Upon the whole, we have been inftructed as well as entertained by profeffor Richardson, who in this, and his former similar publications, difplays much good tafte, and an intimate acquaintance with the human mind.

-ART. IV. A Tour through Sweden, Swedish-Lapland, Finland, and Denmark. In a Series of Letters. Iluftrated with Engravings. By Matthew Confett, Efq. who accompanied Sir H. G. Liddell, Bart. and Mr. Bowes in this Tour. 4to. 10s. 6d. boards. Johnson. London, 1789.

IN the dedication of this performance to the author's fellowtraveller Sir H. G. Liddell, we are told that, to make the pleasure of such society the more permanent, he has been induced to commit his remarks to paper; and that the indulgence of his friends has contributed to make them public. For this reafon he fends the volume forth with all its imperfections on ' its head;' hoping to fill up a leisure hour for those whom he so highly refpects; and that, if they find nothing to applaud, their time will be at least innocently employed. We had almost faid this contains a pretty exact review of the book. The author, indeed, tells us the Tour has answered all his expectations. It has opened a new fcene, and given a variety to his profpects he before could only enjoy in idea.

If by this is meant that, without an actual furvey, the mind can never acquire a juft notion of a country, how well foever it may be defcribed, we can only lament that no multiplicity of publications can ever fupply this deficiency to us elbow-chair travellers. We are therefore apt to expect, in every fresh account of a country we have furveyed in this manner before, that we fhall meet with incidents unnoticed by former writers. But this is hardly the cafe in the work before us, if we except the very great difficulty of procuring horfes' food and lodging, in fome places, and excellent roads and able profpects in others.

agree

But as the letters of a certain clafs of writers are faid to be chiefly contained in the poftfcript, fo our author has reserved his facts for his appendix, in which he gives an account of two female Laplanders, who accompanied the party to England.

Of these we are told, in very general terms, that they were polite and attentive; but nothing can make fuch characters interefting, except their little remarks are particularifed, and their characters exemplified, by fome ftriking incidents. The author has, however, left us in the dark in these particulars. In the appendix too we have an account of fome rein-deer being brought

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brought over at the fame time, which were healthy, and had bred at Sir Henry's country feat in Northumberland. This is certainly a new fact; but we are not informed how they bore the fummer of this climate, nor whether any attempt had been made to render them ufeful for agricultural purposes.

ART. V. The Rural Economy of Gloucestershire; including its Dairy: together with the Dairy Management of North Wiltshire; and the Management of Orchards and Fruit-Liquor in Herefordfhire. By Mr. Marshall. 8vo. 2 vols. ios. 6d. boards. Gloucester printed, 1789. Sold by G. Nicol, London.

MR

R. Marshall proceeds with alacrity in his great work on the agriculture of the different provinces of Britain. A rural furvey has been already given of Norfolk and Yorkshire; Gloucefterfhire now comes forward, and the rural economy of the midland counties, we are told, is now preparing for the prefs. We are farther informed that the author's original plan extended to no more than seven stations in all; fo that there seems to be a near profpect of having the work completed in a shorter time than we had expected. We announce this circumftance to our readers to prevent an idea from prevailing, which our author feems anxious fhould be obviated, that the undertaking is of fuch a boundless extent as to give room to apprehend it may not be comprised within a moderate compass.

Gloucestershire contains within its bounds two districts, each of great extent, which may be denominated hill and dale. The firft is, in general, denominated the WOLDS, and takes its rife near Bristol and Bath, extending thence in a north-east direction along the borders of Wiltshire and Oxfordshire, till they at laft fink down into the vale near Campen, on the borders of Warwickshire. This is a diftrict of great extent; and though it be altogether an irregular tract of varied grounds raised confiderably above the level of the furrounding vales, it is not fo high as to deferve the name of mountainous, being throughout its whole extent, in most places, a beautiful waved country, susceptible of tillage. In the northern part it is known by the name of COTS-WOLD; towards the middle thefe beautiful fwells affume the name of the STROUDWATER HILLS; and on the fouthern parts near Briftol it is called fimply SOUTH-WOLDS.

The vale skirts along the western extremity of thofe hills, and, bending eastward along the banks of the Worcestershire Avon, bounds alfo the northern extremity of the Cotswold hills, extending on that fide beyond the boundaries of the county into that of Worcestershire. On the weft, this extenfive vale alfo ftretches

ftretches across the Severn to the foot of the Malvern hills, and other high grounds in Herefordshire, forming, upon the whole, one of the largest and most fertile districts in the island of GreatBritain. It is the rural economy of this fine vale that our author chiefly inveftigates in the volumes before us; though he has extended his views, for fome particular purposes, fomewhat beyond the natural limits of this diftrict.

The circumftance that principally induced our ingenious author to make a choice of this ftation was, to obtain an adequate knowledge of the dairy management, which has here been conducted, with great celebrity, for ages paft, and forms, in most parts of this vale, the principal business of the husbandman. Our author, therefore, having fixed himself, as ufual, in a farm-house near to Gloucester, there ftudied this branch of rural economy with his usual attention; and defcribes it with his accustomed accuracy and precifion.

But though the dairy was the principal, it was not the only object of his attention. He begins his furvey, as in other districts, with a general account of the country that is the object of his attention (accompanied with a map), which has furnished the groundwork of the foregoing obfervations. He then proceeds to particulars, enumerating under diftinct heads the obferveable circumftances that occur with refpect to climature, foil, produce, management of eftates, farm buildings, fences, &c. &c. as in his former publications. So that few things escape his notice; but in these varied, though frequently interesting, details, we cannot pretend to follow him.

