Of late years this county has been alfo diftinguished by a filk manufactory of ribbons and other small wares at Coventry; as also for hard wares at Birmingham; whofe proprietors have their warehouses at London.

The next county eastward is Northamptonshire. Here I found the foil very fruitful both in tillage and pafturage, but it is not well stocked with wood, nor (by reason of its distance from the fea) can it be fupplied with coal as duly as other counties, fo that winter fuel, as I was informed here, is exceeding dear. It abounds with sheep and other cattle, wool, pigeons, and faltpetre; and they fay it has been obferved, that there is lefs wafte ground in this than in any other county of England, there being but one barren heath in it, and that near Whittering. 'Tis a plain level country, and fo populous, that from fome places may be feen no less than thirty fteeples at one view. Its manufactures are ferges, tammies, fhalloons, boots and shoes.

Our next progress was into Huntingtonshire, which I was informed, having formerly been a very woody country, and harbouring much game, was fo called from its being most proper for hunting. It still abounds with willows, marshy on the north-eaft fide, but plentiful of pasture; and though it must be allowed inferior, both as to the foil and produce, to many other counties, it is pleasant, diversified with hills, and yields plenty of corn and cattle.

Keeping ftill to the east we paffed into Cambridgeshire, in which is feated another famous university of the English nation. The air and foil of this county are very different, according to its different parts: the air is very good about Cambridge, and all the fouth and east parts, but damp and foggy, and therefore not fo wholesome, in the ifle of Ely, and other northern low watery tracts, that are part of the great level of the fens, called Bedford-level, and often fubject to inundations. The foil, however, in general, is very fruitful; the dry barren parts being improved in fome places from five to thirty fhillings an acre by the cinque-foil (that grafs which the French call Saint-foin, because they brought it from the Holy Land) and the low fpungy parts, by draining the fens. Its chief commodities are excellent corn, especially barley, of which they make vaft quantities of malt, cattle, butter, faffron, colefeed, hemp, fifh, and wild-fowl. principal manufactures of this county are paper and baskets.

N. B.-See an account of the univerfity of Cambridge hereafter.

The

At last we arrived in the maritime county of Suffolk, looking to the northern ocean; whose air is very clear and wholesome, fweet and pleafant, even near the fea-fhore, because the beach is generally fandy and fhelly, which fhoots off the fea-water, and keeps it from ftagnation and ftinking mud. The phyficians, as they told me, reckon it as good an air as any in the kingdom.

The foil is various; that near the fea is fandy, and full of heaths, yet abounds with rye, pease, and hemp, and feeds great flocks of fheep. That called High Suffolk, or the Woodlands, which is the inner part of the country, though it abounds with wood, yet has a rich deep clay and marle, which produces good paiture, that feeds abundance of cattle. The part which borders on Effex and Cambridge likewife affords excellent pasture; and about Bury and fo to the north and north-west, 'tis fruitful in corn, except towards New-market, which is for the moft part green heath. 'Tis faid, that the feeding cattle and fheep on turnips, which practice has now obtained almost the general approbation of the English graziers and farmers, was an improvement first set on foot in this county.

Its chief commodities are butter and cheese, the latter of which is fomewhat the worfe for the fake of inriching the former; but it is much the better for long voyages, by reafon of its drynefs, and the sea fo mellows it, that it has been fold for twelve pence a pound.

a pound. The butter, which is made here in great quantities, and conveyed to many parts of England, is incomparable; it is packed up in firkins, according to the statute, and fold in markets and fairs for all ufes both by fea and land, but more particularly to the cheesemongers of London. Here alfo I met with fome manufactures of woollen and linen cloth.

