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always amongst the first to adopt and make experiments of any new mode of culture, new implements of husbandry, or new varieties of grain; and they practised draining, irrigation, fencing, and other improvements, on the most correct principles. Their great attention to minutie, unremitting industry, and supe rior cultivation, not only raised a spirit of exertion and emulation in the surrounding neighbourhood, but gained them such celebrity as first-rate breeders and agriculturists, that they had pupils from various parts of the island, with whom they received considerable premiums, besides being amply paid for their board and instruction. To all those acquirements, they added strict economy; the consequence of which was a great accumulation of wealth, which they applied (as occasions offered) to increasing their farming concerns; and this to such an extent, that for several years they occupied farms to the amount of about 80001, a year. The large capital which such extensive concerns required, applied with so much attention and judgment, could not fail of producing the most lucrative effects. The result is, that, from a small original capital, their respective families are now enjoying landed property to the amount of nearly 40007. a year each (besides a very large sum invested in farming), the well merited reward of unremitting industry and extensive agricultural knowledge. In 1786, Mr. George Culley published his Observations on Live Stock, which was the first treatise on the subject that attempted to describe the domesticated animals of Britain, and the principles by which they may be improved. The great merits of this work are evinced by the number of editions it has gone through. In 1793, Mr. G. Culley, in conjunction with Mr. Bailey of Chillingham, drew up the Agricultural Reports for Durham and Northumberland, and in 1813 he died at Fowberry Tower, the seat of his son, in the 79th year of his age. (Farmer's Mag, vol. xiv. p. 274.)

790. Merino sheep were first brought into England in 1788, when His Majesty procured a small flock by way of Portugal. In 1791, another flock was imported from Spain. In 1804, when His Majesty's annual sales commenced, this race began to attract much notice. Dr. Parry, of Bath, has crossed the Ryeland, or Herefordshire sheep, with the merinos, and brought the wool of the fourth generation to a degree of fineness not excelled by that of the pure merino itself; while the carcass, in which is the great defect of the merinos, has been much improved. Lord Somerville, and many other gentlemen, have done themselves much honour by their attention to this race; but it does not appear that the climate of Britain, the rent of land, and the love of good mutton, admit of substituting it for others of native origin. (Encyc. Bril. art. Agr.)

791. The agriculture of Scotland, as we have seen, was in a very depressed state at the revolution, from political circumstances. It was not less so in point of professional knowledge. Lord Kaimes, that excellent judge of mankind and sound agriculturist, declares, in strong terms, that the tenantry of Scotland, at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, were so benumbed with oppression or poverty, that the most able instructor in husbandry would have made nothing of them. Fletcher of Saltoun, who lived in the best part of Scotland, and in the end of the seventeenth century, describes their situation as truly deplorable.

792. John Cockburn, of Ormiston, East Lothian, a spirited individual, who rose at this time, and to whom the agriculture of Scotland is much indebted, deserves to be mentioned. He was born in 1685, and succeeded to the family estate of Ormiston in 1714. He saw that internal improvement could only be effected by forming and extending a middle rank of society, and increasing their prosperity. In fact, as an able writer, Brown, the founder of the Farmer's Magazine, has remarked, "the middling ranks are the strength and support of every nation.' In former times, what we now call middling classes were not known, or at least little known in Scotland, where the feudal system reigned longer than in England. After trade was introduced, and agriculture improved, the feudal system was necessarily overturned; and proprietors, like other men, began to be estimated according to their respective merits, without receiving support from the adventitious circumstances under which they were placed.

The

793. In 1723, a number of landholders, at the instigation of Mr. Cockburn, formed themselves into a Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland. Earl of Stair, one of their most active members, is said to have been the first who cultivated turnips in that country. This society exerted itself in a very laudable manner, and apparently with considerable success, in introducing cultivated herbage and turnips, as well as in improving on the former methods of culture: but there is reason to believe, that the influence of the example of its members did not extend to the common tenantry, who are always unwilling to adopt the practices of those who are placed in a higher rank, and supposed to cultivate land for pleasure, rather than profit. Though this society, the earliest in the united kingdom, soon counted upwards of three hundred members, it existed little more than twenty years. Maxwell delivered lectures on agriculture for one or two sessions at Edinburgh, which, from the specimens he has left, ought to have been encouraged.