He is inclined to believe that the foil, throughout the greatest part of this vale, is purely adventitious, having been washed down from the higher grounds by the rivers which pass through it to the fea. Be that as it may, the foil of this vale is now, in general, a rich loam, and the furface raised so much above the level of the rivers, as to be, for the most part, firm, found ground, free from bogs and marfhes, though it is ftill, in many places, liable to be overflowed by inundations, especially in the lower parts of the vale, where it affumes the name of Berkley Vale, and where of course grafs is almost the exclufive produce of the country. On the banks of the Avon, where it is called the Vale of Evesham, a confiderable proportion of the land is cultivated for corn crops; and the middle diftrict, which is called the Vale of Gloucefter proper, where our author fixed his refidence, is divided between grafs and corn, though the first seems here to be by far the principal object of attention. In thefe circumstances it is not to be expected that the cultivation of corn crops fhould here be carried on with fo much accuracy, fpirit, and propriety, as in other diftricts, where this branch of rural economy

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economy is the principal object of the farmer's care. And our author finds occafion, with too much juftice, to reprehend their practice, efpecially in respect to the article tillage, and to ftigmatife it as in fome degree barbarous. Here, however, we meet with one peculiarity in regard to cultivating corn crops that might perhaps be adopted with propriety in many corn diftricts, which in most other refpects far excel the general practice in Gloucestershire. We are told that wheat, in this district, is as regularly hoed, though fown broad caft, as turnips are hoed in Norfolk; an operation that Mr. Marfhall fays they find no difficulty in performing with ease and accuracy, and at a small expence, usually twice hoed for from four to five fhillings per acre; all performed by women,

Under the title FARM BUILDINGS, our author takes notice of a fingularity refpecting the lime cement of this district that ought not to be omitted. There are two kinds of stone, we are told, from which lime is here made, which differ very much from each other in their general appearance and contexture, and not lefs in the qualities of the lime they afford;

The Bristol ftone,' he fays, has fomewhat of a flint-like.appearance; is of a clofe, hard, and uniform contexture, and of a dark, reddish colour, fparkling with sparry particles, and flying under the hammer like glafs; no marine fhell. One hundred grains of it afford forty-five grains of air, and ninety-feven grains of calcareous matter, leaving three grains of refiduum *; a dark-coloured impalpable matter. The lime produced from this ftone burfts readily in water, and (like that produced from fpars) is, when fallen, of a light floury nature; white as fnow. [We have feen lime of this kind and colour produced from a limeftone of a very different appearance, and which imbibed water very flowly] coveted by the plasterer; but is confidered by the mason and bricklayer, as being of a weak quality.

The Weftbury ftone is generally blue at the core, with a grey, dirty, white cruft, the bafe being of a smooth, even texture, interspersed

Our author is here guilty of an inaccuracy of expreffion that ought to be avoided, because it tends to perplex the reader. In the text we have transcribed his own words. But to a reader who is unacquainted with the conflituent principles of limestone, there furely feems to be a great abfurdity in faying that one hundred grains of it affords forty-five grains of air, ninety-feven of calcareous matter, and three grains of refiduum, as this amounts in all to one hundred and forty-five grains weight produced from one hundred. He fhould have faid that one hundred grains of limestone affords ninety-feven grains of crude calcareous matter, and three grains of refiduum; and that this crude calcareous matter being farther analyfed is found to afford forty-five grains of air and fifty-two grains of pure calcareous matter only. This would have been intelligible to every perfon.

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with marine shells. When it is fresh raised out of its water bed in the area of the vale, it is of a foft fubftance, of a smooth, foap-like appearance; but hardens (or falls to pieces) on being expofed to the atmosphere. One hundred grains throw off forty grains of air, and afford ninety-one grains of calcareous earth, leaving a refiduum of nine grains; an afh-coloured filt. The lime burnt from it is characterised by ftrength; and is high in efteem for cement, being found ftrong enough, in itself, to be used in water-work. It falls flowly, is fomething of a brimstone colour, and is distinguished by the name of brown lime.'

We mention this fact as a caution against relying implicitly on chemical analyfis [we muft obferve, however, that the chemical analysis is not here complete] as a criterion for judging of the qualities even of mineral fubftances. No particular in this analyfis could give the smallest indication of the oppofite qualities of these two different kinds of lime; nor, we will add, could a better judgment be formed from the texture and general appearance of these two kinds of limeftone, even though connected with the chemical analyfis, affords a more certain rule for judging a priori of the qualities of the lime, &c. that might be obtained from other kinds of limeftone. Our author, upon trial, found also that the first kind of lime regained its fixed air, in the fame circumstances, much more quickly than the last. We take notice of all these circumstances in order to lead to farther inquiries on this subject.

Under the title WORKMEN we are informed that hard-drinking is here remarkably prevalent. To be able to drink two gallons of cider at a draught is spoken of as a great feat; and we are told that four well-seasoned yeomen, having raised their cou< rage with the juice of the apple, refolved to have a fresh hogfhead tapped, and fetting foot to foot emptied it at one fitting.' Thefe are extraordinary feats; but the quantity of cider drank in this vale, in the ordinary course of living, is uncommonly great; a practice that has been introduced in those feafons of plenty of fruit, when the markets were glutted, and cider became of little value; but the practice once begun could not be discontinued. Malt must now be, on many occafions, fubftituted in its ftead; and as the quantity thus confumed greatly diminishes the farmer's profit, he is unable to afford the rent that might otherwife have been paid for his farm. This is therefore a serious evil, that ought to be guarded against in other diftricts.

Under the article MARKETS our author's observations deferve attention;