoal, in ftoves fitted up for that purpose ;and remains in that fituation until it approaches nearly to boiling heat: the proper degree of heat being indicated by pimples, or blifters, which rife on the furface of the cream. The fmalleft degree of ebullition mars the pro cefs; which is therefore properly termed "fcalding;" and the cream thus raifed is termed "fcalded cream,' or "clouted cream," probably from the tough cloth-like texture which it acquires by this process.

"The cream, thus raifed, remains on the milk,-which is rendered very fheer lean and blue by the procefs,-until the dairy woman wants to make the butter:" another fingular operation, in the Devonshire Dairy. The clouts or rags of cream being thrown into a large wooden bowl, they are stirred about, by a circuitous motion of the hand and arm, until the butyraceous particles unite; leaving a small quantity of thick creamlike matter, or ferum; anfwering to the churn milk of the ordinary butter dairy. In "fcald cream dairies," no churn is in ufe.

"The origin of fo peculiar a practice may, perhaps, be traced back to the foreft ftate. After the arts of produ eing butter and cheese were discovered; yet while, perhaps, each family was poffeffed of no greater dairy than two or three cows; any procefs which enabled the proprietor of fuch a dairy to manufacture thofe valuable articles, with a degree of certainty, was embraced as eligible: and how could a more fortunate procefs have been ftruck out, than that of fecuring the milk and the cream from their natural propensity of entering the different stages of fermentation, than the application of fire; which, at once, fecures the milk from acidity, and the cream from putrefaction; until a fufficient quantity of each can be laid up, for the purposes to which they are particularly appropriated!"

From the Minutes, we extract some remarks on fallowing; another fubject of debate among agricultural men, at prefent.

"Auguft 27, 1791. CLEARING FOUL LANDS. (See Min. 7.) This and another piece, ftill fouler, and in a worfe ftate of tillage, I have treated, and intend to treat, in the following manner.

"About

"About a month ago, one of thefe felds, then in a ftate of loofe broken ground, was laid up into narrow ribs (the gardener's trenches) by a halfplowing; with a wrested plow, and with the stern fet TEN INCHES wide; forcing up the ridgets, as high and-fharp as poffible; in order to deftroy the rot weeds, by drought, and by breaking their field of pafturage; and to give the feeds of weeds an addition of air and furface to promote their vegetation.

"About a week ago, the first-plowed part was harrowed across the ribs, with long tined harrows ;-levelling the furface completely, and following them with a roller and finer harrows, hung behind it: thus grinding down every clod, and effectually destroying every feedling weed which had vegetated.

"The furface is now thickly fet with another crop of seedling weeds,which I am turning under by ONE DEEP PLOWING, acrofs the former rits, and in narrow plits, but with a BROAD SHARE, and with a STERN TWELVE INCHES WIDE; thus moving every particle of the foil, about TEN INCHES DEEP (fome inches deeper, perhaps, than it has ever been plowed before), leaving the furface rough and cloddy.

"Over this rough furface, I am fpreading a moderate drolling of yard dung; to be dragged and rolled and harrowed, until the dung be effe&tually incorporated, with the fresh raw foil, brought up; thereby to meliorate it, and to force the feeds of eds, with which it has, no doubt, been amply fuppled, century after century.

The weed feeds having fpent themselves, and the crude fil having received the influence of the atmofphere,the dreffing wil be turned in, with

a

mean depth or fomewhat fhallow plowing; and the furface be fuffered to remain in the rough flate, in which the plough leaves it, during winter.

"In the fpring, as foon as the cleds have thrown out their feeding weeds, and the weather will permit, the furface will be ground down to powder, to provoke the remainder to vegetation; and, in due feafon, be fown with barley and ley herbage.

"Thus, for the lofs of ONE YEAR'S RENT, thefe fields will probably be benefited for twenty years to come.

"1794. The fuccefs has anfwered the fullest expectation. The field which was

managed more immediately under my own eye, is, I am of opinion, five pounds an acre better for the operation; reckoning on twenty years, from the time of performing it.

"It is obfervable, that, in every cafe where circumstances will allow it, an EIGHTEEN MONTHS FALLOW fhould be broken up, in autumn, or early winter, by a rib plowing; fuffering it to lie, in an exposed flate, during winter. This, befides emploving the winter's frofts in the great work of purification, forwards the bufinefs of the enfuing fummer, and renders the whole operation a matter of leisure and conveniency; and, in the end, COMPLEAT: putting the foil in its moft profitable flare of exertion, for a length of years. Under proper management and with the affiftance of FALLOW CROPS, Lands, THUS EFFECTUALLY RECLAIMED, may not require a repetition of the operation, for half a century afterwards.'

