Chapter Eleven Wastes
THIS county contains no moors, mountains, bogs, fens, or marshes,
or at least none of any extent, or worth the least notice in a general survey
: its only wastes of any account, are known by the names of Charnwood Forest,
and Rotheley Plain; they are both of them properly
commons, or sheep-walks; the former is said to contain 15 or 16 thousand acres,
and the latter 5 or 6 hundred. Ashby Wolds, lately
a waste, have been enclosed and cultivated within the last 6 years.
Charnwood, though termed a forest, is quite bare and naked, containing
no timber or underwood, nor even the remains, appearances
or vestiges of any, nor am I with certainty informed, either by history or
tradition, whether it ever did contain any ; it is situated in the North-east
of the county, but some miles from its boundry ; it contains no deer, nor any thing else to give
it the appellation of forest, except barrenness, wilderness and nakedness
; yet from the terms Wood and Forest applied to it, it is natural to conclude,
it must formerly have been covered with timber and underwood
; its present general appearance is bold and romantic, with a great variety
of swells and elevations, terminating generally in bare and rugged rocks,
which form a very picturesque appearance, to a considerable distance in all
directions : those rocks are not a gritstone or
calcareous, but soft quartzose primeval-stone, being
a true mountain stone, of the vitreous order, and carried to a considerable
distance in all directions to mend roads ; the forest contains, I believe
no other useful mineral yet discovered, except some slate, at or near its
borders.
The rocky precipices of the forest, from their number, variety and elevation,
have a wild romantic and mountain appearance ; they are, I believe, the highest
grounds in Leicestershire, and probably from 700 to 800 feet above the level
of the sea ; this mountain appearance seldom commences but at a higher elevation
; it is here within the temperate climate for corn, grass or plantation, although
the air is cold and bleak, having nothing but the bare rocks to break off
the course of the winds, or afford shelter to the passing traveller.
The soil of this forest is generally a moist grayish
loam, in want of drainage in many places ; but considerable tracts of sound
land are to be found : the whole is worthy of cultivation and improvement,
and I am acquainted with large tracts of old enclosed land of a staple inferior
to this, which is capable of producing both corn and pasture, and its impracticable
rocky precipices might advantageously be planted with timber, to the great
ornament of the country, and which would afford shelter to the adjacent lands
; there is no doubt of timber thriving on these precipices, as although the
rock comes near the surface, it is full of crevices and interstices filled
with earth, into which the roots of trees would strike for nutriment, and
where they would find it. The chief proprietors, according to Mr. Monk, are
the Earl of Stamford, the Earl of Moira, William Herrick, Esq. of Beaumoor,
and a few others ; the enclosure of it is in agitation, and is expected to
be soon carried into effect.
This large waste in its present state is by no means overrun with rubbishy
growth ; heath and furze abound in patches, and rushes indicate a want of
drainage ; but large spaces are covered with a grassy verdure, and sheep and
cattle find pasture ; yet Mr. Bakewell, whose modes
of thinking were singular and original, was of the opinion that it was actually
a loss to those who had the privilege of turning stock upon it, and that,
if one man who has this right turns his cow upon the forest in the spring,
and another man at the same time gives a farmer eighteen pence a week for
the keep of his cow in an enclosure, both being then of the same value, and
both being driven to the market at Michaelmas, the
difference in price will more than repay the expense of keep, and that the
difference in sheep would be still greater. I am, however of opinion, that
wether sheep and young cattle would, if fairly proportioned,
improve there in the course of a summer, and consequently, that it is of some
value, suppose 2s. 6d. per acre ;but that by enclosure and cultivation it
might be improved tenfold, or made equally well worth one pound five shilling
per acre, after the first round of cultivation.
The following memorandums were made upon Ashby Wolds
in July 1797 ; for its state in October 1807,-See Chap. VI. Enclosures.
Ashby Wolds, a large common or waste of wet loam,
a little but not much encumbered with furze and heath, but for want of drainage,
very full of rushes, and sedge grasses, of the aird
and carex species ; abounding also with a few of
the better grasses, and with the Tormentilla
reptans in flower ; stocked also with sheep of the waste
land species, having gray or dark coloured faces,
with legs of the same colour, some with and some without horns, an on the
whole, of an enferior sort. The inclosure and improvement of land of this description is a
public benefit of the first kind, and would render land productive, which
is at present almost useless. Further memorandums on the spot, October 1801
; the cultivation is begun before subdivision, land having been let for crops;
potatoes have succeeded well, especially after paring and burning, and also
common and Swedish turnips, and oats ; a small proportion of the Wolds, thus cultivated, but I suppose not more than 1-20th
of the whole.
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