794. Draining, enclosing, summer-fallowing; sowing flax, hemp, rape, turnip, and grass seeds; planting cabbages after and potatoes with the plough, in fields of great extent, are practices which were already introduced: and, according to the general opinion, more corn was now grown where it was never known to grow before, than, perhaps, a sixth of all that the kingdom used to produce at any former period. It is singular that though the practice of summer-fallowing seems to have prevailed in England since the time of the Romans, yet it was neglected in Scotland till about the beginning of the eighteenth century, when it was first practised by John Walker, tenant at Beanston, in East Lothian. The late Lord Milton considered this improvement of so much importance, that he was

" eager to procure the erection of a pillar to the memory of Mr. Walker." (Farm. Mag., vol. i. p. 164.)

795. The first notice of a threshing machine is given by Maxwell, in his Transactions of the Society of Improvers, &c.; it was invented by Michael Menzies, advocate, who obtained a patent for it. Upon a representation made to the society, that it was to be seen at work in several places, they appointed two of their number to inspect it; and in their report they say that one man would be sufficient to manage a machine which would do the work of six. One of the machines was "moved by a great water wheel and treddles;" and another, " by a little wheel of three feet in diameter, moved by a small quantity of water." This machine the society recommended to all gentlemen and farmers. (Encyc. Brit. and Ed. Encyc. art. Agr.; Brown's Treatise on Rural Affairs, Introduction, &c.)

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Dawson, of Frogden, in Rorburghshire, is a man to whom Scottish agriculture is perhaps more indettal than to any other. Findlater, the author of the Survey of Peeble shire, one of the best judges, terms bis the father of the improved system of husbandry in Scotland." Dawson was born at Harperton, in Berwickshire, a farm of which his father was tenant, in 1734. At the age of 16 he was sent to a farm in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, and thence into Essex, where he directed his attention chiefly to He afterwards travelled through several other counties of England," accurately examining the best courses of husbandry, and storing up for his own use whatever seemed likely to be introduced with advantage into his own country." On his return to Scotland he tried, with the consent of his father, the culture of turnips on the farm of Harperton, but he did not commence the culture of this root upon a large scale until he entered on the farm of Frogden on his own account in 1759. Great exertions were required in enclosing, draining, liming, and manuring the arable part of this farm; but the soil being andy, the expense was ultimately more than repaid. It was here that Mr. Dawson perfected the drillSystem of cultivating turnips, but not before he had grown them for several years in the broadcast man. Der. The first drills were drawn in the year 1763, and the extent of turnip crop was about 100 acres annually. In a few years the success which attended Mr. Dawson's management enabled him first to rent two contiguous farms, and afterwards to purchase and improve, in that county, the estate of Graden, a property of considerable extent, adjoining Frogden. On these lands he introduced and exemplified, for the first time in Scotland, what has been called the convertible husbandry; i e. the growth of clover and sown grasses for three or more years in succession, alternately with corn crops and turnips. 15. Mr. Dawson was the first to introduce to Scotland the practice of ploughing with two horses abreast that the aid of a driver. The first ploughman who effected this was James M Dougal, who, after being 14 years overseer to Mr. Dawson, in 1778 took a farm of his own at West Linton, in Peeblesshire, where he died in 1992, aged 82 years. It was the desire of Mr. Dawson that justice should be done to the memory of this able and worthy man, whose example, as the Rev. Charles Findlater observes, has had more effect in diffusing the improved system of husbandry than all the premiums ever given by landlords. Douglas's Sure, of Roxb.; Farm. Mag., vol. xiii. p. 512) Mr. Dawson spent the last years of his life in Edirgh, where he died in January, 1815, in his 81st year, leaving a numerous family in prosperous