We close our extracts with an ace count of the Salmon Fishery of the Ta. vey: referring to the volumes, at large, for a detail of the rural practice of this favored quarter of the kingdom, as well as for the improvements introduced, or fuggefted, by the author.

The Salmon Fishery of the Tarey is appendant to this eftate. The WEIR, which has been mentioned, is a work of confiderable magnitude and expence. It confifts of a trong dam or breaftwerk, ten or twelve feet high, thrown across the river, in a part where two project. ing rocks ferve happily as buttreffes to the mafonry; which is built fomewhat compaffing or archwife (but not regularly nor fufficiently), to refift the preffure and force of the waters, in times of flood; when they are collected, by the flopes of the Dartmore Hills, and fent down with extraordinary impetuo firy. At one end of the dain, is a "weir houfe" or TRAP; on the prin ciple of the Vermin trap, whofe 'entrance is outwardly large, but contracted inwardly, fo as to etude or prevent the efcape of the animal which has taken it. It is remarkable, however, with refpe&t to falmon, that although the entrance is by no means fo narrow as to prevent even the largest from returning, it is believed that there is no intance of thofe which have once en tered,quitting their confinement,though they may have remained in it feveral days. A circunftance, perhaps, which

can

can only be accounted for, in the natural propensity, or inftin&t, which directs them against the ftream, and will not fuffer them to give up any advantage which they may have gained; the af cent into the trap being an effort of difficulty in this cafe perhaps too great.

"On the higher fide of the trap (which is fome twelve or fifteen feet fquare on the infide), oppofite to the entrance, is an opening or fluice in the ftone work, or rather the rock, as a paffage for the water. This opening has two lifting floodgates: the one clofe, to fhut out, occafionally, the whole of the water; the other a grate, to fuffer the water to pafs, and at the fame time to prevent fish of any confiderable fize from efcaping. When the trap is fet, the clofe gate is drawn up, with an iron crow: thus fuffering the water to pafs through the houfe. On the contrary, to take the fish which have entered, the clofe gate is let down, and the trap is prefently left in a manner dry,

"It is obfervable, that the narrowed entrance of the trap is judiciously placed, fomewhat above the floor; to that before the falmon are feriously alarmed by the fall of the water, it has funk below the mouth of the trap, and their retreat the more effectually cut off, for by following the water, near the Boor, they are led away beneath the tunnel which, like the open dood gate, &c. is made of trong wooden bars, open enough to permit the paffage of the water, but not that of the fish,

"The top or covering of the trap is a floor of planks, nearly level with the top of the weir; on the lower fide of which the trap is, of course, fituated.

"Some days ago, when the water was unufually low-provincially and not improperly fmall-the whole river paffed through the weir houfe. But the recent rains have fwoln it to a tenfold fize. The water now pours over the weir, in a denfe, broad theet; fnooth, and glaffy above; but furrow. ing as it defcends; and producing, in its fall, a white foaming whirlpool; the regularity of the fall being broken, on one fide, by the torrent, rufhing down the fteep descent from the fluice, and, on the other, by the margin of the river burfing its way over the native rock, - pleafing object is produced; while the extreme reclufenets of the fituation, -the wild coppice wood on the one hand, and the high grown, impending VOL. XXX. SEPT. 1796.

timber on the other, add to the picturable effect of the fcene: which, in a mild evening after rain, is ftill heigh tened, and rendered more interefting, by the animating and beautiful accompaniment of falmon, difplaying feats. of futile agility-throwing themfelves far out of the water, in endeavouring to furmount the cataract; or Aruggling, with more fatal zcal, to reach the treacherous hold, from whence there is no return.

"The fpecies of fish taken at this weir are falmon, falmon peel-provin cial" pail," and, at fome certain feafons, a few trouts.

"But the principal part of the produce of this fishery is taken by NET FISHING. The river, for near a mile below the weir, is broken into rapids and pools, fome of thein very deep. Seven or eight of thefe pools are adapted to the feine or draw net, which is drawn once or twice a day, by four men with horfes to carry the net, and the fish caught; and with dogs to convey the end of the rope across the water, where it is too deep or inconvenient to be forded.

"The fishing feafon commences, in this river (the Favey), the middle or latter end of February (but on the Tamer not until feveral weeks after. ward!), and clofes in October or November; when the weir is thrown open, and the tith, afterward, fuffered to go up to fpawn.

