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him upon alienation, would be thereby evaded. The usual time of entering upon a farm is the 12th of November, and the rent is commonly paid half yearly. The covenant of a lease generally binds the tenant to keep the buildings and fences in repair. It frequently obliges him to spend upon the farm, if not in the neighbourhood of a town, or near the sea, the whole produce of the hay, straw, and manure, and not to take from any part of the land more than three crops of grain in succession.

Land in the vicinity of towns is chiefly in the possession of their inhabitants, who, after reserving what is necessary for the use of their families, send the remaining produce to market. From 21. to 31. per acre is sometimes given, but 30s. or 35s. is a more common price; and the lots are usually very small. Farms are sometimes let for a guinea or even 25s.: those at a distance from 12s. to 20s.; uplands 5s. and upwards; but rents everywhere are evidently rising. The measure of the English statute acre is universal.

The common, or uncultivated land, is estimated at rather more than one-third of the

island. It includes the whole of the mountain chain, nearly to its base. Horses, cattle, and sheep are turned to graze upon it. They have, each, a fore and hind-leg tied together with a straw-band, to prevent their straying far, and to increase the facility of catching them. An animal thus served is, in the appellation of the Manks, lanketted. The ever-green furze yields them the chief nourishment in winter. Sheep can eat only the young shoots, and keep the bushes so round and even, that they appear to have been under the hands of the pruner. That necessity is the mother of invention is a proverb, not applicable to mankind alone. Horses, being accustomed to take in larger mouthfuls and longer branches than the sheep, cannot eat the furze in its natural state, on account of the prickles. When confined to this kind of food, they trample upon the branches, and paw them with their fore-feet, till the prickles become mashed together or rubbed off; and so completely do they perform their work, that the food thus prepared might be squeezed by the bare hand with impunity. I am informed, that there is no other place, except Anglesea, in

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which they are driven to the exercise of a simi

lar sagacity.

The inclosures are usually from four to ten acres, with fences unaccountably crooked and irregular. The common fence is composed of sods of earth, reaching to the height of four or five feet. It requires frequent repairs. Gorze or furze is often planted on the top, making the fence more secure for the time; but in the course of three or four years, if not cut down before the expiration of that period, completely destroying it. A wall of uncemented stones is another common fence, and more easily repaired. The quickset is little used, and is supposed not to flourish in a westerly aspect. The gateposts, composed of stone and mortar, are remarkably and unnecessarily stupendous, being often square or rhomboidal figures of three feet each way. Only the gate itself is made of wood.

Houses of the best sort, both in town and country, are built of hewn sone: those of an inferior kind, and even very good ones, of stone unhewn. Some of the latter kind, in Douglas, let as high as 401. per annum, Sash lines and weights, even to sash windows, are rarely to be

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seen, the people still continuing the barbarous method of supporting the sash at one invariable height by an iron catch. The farm-houses and offices of this island are generally small, irregular, and ill constructed. Some modern ones are upon a better plan; and some few estates are well supplied with offices and barns. A common custom, and one every way bad, is to have the barn over the cow-house. Open stables are still too much in use. The farm-houses, and, indeed, most of the cottages are built of unhewn stone; the former with a mortar, the latter with a mud, cement: the former with a roof of slate, the latter with one of straw. The meaner cottages are constructed of sods of earth, and resemble those of North Wales, consisting usually of two rooms on the ground, sometimes with, sometimes without, a solitary window. The thatch is of straw, and is kept in its proper place by bands of the same material, twelve or eighteen inches apart, crossing each other at. right angles, thereby dividing into squares the superficies of the roof. Each end of every band is fixed to a pin, stuck into the mud wall. The smoke of a peat-fire is intended to issue at a hole at one corner of the roof left for that pur

pose; but the greater part usually takes possession of the room, and emerges thence by the door-way. The walls of such a cottage are very durable; but the thatch will not last longer than two years; whereas an English thatch will last fourteen.

The roads have been for a long time in an improving state. Forty years ago they were dangerous for horsemen in winter, and for carriages even in summer. At present, though very good in summer, they are sometimes, in winter, impassable for many days together. There are only three chief, or carriage, roads; from Douglas to Castletown: from Douglas to Peel and from Castletown to Ramsay. The clay-slate with which they are made and repaired is soon ground into a sort of clay. About Balasalla and Castletown limestone is used, and makes an excellent road. By the statute of 1776, new high roads were ordered to be eight yards wide, to have ditches on each side, and to be well gravelled at top. The term gravel must be used in a very indefinite sense, since there is not any, nor, I believe, a piece of flint upon the island. The funds for making and repairing them will be noticed in the chapter on revenue.

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