circurestances

The character of Dawson is thus given by his biographer in the Farmer's Magazine, and may well be quoted here as a model for imitation. "He was exceedingly regular in his habits, and most correct and systematical in all his agricultural operations, which were not only well conducted, but always executed at the proper season. His plans were the result of an enlightened and sober calculation; and were perested in, in spite of every difficulty and discouragement, till they were reduced to practice. Every one who knows the obstacles that are thrown in the way of all innovations in agriculture, by the sneers of prejudice and the obstinacy of ignorance, and not unfrequently by the evil offices of jealousy and male. volence, must be aware, that none but men of very strong minds, and of unceasing activity, are able to surmount them Such a man was Mr. Dawson; and to this single individual may be justly ascribed the terit of producing a most favourable change in the sentiments, in regard to the trial of new experiments, as well as in the practice, of the farmers of Scotland. The labouring classes were not less indebted to this eminent person for opening up a source of employment, which has given bread to the young and feeble in almost the only branches of labour of which they are capable in merely rural districts. Most of his ser. Fats continued with him for many years; and such as had benefited by his instructions and advice were eagerly engaged to introduce their master's improvements in other places. This benevolence, which often sought for objects at a distance that were not personally known to him, was displayed, not only in pecumary donations, while the giver frequently remained unknown, but was strikingly evinced in the attention which he paid to the education of the children of his labourers, for whom he maintained teachers at his expetise. If fame were always the reward of great and useful talents, there are few men of any age country that would live longer in the grateful remembrance of posterity than the subject of this memor." (Farm, Mag., vol. xvi. p. 168.)

799. As the leading features of practical agricultural improvement in Britain during the eighteenth century, and to the present time, we may enumerate the following:-The gradual introduction of a better system of rotation since the publication of Tull's Horseking Husbandry, and other agricultural works, from 1700 to 1750; the improvement of live stock by Bakewell, about 1760; the raised drill system of growing turnips, the Use of lime in agriculture, and the convertible husbandry, by Pringle, and more especially by Dawson, about 1765; the improved swing plough, by Small, about 1790; and the improved threshing machine, by Meikle, about 1795. As improvements of comparatively limited application might be mentioned, the art of tapping springs, or what has been called Elkington's mode of draining, which seems to have been discovered by Dr. Anderson, from principle, and Mr. Elkington, by accident, about 1760, or later; and the revival of the art of irrigation, by Boswell, about 1780. The field culture of the potato, shortly after 1750; the introduction of the Swedish turnip, about 1790; of spring wheat, about 1795; of summer wheat, about 1800; and of mangold wurtzel more recently, have, with the introduction of other improved field plants, and improved breeds of animals, contributed to increase the products of agriculture; as the enclosing of common field lands and wastes, and the improvements of mosses and marshes, have contributed to increase the produce and salubrity of the general surface of the country.

800. The progress of the taste for agriculture in Britain is shown by the great number of societies that have been lately formed; one or more in almost every county, for the diffusion of knowledge, and the encouragement of correct operations and beneficial discoveries. Among these, the Bath and West of England Society, established in 1777, and the Highland Society of Scotland, in 1784, hold the first rank. The establishment of the Board of Agriculture, in 1793, ought to have formed a new era in the history of the agriculture and rural economy of Britain; but it effected little beyond the publication of the County Agricultural Surveys, and, to a certain extent, rendering the art fashionable among the higher classes.

SECT. III. Of the Literature of British Agriculture from the Revolution to the

present Time.

801. The literature of English agriculture from the revolution is rich in excellent works. We have already, in detailing the professional improvements, noticed the writings of Mortimer and Tull. To these we now add the numerous works of Bradley, which appeared from 1717 to his death in 1732. They are all compilations, but have been of very considerable service in spreading a knowledge of culture, and a taste for rural improvement. Stephen Switzer, a seedsman in London, in 1729; Dr. Blackwell, in 1741; and Hitt, a few years afterwards, published tracts recommending the burning of clay as manure, in the manner recently done by Governor Beatson, of Suffolk; Craig, of Cally in Kircudbrightshire, and some others. Lisle's useful Observations on Husbandry were published in 1757; Stillingfleet's Tracts, in which he shows the importance of a selection of grasses for laying down lands, in 1759; and the excellent Essays of Harte, canon of Windsor, in 1764. The celebrated Arthur Young's first publication on agriculture, entitled, The Farmer's Letters to the People of England, &c., appeared in 1767; and was followed by a great variety of excellent works, including the Tour in France, and the Annals of Agriculture, till his pamphlet on the utility of the Board of Agriculture, in 1810. Marshall's numerous and most superior agricultural works commenced with his Minutes of Agriculture, published in 1787, and ended with his Review of the Agricultural Reports, in 1816. Dr. R. W. Dickson's Practical Agriculture appeared in two quarto volumes, in 1806, and may be considered as giving a complete view of the present state of agriculture at the time. The last general work we shall mention is the Code of Agriculture, by Sir John Sinclair, which may be considered as a comprehensive epitome of the art of farming. It has already been translated into several foreign languages, and passed through more than one edition in this country. In this sketch a great number of useful and ingenious authors are necessarily omitted; but they will all be found in their places in the Literature of British Agriculture, given in the Fourth Part of this work.

