21
ESSEX ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS
AGO.
"A Six Weeks' Tour through the Southern Counties of England
and Wales, etc., etc." By the author of the "Farmer's Letters."
London, 1768.
Those members of the Essex Field Club who were present at the excursion to
Laindon Hills, on June 9th, 1888 (Essex Naturalist, ii, 126), may remember
that an extract from the above work, giving an, enthusiastic account of the
beauties of the view therefrom, was read. This book, one of the earliest of the
writings of the well-known Arthur Young, I propose to notice here, mainly as
regards that part of it treating of Essex, having been indebted to my friend Mr.
H. B. Woodward for an opportunity of perusing it at leisure.
The objects of the tour are fully described in the title page, which is of the volu-
minous kind common in the last century. They were, as might have been
expected in the case of Arthur Young, to see and describe the state of the agricul-
ture and manufactures, and to note the prices of labour and provisions, and the
condition of the poor in the counties visited. In addition are descriptions of the
most celebrated mansions, and the most striking views, seen during his travels.
The tour begins in Norfolk, the first pages being devoted to an account of Holk-
ham, its architecture and picture gallery. Our author notes the great use of marl
as a manure in this district. They lay on, he says, 100 loads on an acre, and the
improvement "lasts in great vigour above twenty years." He attributes the
success of many of the large farmers to their hiring unimproved land at low rents,
and to the immense improvement caused by the use of the abundant and easily
obtained marl. Of course the "marl" used in Norfolk is chiefly the "Chalky
Boulder-clay." He passed into Suffolk (his native county) by way of Thetford,
"and found a vast quantity of land quite uncultivated, which surprised me much,
especially as I was informed marl is in many places to be found, where no use is
made of it." Essex was entered by crossing the river at Sudbury, which is described
as an exceedingly dirty, but a great manufacturing town. Around Henningham 1
hops were much cultivated, more than 200 acres growing near that town, which
also possessed a woollen manufactory of "bays and fays," At Gosfield, near
Braintree, the seat of Lord Clare, oxen were used instead of horses for all pur-
poses of draught. This practice appears to have been most unusual in Essex, and
to have been much ridiculed by the neighbouring farmers. It had been introduced
by his lordship from Gloucestershire, and he is said to have had at one time nearly
30 oxen in constant work, finding, after careful calculations, that their cost was
much less than that of horses. Our author appears to agree with Lord Clare in
this view, but a few pages further on we learn that the Gloucestershire farmers
generally thought oxen rather cheaper, but at the same time less efficient than
horses, while between Bath and Devizes they preferred horses. In Surrey both
oxen and horses were used, but though the "most sensible people" reckoned oxen
the more profitable, nine horses were kept to one ox. And in the chapter in
which the results of his tour are summed up we learn that the use of Osea was
diminishing "even in the ox counties.''
1 From some remarks elsewhere this should be Hedingham.