Keeping now to the fea-coaft we entered the county of Norfolk, which has a greater variety of foil, than is, perhaps, in any other county, and in that refpect it is called (justly enough) the representative of all England, for the beft and worst of foils; but even the latter, i. e. fens and marshlands, and the fandy heaths, are exceeding profitable; the former affording rich pasture for cattle, and the latter feeding great flocks of hardy strong sheep, of a peculiar kind to this county, called Norfolks, and vaft numbers of filver-hair'd rabbits. The light, deep, and clay grounds, are very fruitful in rye and pease, wheat and barley; and near Walfingham, they produce faffron. On the banks of its rivers, and its rivulets, are many fine meadows and pastures; and near its towns are many fprings, groves, and coppices: fome villages are said to keep no lefs than five thoufand fheep. The lord of every town orders how many, and what fort of sheep the people fhall have, directs their walks both in winter and fummer, where they shall be folded for the fake of their dung, and how they fhall be driven from place to place. Its product confifts chiefly in corn, wool, honey, and faffron; the best faffron growing near Walfingham : And the manufactures of this county are chiefly ftuffs, crapes, and stockings.

Proceeding northerly, we came into Lincolnshire, which is ufually divided into three parts, viz. Holland on the fouth-east fide, Kestevan on the fouth-weft, and Lindsey on the north, which last is much the biggeft; for its divifion takes in all that lies north of Lincoln city, and of the Fofs-Dyke, which King Henry I. cut betwixt the Witham and Trent.

The first is a foft marshy ground, abounding with rivers and fens, and has therefore a bad air.

The fecond has an air more wholesome, as it is lefs affected by the fogs from the fens; and a foil more fruitful.

The third is generally reckoned healthy, efpecially on the weft fide.

The inland country produces corn, the fens colefeed, and the richest pastures; fo that their cattle are bigger than in any county except Somerfet, which took a breed from thence about threefcore years ago, and has much improved the fize by their richer pastures. And their horses are reputed to be no ways inferior to the Yorkshire: breed.

Once more we left the fight of the fea-fhore, aud entered the inland county of Leicester, which enjoys both a good air and a good foil, that produces wheat, barley, peas, and oats; but its moft natural and plentiful crops are beans, efpecially in that part of Sparkingho hundred, which lies about the village, called from thence Barton in the beans, where they are fo luxuriant, that towards harvest time, when I faw them, they looked like a foreft. The Norfolkians are not fonder of dumplins, than the Leicestrians are of beans; which though they are in other countries food only for horses or hogs, unless eaten when they are green, in this they are efteemed good for men all the year round. Perhaps they are more tender and fweeter here than in other places, for this reason in the very nature of things, viz. that where any grain thrives beft, 'tis always the sweetest and wholesomest of the kind. The people have not only a pleasure of eating, but a profit of felling them to their neighbours, who indeed deride them by the name of bean bellies, and have a proverb which says, shake a Leicestershire

man

man by the collar, and you fhall hear the beans rattle in his belly; but the yeomen smile at what is faid to rattle in their bellies, while they know good filver thereby rings in their pockets.

There are no manufactures in this county, except it be ftockings, which has been of late much encouraged; fo that the fhepherd and husbandman engross almost all to themfelves; for as the latter fupplics other counties with its corn and pulfe, the former fends its wool into many parts of England, which fetches them good money.

The great want of fuel, in the inland country efpecially, is fupplied by a very rich coal mine, at a place called Cole Orton, from whence 'tis fold at good rates to the neighbouring counties.

Their fheep are of the Lincolnshire breed, fomewhat bigger than thofe of Cambridge and Norfolk; and the country is pretty well stocked with deer, for which here are feveral parks.

Most of the gentlemen here are graziers, and in fome places the latter are fo rich, that they grow gentlemen, it being common here for graziers to rent farms in this county from 500l. to 2000l. a-year.

The horfes bred, or rather fed here, are the largest in England, being generally the black fort for the coach and dray, of which great numbers are continually fent up to

London.

Adjoining to Leicestershire on the north road is the county of Nottingham, which, excepting the large foreft of Sherwood, is an exceeding fruitful place, especially on the fouth-east, and the weft fide is woody, and full of good coal. The chief commodities are cattle, corn, malt, wool, coal, wood, liquorice, cheese, butter, leather and tallow. It also yields marle of several forts, and a stone not unlike alabaster, only fofter; which, when burnt, makes a plaster harder than that of Paris, wherewith they generally floor their upper rooms. The chief manufactures are stockings, glafs, and earthen wares; and 'tis noted for fine ftrong ale, a liquor made of malt and hops much admired by the English.