802. The Scottish writers on agriculture confirm our view of the low state of the art in that country in the beginning of the eighteenth century. The first work, written by James Donaldson, was printed in 1697, under the title of Husbandry Anatomised; or, an Enquiry into the present Manner of Teiling and Manuring the Ground in Scotland. It appears from this treatise that the state of the art was not more advanced at that time in North Britain, than it had been in England in the time of Fitzherbert. Farms were divided into infield and outfield; corn crops followed one another, without the intervention of fallow, cultivated herbage, or turnips, though something is said about fallowing the outfield; enclosures were very rare; the tenantry had not begun to emerge from a state of great poverty and depression; and the wages of labour, compared with the price of corn, were much lower than at present; though that price, at least in ordinary years, must appear extremely moderate in our times. Leases for a term of years, however, were not uncommon; but the want of capital rendered it impossible for the tenantry to attempt any spirited improvements.

803. The Countryman's Rudiments; or, an Advice to the Farmers in East Lothian how to labour and improve their Grounds, said to have been written by Lord Belhaven, about the time of the union, and reprinted in 1723, is the next work on the husbandry of Scotland. In this we have a deplorable picture of the state of agriculture, in what is now the most highly improved county in Scotland. His Lordship begins with a very high encomium on his own performance. "I dare be bold to say, there never was such a good, easy method of husbandry as this, so succinct, extensive, and methodical in all its parts, published before." And he bespeaks the favour of those to whom he addresses himself, by adding, neither shall I affright you with hedging, ditching, marling, chalking, paring and burning, draining, watering, and such like, which are all very good improvements indeed, and very agreeable with the soil and situation of East Lothian; but I know ye cannot bear as yet such a crowd of improvements, this being only intended to initiate you in the true method and principles of husbandry." The farm lands in East Lothian, as in other districts, were divided into infield and outfield, the former of which got all the dung." The infield, where wheat is sown, is generally divided by the tenant into four divisions or breaks, as they call them, viz. one of wheat, one of barley, one of peas, and one of oats; so that the wheat is sowed after the peas, the barley after the wheat, and the oats after the barley. The outfield land is ordinarily made use of promiscuously for feeding their cows, horses, sheep, and oxen: it is also dunged by their sheep, who lay in earthen folds; and sometimes, when they have much of it, they fauch or fallow part of it yearly." Under this management, the produce seems to have been three times the seed; "and yet," says His Lordship, "if in East Lothian they did not leave a higher stubble than in other places of the kingdom, their grounds would be in a much worse condition than at present they are, though bad enough. A good crop of corn makes a good stubble, and a good stubble is the equallest

Rents

mucking that is." Among the advantages of enclosures, he observes," you will gain much more labour from your servants, a great part of whose time was taken up in gathering thistles, and other garbage, for their horses to feed upon in their stables; and thereby the great trampling and pulling up, and other destruction of the corns, while they are yet tender, will be prevented." Potatoes and turnips are recom mended to be sown in the yard (kitchen-garden). Clover does not seem to have been known. were paid in corn; and, for the largest farm, which he thinks should employ no more than two ploughs, the rent was" about six chalders of victual, when the ground is very good, and four in that which is not so good. But I am most fully convinced they should take long leases or tacks, that they may not be straitened with time in the improvement of their rooms (farms); and this is profitable both for master and tenant."