"Prefently after a flood, and when falmon are abundant, ten or twelve are frequently taken at a draught; fumetimes more; upwards of a hundred, it is faid, were once drawn to fhore.

"No wonder that a fishery thus productive, and lying at a distance from any habitation, thould be liable to the depredations of rOACHERS: efpecially as the river forms the boundary of a mining parish, notorious for its pilferers. They have been known to come down in bodies, like the game poachers of Norfolk; bidding ten or a dozen men defiance.

"The net poaching is done, chieйy, in the night; while the river abounds with fresh water. But, in the day time, when the water is dead and clear, the poachers are not inactive; then ufing the fpear, which they throw with dexterity; and, by this practice, are known to carry off numbers.

"Nor does daylight deter them, wholly, from net fishing, when the wa

D d

ter

ter is favorable, and fish in plenty. Yef erday, in paffing, with the Hine and his fon, through the meadows which margin the river, a party of three or four net poachers were difcovered. They ficd, on our approach; taking

refuge among the underwood of the oppofite banks; leaving behind them a net which has doubtless cost them the profits of many a month's illicit prac tice."

Veftiges of Oxford Cafile. Or a Small Fragment of a Work intended to be published speedily, on the Hiftory of Antient Cfles, and on the Progrefs af Architetture. By Edward King, Efq. F. R. S. and F. A. S. Folie. Ni col. 1796.

THIS performance, as the title page informs us, is intended only as a fpecimen of a very laborious and useful work, ready for the prefs, and intended for fpeedy publication, if encouragement should not be wanting by the Publick at large. The induftrious Author informs us, "that the defign of this under taking is to elucidate the history of the whole gradual progrefs of Architecture in all its branches, both ecclefiaftical, civil, and military, in fuccefive periods in this country; and to afford a ftriking illustration of coeval and contemporary manners; and an illucidation of feveral obfcure ordinances in feudal and other laws; giving clear proofs of the one, by means of the most unquestionable remaining fpecimens of many antient ftructures, now brought into one point of view, and compared together; by means of the com. rifon of thefe with the most positive evidence of antient records and hiftorians, from the age of the first Britons down to the beginning of the feventeenth century. Whilft, at the fame time, in the courfe of investigation, much light will, from the very nature of the enquiry, be caft on the history and manners of those primeval eaftern nations, and on thofe patriarchal ages, from whence many of the first ideas of building, and of rearing either fortreffs or facred structures, were unquef. tionably derived.

"Many interesting paffares alfo in the fa. cred writings, and in the moft antient claffic authors, will, it is hoped, be found to receive a more fatisfactory illustration from the efforts in the prefent undertaking, than could well have been obtained by any other means, than this one, of an actual comparison of fuch paffages, with the very kind of fabrics, manners, and ufages, referred to in them; fabrics, manners, and ufages vell understood, indeed, at the time when thofe books were written and therefore only fo lightly and incidentally mentioned :-but the reference to which, in these days, unavoidably occafions, very frequently, much confufion of ideas, and much obícurity; even to the most learned.”

The fience of Heraldry has been frequent, ly confidered as a useless one; as "a frivo. lous jargon invented to explain a set of whim, fical figures, the knowledge of which terminates in difcovering that certain individuals claim a right to have animals, trees, roses, of other particular ornaments, depicted on their furniture and equipage." This reprefentation the prefent writer undertakes to prove to be partial and invidious. He fhews that Heral. dry likewife has for its object a more important one, viz. to difcriminate, characterife, and arrange all the diftinctions of rank refulting from the Feudal Syftem, and that a thorough knowledge of it is connected with the laws, cuftoms, and manners of the Feudal ages, and might thence be conducive to the further illucidation of that interesting period. In the execution of this plan he confiders the structure of the Feudal System, the spirit, difcipline, maxims, and order of Chivalry. Then of the tournaments; of the Crufades; of romance; of the various modes in which arins are exhibited; of the political department of Heraldry, comprehending all the dif tinations of rank belonging to the Feudal Syftem; of the diftinctions of rank infeparable from the establishment of society; and, in an Appendix, of the diftinctions of rank in. cluded in the British Conftitution. The author undertakes to render Heraldry intelligible to readers in general, and we can fay he has not failed in his defign. Should the prefent work meet with a favourable reception, Mr. Brydion proposes to enquire, at greater length, into the political distinctions comprehended in the European governments, whether originating primarily in the nature of fociety, or more immediately in the conftitution of the fiefs in chivalry, and in certain arrangements depending on the internal-economy of different States * A Letter