To the weft of Nottinghamshire lies Derbyshire, an inland county, and according to its different parts, deferving of a different character; for the east and fouth parts, which are full of gentlemen's feats and parks, are well cultivated and fruitful in all kinds of grain, especially barley, which makes many of the inhabitants maltsters, who have a good trade both for their malt and ale. The weft part on the other side of the Derwent is barren, confifting of nought but bleak hills and mountains, except fome fields of oats, and is therefore called the Peak, from the Saxon word Peaeland, which fignifies an eminence; nevertheless there is fome grass on the hills, and plenty in the vales, which feed great flocks of fheep and other cattle; yet by reafon of its fubterraneous riches in mines and quarries, this tract is almoft as profitable to the inhabitants as the other part; for its mountains and quarries yield great quantities of the best lead, antimony, mill-ftones, fcythe-ftones, and grindstones, marble, alabafter, a coarfe fort of chryftal, azure, fpar, green and white vitriol, allum, pit-coal, and iron; for the forming of which, here are forges, where fuch quantities of wood are confumed every day, as well as what is used at the lead mines and coal delfs, that the country has very little, if any, left. This peak abounds with wonders or curiofities, which the inhabitants generally reduce to feven: viz. 1. The famous palace of the Duke of Devonshire, called Chatfworth-house. 2. Mam-tor, a wonderful mountain. 3. Eden-hole. Buxton-wells. 5. Weeding-well, or Tide's-well. 6. Pool's-hole. 7. The devil's a-e, or peak's a-e.

4.

From

From admiring the wonders of Derbyshire, we returned eastward, and croffed part of Nottinghamshire into the noted county of York, the largest county in England, or rather a county full of fhires. But first, to write of it in general, I found that the commodities of Yorkshire are in a particular manner allum, jet, lime, liquorice, horses: Its manufactures, knives, bits, fpurs, stockings, &c. But the greatest of all is cloth, with which it in a good measure fupplies Germany and the north. The corn and cattle with which it abounds, are not mentioned, because these are what they have in common with other counties. Iron and lead mines have been in more plenty than of late years, though no lefs than 40.000 perfons are employed in the iron manufactures, under about 600 mafter cutlers, who are incorporated by the ftile of the cutlers of Hallamfhire. And now in particular, this county is divided into three parts, or ridings, each of which is as large, if not larger than any ordinary county; which are distinguished by weft, east, and north, from their fituation with respect to the city of York, and contain, viz.

And first of the Weft-riding; its air, though fharp, is generally reckoned more healthy, than that of the other two Ridings. The foil, on the weft fide of it, is hilly and ftony, and therefore not very fruitful; though in the valleys, there is plenty of good meadow ground and pasture. But that part of it towards the river Oufe is a rich foil, producing wheat and barley, though not in fo great plenty as oats, which are cultivated with fuccefs, even in its worst parts.

In this Riding are trees feldom found in other counties, as firs, yews, and chefnuts; and 'tis remarkable, not only for its many parks and chaces, but for mines of lime-ftone for manure, and quarries of stone for building, and of another fort, whereof the people make allum; which is of a blueish colour, and will cleave like cornifh flate. The mine lies deep, and requires great pains to dig up; but being calcined, 'tis made into allum by various percolations and boilings. This Riding is noted alfo for jet and liquorice, for fine horfes and goats, befides other cattle; for making and curing legs of pork into hams, like the Portuguese and Weftphalian; and for the manufactories of of cloth and iron.