804 Maxwell's Select Transactions of the Society of Improvers of the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland was published in 1743 (see 793, and his Practical Husbandman, in 1757, including an Essay on the Husbandry of Scotland. In the latter he lays it down as a rule, that it is bad husbandry to take two crops of grain successively, which marks a considerable progress in the knowledge of modern culture; though he adds that, in Scotland, the best husbandmen after a fallow take a crop of wheat; after the wheat, peas, then barley, and then oats; and after that they fallow again. The want of enclosures was still a matter of complaint. The ground continued to be cropped so long as it produced two seeds for one; the best farmers were contented with four seeds for one, which was more than the general produce. In 170, A Treatise on Agriculture was published by the Rev. Adam Dickson, minister of Dunse, in Berwickshire, which was decidedly the best work on tillage which had then appeared in the English language, and is still held in esteem among the practical farmers of Scotland. In 1777, Lord Kaimes published The Gentleman Farmer, being an attempt to improve agriculture by subjecting it to the test of rational principles. His Lordship was a native of Berwickshire; and had been accustomed to farm in that country for several years, and afterwards at Blair Drummond, near Stirling. This work was in part a compilation, and in part the result of his observation; and was of essential service to the cause of agriculture in Scot land In 1778, appeared Wight's Present State of Husbandry in Scotland. This is a valuable work; but the volumes not appearing but at intervals of some years, it was of less benefit than might have been expected. In 1783, Dr. Anderson published his Essays relating to Agriculture and rural Affairs: a work of science and ingenuity, which did much good both in Scotland and England. In 1810, appeared The Husbandry of Scotland, and, in 1815, The General Report of the Agricultural State and Political Circum. stances of Scotland, both by Sir John Sinclair, and excellent works. The Code of Agriculture, by the same patriotic and indefatigable character, has been noticed as belonging to English publications on agriculture. (801)

805. Agricultural Periodicals. — The Farmer's Magazine; a quarterly work, exclusively devoted to agriculture and rural affairs, was commenced in 1800, and has done more to enlighten both the proprietors and tenantry of Scotland than any other book which has appeared. It was at first conducted jointly by Robert Brown, farmer of Markle; and Robert Somerville, M. D. of Haddington. Afterwards, on Dr. Somerville's death, by Brown alone; and subsequently, on the latter gentleman's declining it, by James Cleghorn, one of the most scientific agriculturists of Scotland. The frequent recurrence that will be made to The Farmer's Magazine in the course of this work, will show the high value which we set on it. In November 1825, this work terminated with the 26th volume, and has since been succeeded by The Farmer's Register and Monthly Magazine, and The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, in Scotland; and by The British Farmer's Magazine in England. The Farmer's Journal is the first agricultural newspaper which appeared in Britain; it was commenced in 1808, and is still continued. The Irish Farmer's Journal was commenced in 1812, but discontinued for want of patronage in 1827. The names and writings of all the British agricultural authors, with abridged biographies of all such as could be procured, will be found in chronological order in Chap. IV. of Book I. of Part IV. of this work. (See Contents or Index.)

806. A professorship of agriculture was established in the university of Edinburgh, in 1790, and the professor, Dr. Andrew Coventry, is well known as a man of superior qualifications for fulfilling its duties. Professorships of agriculture, and even of horticulture, or rather of culture in general, are said to be partly provided for, and partly in contemplation, both in Oxford and Cambridge. The professor of botany in the London University, John Lindley, in the Prospectus of his Lectures, announces "the application of the laws of Vegetable Physiology to the arts of Agriculture and Horticulture."

SECT. IV. Of the Rise, Progress, and present State of Agriculture in Ireland. S07. Of the agriculture of Ireland very little is known up to a recent period. With a soil singularly prolific in pasture, and rather humid for the easy management of grain, it is probable that sheep and cattle would be the chief rural products for many centuries. In the twelfth century and earlier, various religious establishments were founded, and then it is most probable tillage on something like the Roman mode of culture would be introduced. The monks, says O'Connor, fixed their habitations in deserts, which they cultivated with their own hands, and rendered them the most delightful spots in the kingdom.

808. During the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, the English were obliged to suppress the numerous rebellions of their Irish subjects by war, and the forfeited estates of the rebels would in part be divided among the troops. This might end in introducing some agricultural improvements; but there is no evidence that such was effected before the time of Elizabeth, when the enormous demesnes of the Earl of Desmond were forfeited, and divided amongst a number of English undertakers, as they were called, who entered into a stipulation to plant a certain number of English families

on their estates, in proportion to the number of acres. portions were, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Spenser, the poet. then introduced the potato.

