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kingdom. The antiquity of working thefe mines, Mr. W. fays, may be carried higher than the time of the Romans; having been objects of British commerce before their arrival: as they will, probably, continue to be to the end of time.

Chap. VIII. Treats (at great length) of Trees and Plants; efpecially fuch as are valuable for their use, virtues, flowers, fingularity or rareness.

In Chap. IX. an account is given of the most curious and uncommon birds, whether native or migratory.

The next three chapters treat of infects and reptiles ;-of fifies-and of fuch quadrupeds, whether wild or domeftic, as are curious and uncommon.

Chap. XIII. gives an account (chiefly collected from former writers) of fuch eminent men, natives of Northumberland, as have been great captains, eminent fcholars, patrons of learning,

and of liberal and useful arts.

The Natural History of the county having been difpatched in the first volume, the fecond opens with its antiquities;-fuch as military ways, forts, incampments, tumuli or barrows, urns, coins, fignets, &c. whether Roman, Saxon, or British,-great numbers of which have been, at different times, difcovered; the antient and prefent ftate of fuch castles, honours, monafteries, churches, &c. as were thought most worthy of obfervation; with descriptions, faid to be, written upon the spct*, are alfo added. The whole is divided into three journies ;-the first journey being made along the famous Roman wall, and the great military road leading from Newcastle to Carlifle;the fecond from Newcastle to Berwick, along the great poftroad; and the third from Berwick to Cornhill, and from thence by Wooler, Whittingham, and feveral other places, to Newcastle. In thefe journeys, excurfions were made, by the Author, to fuch places, on each fide, as were thought moft worthy notice; fo that, upon the whole, a pretty full defcription of the antient and prefent ftate of the county feems to be here given.

Notwithstanding the ufe alledged to have been made of public and private records, and other undoubted authorities; fome miftakes may nevertheless be obferved. For inftance,- in the Introduction, p. 15, and again, vol. II. p. 554, Adomar de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, is faid to have been one of the two

This was fcarcely the cafe, when he defcribed the elegant new bridge, lately built, over the Tweed, at Coldftream, as confifting of fix arches; for it really confifts of feven; viz. five large ones over the bed of the river, and two small ones, of ufe only in cafe of floods.So that, whether he reckons the two fmall ones or not, he is certainly wrong in this description.

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county-members, or reprefentatives in parliament, for Northumberland, 5 K. Richard II.-in fupport of which ftrange affertion, (of an Earl's reprefenting a county in parliament) reference is made to a record, printed in the Appendix: but instead of that record's fupporting the Earl's claim, we find the representatives there mentioned to have been Adomarus de Athol, et Radulphus de Eure, milites gladiis cinati,'-but neither of them Earl of Pembroke.

Vol. II. p. 16r. A Daughter of the Widdrington family, is faid to have married Sir Robert Markham, of Sedgebroke in Nottinghamshire but we can affure Mr. W. that Sedgebroke, where the Markhams formerly refided, is not in Nottinghamfhire, but in Lincolnshire; about two miles weft of Grantham.

Inftances of mif applied terms occur too often; thus, at p. 70,-221,-415, and elfewhere, we are told of Churches and Chancels being fealed, instead of cieled:-and, in feveral places, learn is put for teach.-But, though flips of this fort are frequently to be met with, yet the Author certainly deferves the thanks of his countrymen, for the great pains he hath taken to elucidate the antiquities of this his native county, and to point out the many advantages and improvements of which it is ftill fufceptible.

A Treatife of Agriculture. Vol. II. By Adam Dickson, A. M. Minifter at Dunfe. 8vo. 6 s. boards. Kincaid and Bell, Edinburgh. 1769. Sold by Cadell in London.

publications require to be read with more distrust and

N° caution than books of agriculture, as in general, no

writers affert more boldly, or are more confuted by experience, than those who treat of this important fubject. Experiments in other arts are eafily made, and when made judiciously, are mostly conclufive; fo that general principles may with fome certainty be deduced from truths clearly afcertained. But climate, foil, fituation, all very important circumftances, render experiments in cultivation local in the refult; and from the variations of feafons and weather, they become exceedingly precarious: add also that such experiments require a feafon for each, so that from these premises a fucceffion of years is needful to establish any one propofition. Thus a long and laborious attention to cultivation only can qualify a man to treat judiciously of the fubject, while his fituation too often unfits him for the task: so that the undertaking generally devolves to men of more vivacity than

For an account of the first volume, fee Review, vol. XXVIII. p. 119. XXXIII, p. 49'.

practical

practical knowledge, who foon form fyftems, and foon eftabJifh them upon hafty trials, and fometimes without even the labour of these. Happily the real farmer is generally too busy to attend to fuch monitors; and as to gentlemen, they may lofe their money rather more innocently, though not more pleasantly, this way, than by many others.

Perhaps an employment fo general, fo indifpenfible, and therefore uninterrupted, as farming, an employment coeval with the existence of mankind, leaft of all others depends upon books.

Virgil, Columella, and others, have described the husbandry of their days; and descriptive husbandry, fhewing the methods eftablished in various places and in different ages, to enlarge the ideas of men confined to particular spots, appears to be more extenfively useful, than collections of experiments, in which general maxims are founded on partial trials. For, as the author of the work before us well obferves, In almost every county of Scotland, a different fcheme is followed, and often more than one in the fame county. It is of importance to confider these schemes, and examine the reafons upon which they are founded. This is the only certain road to improvement. The generality of writers on agriculture are fo fond of fome particular scheme, that they fet themfelves not to illuftrate, but to explode all others. This practice prevents, rather than promotes improvement; for it is vain to expect, that one general scheme can fucceed in all places.'