The Eat-riding is the fmalleft of the three, confined within the rivers Derwent, Oufe, Humber, and the German Ocean. Its fouth-eaft part, called the Wapentake of Holderness, is a fruitful fpot; and the parts which lie on the fea-coaft and the Derwent are rich, and full of towns; but the middle of this divifion is overspread with barren, fandy, dry, uninhabited woulds, which are called Yorkfwould, being great downs and hills that produce fome corn, and feed great numbers of black cattle, horfes and fheep, whofe fleeces may compare with those of Cotefwould; but they are generally fent to the marshes to be fattened. The foil about thefe woulds abounds with chalk, flint, fire-ftones, &c. and in divers parts of it there are mines of coal and free-ftone. Thefe woulds extend a great way into the wapentakes of Bainton, Buckcrofs, and Dic-kerings; and at the foot of them, near Bugthorp and Leppington, are found the stones called aftroites, which are dug out of a blue clay on the banks of a rivulet between Bugthorp and the Woulds, though many of them are washed by the rains into the brook.

The

The air cannot be fuppofed to be the pureft every where in this Riding, confidering how great a part of it is incompaffed by the fea and the Humber.

The North-riding is as it were the northern frontier of the two fore-mentioned ridings; extending along the coaft from that called Robin Hood's Bay, on the north fide of Flamborough-head, as far as Whitby, being bounded on the north with the river Tees, which feparates it from Durham. It runs from the fea in a narrow tract of near fixty miles, as far as Weftmoreland, and is bounded on the fouth and weft with the Derwent and Ure, which part it from the east and west Ridings.

The east part of this country towards the ocean is called Blackmoor, i. e. a land black and mountainous, being all over rugged and unfightly, by reason of craggs, hills, and woods. The north-west part of it, which is of a large extent, and called Richmondshire, is almost one continued eminence, or ridge of craggy rocks, and vast mountains, the fides of which yield pretty good grafs here and there, and the bottoms and valleys are not unfruitful. The hills afford great store of lead, pit-coal, and brafs; and in a charter of Edward IV. mention is made of a mineral or copper-mine near the very town of Richmond. On the tops of these mountains, as well as elsewhere, plenty of ftones, like fea-cockles, are found in firm rocks and beds of lime-ftone, fometimes at fix or eight fathom under ground. The miners therefore call them run lime-ftones, as fuppofing them to be produced by a more than ordinary heat, and a quicker fermentation than they allow to the production of the other parts of the quarry. The hills here towards Lancashire have a profpect fo wild, folitary and unfightly, and all things are fo ftill, that the neighbours have called fome rivulets here Hellbecks, especially that at the head of the river Ure, which, with a bridge over it, of one entire ftone, falls fo deep, that it ftrikes one with horror to look down. There is fafe harbour in this tract for goats, deer, and stags, which are very remarkable and extraordinary for their bulk and branchy heads. The river Ure rifes here out of the weft mountains, and runs through Wenefdale, a valley well stocked with cattle and land.

Swaldale is another divifion of the Riding, being a dale fo called from the river Swale, which runs through it, wherein Paulinus the Archbishop of York is faid to have baptized 10,000 Saxons in a day. 'Tis a pretty broad, pleafant vale, with grafs enough, but it wants wood, for though there is a place near it called Swaldale foreft, there are fcarce any trees in it now, whatever there were formerly. Near it is Wenesdale, a very rich fruitful valley ftocked with vaft herds of cattle, for which there is delicate pasture. The moft woody foreft in this Riding is that of Galtres, called, in Latin, Galaterium Nemus, which in fome places is thick and fhady, in others flat, wet and boggy. This forest in the reign of Edward III. extended itself, they fay, to the walls of York; and it must have been a place of fome note in the reign of Henry VII. because it appears from a patent in Rymer's Fœdera, that he appointed his fon Prince Henry warden of this forest.

very

Befides coals already mentioned, this Riding produces marble, allum, jet, and copperas. The allum is a mineral dug out of a rock, of the colour of flate at first, but, when burnt, it changes to a mere ruddy colour, and then it is steeped in pits of water dug for that purpose, after which 'tis boiled and clarified, as it comes to us. The chief allum-works here are carried on by the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham *, at Whitby, where was the greatest plenty of its mine.

As for jet, geat, or black amber, in Latin, gagates, though the name is given to the agate, 'tis very different from it, though fome mistake it to be the fame. "Tis found

Since dead.