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OF KENT. IT

« being at firſt conſtitutions, probably made by ſome, «e eyen by the old Britiſh Kings, or rulers in Kent, as « well as by the Saxons during the Heptarchy. For in < the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Henry the Third, € they are called ancient and approved cuſtoms.” This Marſh is defended from the ſea by an immenſe bank of earth(called Dimchurch Wall) of more than three miles in length. The face next the ſea 1s covered with com- mon faggot-wood, and hop-poles faſtened down by oak pilés and overlaths, which prevent the ſea from waſhing away the earth. The ſupport of the wall, and the drainage of this marſh, amount to the ſum of four thou- ſand pounds per annum; which ſum is raiſed by a ſcot per acre, on the whole level of Romney Marſh. The other two diftri&s of Walland and Denge Marſh, are each ſcotted ſeparately, to defray their own expences of drain- ASC OC

The land 1s not all equally good; ſome, chiefly near the ſea-ſhore, is a poor ſandy gravel, which bears a little graſs in the ſpring, that ſoon burns up in the ſammer;z and ſome, along the foot of the hills which ſurround the landſide of the Marſh, is wet and poor. But the great maſs of land, the center of the whole Marſh, is wonder=- fully rich and fertile.

There are but few oxen fed here, compared with what other rich marſh lands uſually keep: but the number of ſheep bred and fed, exceeds perhaps any diftri& of the like extent in the kingdom,

The ſcattered inhabitants of the Marſh are chiefly lookers and bailiffs, whoſe employers reſide in the upland parts of the county, or in the neighbouring towns,

Fletences are either ditches TO IOalk pots and rails; there being but very few hedges or trees 1n the Marſh, except a few about ſome of the villages, Immenſe quan-

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