It naturally appears from hence, that the general principles and univerfal rules of agriculture, can be but few and short; and that the complete practice and management of a farm, will ever be local.

The ingenious Mr. Tull captivated his readers by his philofophic reafoning, from which, however true in theory, many a lofs has been incurred by acting in conformity with his principles. There are feveral good hints and cautions given in the work now before us, for trials of the horse-hoeing hufbandry.

The obftinacy of which farmers in general are accused, in their attachment to established methods, though it has fubjected them to fevere cenfures, is nevertheless very natural, and not altogether unjustifiable. In all innovations fo liable to injure the circumstances of the adventurer, men of fortune, whe will not be materially affected by difappointments, and who have fufficient leifure to compare methods, fhould ever take the lead they may thus inform themfelves, and prove materially ufeful to their neighbours and tenants. Mr. Dickfon, who treats his fubject with becoming modefty, quite different from the infulting confidence which fome quacks in farming affume,

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takes

takes the ignorant farmer's part in this article of conduct, in the following words:

Cuftom is very powerful: the things which, in our younger years, we have been taught to regard, continue to make an impreffion upon us, and we cannot be perfuaded to change our opinions of them without very good reafon. This influence that education has upon mankind, is, of all others, perhaps the greatest bleffing to fociety, and therefore none but fuch as are enemies to fociety, attempt to ridicule a thing fo natural and beneficial. The gentleman and farmer appear in a very different light with refpect to old cuftoms in agriculture. The gentleman defpifes them; the farmer, on the contrary, is attached to them; the reafon of this difference is not always attended to, though very obvious. The farmer has been educacated in the knowledge of thefe cuftoms, and he has been taught from his infancy to confider them as the beft. The gentleman has been taught nothing about them, and he is naturally led to difregard the opinions of thofe whom he confiders as far inferior to him in all kinds of knowledge. Were the farmers more liable to change, improvements indeed would be more cafily introduced; but as good and bad fchemes have often the fame appearance, and can be diftinguished only by being reduced to practice, in this cafe rents would be worfe paid, and more frequent bankruptcies among the farmers. I mention this, because I I would not have it thought that I imputé to an unreasonable obftinacy, the averfion which the ordinary farmers have to change the customs in which they have been educated.'

Even in the making experiments, a perfon may be deceived by the fuccefs of them; efpecially if they are made upon land heretofore in a bad condition; but as our Author has stated this. matter himself, in reference to fome experiments of the new hufbandry he remarks upon, we fhall give his reprefentation of it.

It is past all doubt, that equal care and attention given to the fame kind of land, will be rewarded with equal fuccefs: yet I am not altogether fatisfied that trials in Scotland will be as fuccefsful, and as far exceed the prefent fchemes of management here, as those made by M. de Chateauvieux have done the ordinary fchemes of management in the environs of Geneva. The lands in the environs of Geneva feem to have been in bad culture, and not properly reduced by the fallowings for fowing. The lands of Scotland are, or may be, in good culture; and perhaps had M. de Chateauvieux been at as much pains to improve the ordinary fchemes of management in the country, given more and better timed plowings to the fallow, the improvement might have been nearly as great in the old as in the new husbandry, It must be observed, that there is a great differ

ence

rence betwixt the culture given to land upon which we are making an experiment, the fuccefs of which we are anxious about, and the ordinary culture given to lands in the country. The one is given with great care and diligence, the other often merely from cuftom, without knowing when it is good, or when bad.'

In pursuit of thefe general reflections, we have wandered from the immediate object of attention, to which indeed they are not applied; but when many treatifes appear on any fubject, of which many very few are good for any thing, fuch reflections may be as naturally excited by the perufal of an useful practical work, as by the view of pert and trifling productions, The objects of Mr. Dickfon's attention in this fecond volume, are thus expreffed, in his preface:

The treatife is divided into four books.

In Book I. fome general things, neceffary to be attended to in the management of a farm, are treated of.

The Author endeavours to fhow that the climate, the foil, the cuftoms of the country, the preceding management of the farm, and economy, are particularly to be attended to by the farmer, as neceflary to determine what plants fhould be cultivated; at what feafon, and in what manner, the land fhould be plowed, and the feed fown; in what manner farms fhould be divided, what are the moft proper fchemes to profecute; and in what manner the neceflary work may be performed at the fmalleft expence.

In book II. the culture of plants is treated of.

The Author inquires into the proper manner of fowing; he divides the different plants, proper to be cultivated in our fields, into claffes, and he treats feparately of each particular belonging to the different claffes. Among thefe he mentions fome that are not commonly cultivated, and fhows their particular uses. In book III. the different fchemes of management are treated of.

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The Author mentions the different fchemes practifed in Scotland; he inquires into the reafons upon which each of them is founded; he compares them with one another, and fhows how to adapt them to the different foils.

In book IV. fome things propofed, as improvements in the general fchemes, are treated of.

The Author propofes to have more land in grafs, fome particular methods of plowing, more frequent plowings, and more frequent fallowings, as improvements; and endeavours to fupport thefe propofals by proper authority."

Our limits will not admit of tracing the Author through the feveral departments of the work; we hall therefore only give

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