N) AGRICULTURAL SURVEY

cloſed from the ſea, by a ftrong wall, thrown up between the towns of Romney and Hythe.

Much of the Iſle of Thanet was naturally very thin light land; but the greater part of it having belonged to the Religious, who were the wealthieſt and moſt intelli- gent people, and the beſt farmers cf the time, no pains ox coft were ſpared to improve the ſoil. The ſea furniſhed an inexhauſtible ſupply of manure, which was brought by the tides to all the borders of the upland, quite round the iſland; and moſt likely was liberally and judiciouſly applied by the Monks and their tenants; and their ſuc- ceſlors to the preſent time, have not negle&ed to profit by their example. Owing to theſe circumſtances, Thanet always was, and moſt likely always will be, famous for its fertility; and the Monkiſh tale of Thanet’s deriving its ſuperior fruitfulneſs from its having been the aſylum of St. Auguſtine, is not ſo far from the truth as it may at firſt appear. Old hiſtorians faid,‘“ Felix tellus Tanet ſua & fecunditate;’” and modern writers of huſbandry ſpeak of it as one of the fineſt gardens 1n the kingdom,

In ſhort, 1s there another diſtri& in Great Britain, or in the world, of the ſame extent, in ſuch a fate of culti- vatión,—where the farmers are ſo wealthy and intelligent, where land, naturally of ſo inferior a quality, 1s let for ſo much money, and produces ſuch abundant crops?

The whole iſland confiſted formerly of ten pariſhes, Viz. I. St. Giles, alias Sarre, now united with 2. St. N1i- cholas at Wade; 3. Monkton; 4. Birchingtonz 5. Wood- Church 0 NRE OC ohn e Bap OSE eS ter the Apofile; 9. St. Laurence; and, 10. Stonore; and. it contains about 3500 acres of excellent marſh land, and 23,000 acres of arable: all the lower part of the latter bordering upon the marſhes, and ſome parts of the hill, where there 1s a good depth of earth, are exceedingly pro- dudtiye;

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