Among others who received
The former is said to have

809. The reign of James I. was one of comparative tranquillity for Ireland: the power of the judges, and of the English government, was extensively fixed; the Irish laws and customs were abolished, and the English laws were established in all cases without exception, through the whole island. Numerous colonies were also sent from England and Scotland, especially the latter, to occupy the forfeited estates; and seven northern counties were wholly allotted to undertakers. This was called the "plantation of Ulster," and was attended by the introduction of an improved agriculture, and by the linen manufacture, which is still carried on by the descendants of the first colonists in the same counties.

810. The city of London participated in this distribution of land. The corporation having accepted of large grants in the county of Derry, they engaged to expend 20,000l. on the plantation; to build the cities of Derry and Colerain, and at the same time stipulated for such privileges as might make their settlement convenient and respectable. Under a pretence of protecting this infant settlement, or perhaps with a view of raising money, the king instituted the order of Irish baronets, or knights of Ulster; from each of whom, as was done in Scotland with respect to the knights of Nova Scotia, he exacted a certain sum, as the price of the dignity conferred. (Wakefield.)

811. Of the husbandry of Londonderry a curious account was published about a century ago, by the archbishop of Dublin. He states that there was little wheat grown, and that of very inferior quality; the soil being considered as unsuitable to its production. Potatoes remained three or four years in the ground, reproducing a crop, which at the best was a very deficient one. Lime was procured by burning sea shells. The application of them in an unburnt state arose from accident. A poor curate, destitute of the means for burning the sea shells which he had collected, more with a view to remove an evidence of his poverty, than in any hope of benefit, spread them on his ground. success which attended the experiment occasioned surprise, and insured a rapid and general adoption of the practice. (Wakefield.) The improvements made since the period of which the archbishop treats, Curwen remarks, are undoubtedly very considerable : and whilst we smile at the very subordinate state of agriculture at that time, may we not on reasonable ground expect that equal progress will at least be made in this century as in the last? (Letters on Ireland, vol. ii. p. 246.)

The

812. A considerable impulse was given to the agriculture of Ireland after the rebellion of 1641, which was quelled by Cromwell, as commander of the parliamentary army in 1652. Most of the officers of this army were yeomen, or the sons of English country gentlemen; and they took pleasure in instructing the natives in the agricultural practices to which they were accustomed at home. Afterwards, when Cromwell assumed the protectorship, he made numerous grants to his soldiers, many of whom settled in Ireland; and their descendants have become men of consideration in the country. Happily these grants were confirmed at the restoration. Some account of the state of culture in that country at this time, and of the improvements which it was deemed desirable to introduce, will be found in Hartlib's Legacy.

813. The establishment of the Dublin Society in 1749 gave the next stimulus to agriculture and general industry in Ireland. The origin of the Dublin Society may be dated from 1731, when a number of gentlemen, at the head of whom was Prior of Rathdowney, Queen's county, associated themselves together for the purpose of improving the agriculture and husbandry of their country. In 1749, Prior, through the interest of the then lord-lieutenant, procured a grant of 10,000l. per annum, for the better promotion of its views. Miss Plumtree considers this the first association ever formed in the British dominions expressly for such purposes; but the Edinburgh Agricultural Society, as we have seen (793.), was founded in 1723.

814. Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland was published in 1780, and probably did more good than even the Dublin Society. In this work he pointed out the folly of the bounty on the inland carriage of corn. His recommendation on this subject was adopted; and, according to Wakefield, "from that hour may be dated the commencement of extended tillage in Ireland." (Wakefield's Statistical Account; Curwen's Letters.)

815. The state of agriculture of Ireland, in the beginning of the present century, is given with great clearness and ability in the supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica; and from that source we have selected the following condensed account :

816. The climate of Ireland is considerably more mild than that of England, and the southern and western part of the island greatly more so than the northern. The difference in this respect, indeed, is greater than can be explained by the difference of latitude; and is probably owing to the immediate vicinity of the western ocean. On the mountains

of Kerry, and in Bantry Bay, the arbutus and some other shrubs grow in great luxuriance, which are not to be met with again till the traveller reaches the Alps of Italy. The

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