The plenty of these minerals, and the various traffic to which they give rise, communicate a new impulse to the agriculture of the county, already so highly favour ed by the nature of the soil. The medium rental of Nottinghamshire, 659/. to thc square mile, is not greatly above the average of England ; but the country popula tion li‘e in a style of comfort and sufficiency which they too seldom enjoy elsewhere. The farms are generally small ; the terms of the contract simple, and advantage ous for the weaker party. About Worksop and Allar ton, indeed, in one or two instances, the rent reaches to 1000/. at the ratc of about 1/. per acrc ; but in other quarters it often sinks as far as 20/. ; and on the whole it is more frequently below than above 100/. Leases have not yet become universal ; but the humble agriculturist, though, strictly speaking, a tenant at will, usually inhe rits his farm through several generations, feels an inte rest something like that of property in it, and evinces the greateat readiness to profit by every species of im provement, which it lies within his power to adopt. The rural economy followed here presents little remarkable. The raising of grain, for domestic or external consurrip• tion, constitutes the chief employment of the husband man ; and grazing, though not by any means neglected, forms only a secondary. object. Turnips and other green crops have long been introduced; wheat, barley, and oats arc extensively cultivated,—the latter of so fine a quality, that judges of grain are able to distinguish the Nottingham oats from every other species. In Belvoir the usual rotation is one of three years: fallow, wheat or barley, beans or peas. In somc of the wilder districts are to be seen considerable crops of skegs, a sort of oats peculiar to this county : it grows on the most barren lands, and the produce, double in quantity., is at least equal in weight to that of any other sort. It yields a sweet nutritious food for horses; and four quarters per acre (worth between two and three quarters of common oats,) can be raised from land AI here nothing else will come to maturity. Hnps are another article of produce : they are cultivated in many farms of the north clay dis trict, particularly about Retford, which is farther noted for the iminense multitudes of its pigeons, supposed to be morc numerous here than anv where else in Britain. The hops of this county are nearly twice as strong as those of Kent ; yet their flavour is by. no means so agree able ; they are not favourites in the market, and the cul tivation of them is not increasing. Weld, or woad, some times also called the dyers' weed, is reared in smal' 4 P 2 quantities about Scrooby, and other places in the north. It has the advantage of growing on land already occu pied by driver or barley ; and in favourable seasons the produce of an act c will sometimes amount to half a tun, for which, however, the price fluctuates through all the intermediate degrees from 3/. to 12/.
The quantity of pasture, we have already observed, is much inferior to that of arable land. The Trent-hank district exhibits a mixture of both kinds ; the fields near the river are almost entirely unploughed, as the fre quent inundations of that stream would the SOW ing of grain in its neighbourhood a precarious enter prise. The most extensive tract of grass land, however, is the space between Nottingham and Mansfield, which was once covered by the forest of Sherwood. This venerable tract, so famous in the legendary history of England, has now lost the greater part of its sylvan de corations ; and Robin Hood, or any of his 4‘ merry men," would fail of procuring- shelter or subsistence in it even for the shortest period. It once extended 25 miles be
tween north and south, with a breadth of from seven to nine : but the continuous wood has now shrunk into isolated patches, and the red deer have totally vanished. The crown still retains the rights of vert and of venison, or of trecs and game; of which the lormer has been for some centuries gradually declining, and the latter, as WC have just observed, has within a few years become only a name. The property of the soil is supposed to be vested in thc owners of several adjoining manors: but it may not be ploughed, and is at present of little value. The management of the forest is entrusted to the Justice in Eyre north of the Trent, and to several officers who are usually gentlemen of the neighbour hood. Under their superintenclance, fresh plantations arc rising; and it may be hoped that Sherwood will in time regain some portion of its faded honours. That the ground is well adapted for timber, is still evinced by the Parliament Oak in Clipstone Park, said to have been the rendezvous of a parliament in the time of Ed ward I.; by the Broad Oak, measuring twenty-seven feet and a half in circumference, which still flourishes in the same vicinity; and by the Langton Arbour (near Blidworth,) a large and ancient elm, which, some cen turies ago, was sufficiently remarkable to give its name to onc of the forest-walks, and to have a keeper spe cially appointed for it.
The manufactures of this county are valied and ex tensive. The fabrication of stockings has long been car ried on at Nottinghain on a great scale ; to this are now added various preparations of silk, of thread, and British lace. Cotton mills have also been established in various places; they work for the hosiers of the neighbourhood, and likewise produce a supply of twist for the Man chester trade. Above thirty of those mills have been erected up and down the county. Another staple ar ticle of this district is malt, extensively manufactured at Nottingham, Newark, and Mansfield. It gives rise to a second branch of employment, that of brewing: the ales of Newark are reckoned little if at all inferior to thosc of Burton ; they are circulated widely over the kingdom, and exported in considerable quantities. ln addition to these general departments of industry, some others exist of a less prominent character, and more confined in their influence. Potteries of coarse red earthenware have been set up with tolerable success at Sutton in Ashfield. There is a manufactory of starch at Upton, near Southwell ; a flourishing one of sail.
cloth at Retford ; and dyeing and bleaching are carried oa both at Nottingham and Newark.
The trade of Nottinghamshire consists in receiving and 11ms:flitting a variety of commodities prepared by thc skill, or required hy the wants, of several inteinal counties, to the commerce of which it serves as a thoroughfare, thus finding a lucrative employment for 'natty thousancls of its own population. The exports which pass either from or through the county are, lead, copper, coals, salt from Derbyshire and Cheshire; Staffordshire ware in considerable quantities; lime for agriculture or building; coarse earthenwares; pig iron, and cast metal goods; oak, timber and bark ; stockings, sailcloth, and the various other articles of domestic manufacture. The imports for internal consumption, or for the supply of the neighbouring districts, arc, timber, hemp, flax anti iron, from the northern parts of Europe; groceries of all kinds; cotton wool ; and large quantities of flints from Northfleet and other chalk pits near the Thames, for the use of the Staffordshire potteries.