Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/839

Rh MIDDLESEX 831 MIDDLESEX. farming is grass land, which affords two good erops every year, and lets from 4 to 6 per aero. The value of hay so near the metropolis is very great, and the abundant supply of labour enables the fanner to take advantage of a few days of fine weather to secure his crop. The most extensive meadows 'le to the S.W. and E. about London, the Isle of Dogs, and along the banks of the Thames, where the fattening of cattle and the feeding of stock for the London market are extensively carried on. The marsh pastures on the banks of the Lea, bordering on Essex, are reckoned good for recruiting the strength of horses when they require rest and green fodder after having been over worked. Grass lambs and Dorset house lambs are bred for the early season, but not so much as formerly. There are no particular breeds of cattle and horses peculiar to Middlesex, but the short-horned and Alderney cows are largely kept for milk and calves ; and cart and riding horses of supe- rior strength and action are reared for the market. A considerable number of pigs and hogs is purchased by the distillers and millers to fatten ; and round Uxbridge rabbits are extensively bred. The arable portion of the county lies chiefly along the banks of the Colne, on the borders of Buckinghamshire, and between the line of the Great Western railway and the Thames. The chief crops are wheat, barley, peas, beans, turnips, and clover for fodder. The farms are in general from 100 to 200 acres, but in the N. W. part of the county, including what was formerly Hounslow Heath, the holdings are more exten- sive, sometimes occupying from 300 to 1,200 acres. They are held on lease of 14 or 21 years, and every improvement in the management of the soil is readily adopted. The labourers' wages average from 12s. to 15s. per week, and the land lets from 2 to 3 per acre. Some of the farmhouses are old, timbered structures, but in general the farm-buildings and implements are of the best description. The system of cultivation is greatly modified by the short distance from an inex- haustible source of manure, and vast tracts of land formerly barren, have recently been reclaimed, as Hounslow Heath, Finchley Common, and Enfield Chase. The Isle of Dogs, formerly overflowed by the tides, is now secured by banks, and is reputed to be the richest grazing land in the county. It is divided and drained by ditches, which communicate with the Thames at low water by means of sluices. The soil, when improved, may be described as consisting of a fertile sandy loam, intermixed with shells, flints, and gravel, on a sub- stratum of blue or London clay, which prevails through- out the county. In a few places, as at Hampstead, Highgate, Muswell Hill, and Harrow, Bagshot sand occurs, containing fossils ; and on the borders of Herts and Bucks the plastic clay crops out from beneath the London clay, as at Enfield Chase and Harefield, near Uxbridge. The thickness of the London clay varies from 45 to 240 feet, and rests upon a stratum of plastic clay of similar thickness. On several of the hills, where the soil is naturally thin and unproductive, as at Hamp- stead, Muswell Hill, and Highgate, the ground is never- theless of great value on account of the fine situations for building. The mineral productions of this county are few, but the upper stratum is admirably adapted for the manufacture of bricks and tiles, which are made to an enormous extent, particularly in the districts of the W. and N.W. of London, where thousands of acres of the surface are dug out to a depth of from 4 to 10 feet. The average yield is 1,000,000 bricks to the acre for evury foot in depth, and the profit from 4,000 to 20,000 per acre. After the brick earth has been used, the land is again levelled, ploughed, and laid down in grass, and by the aid of London manure, is converted into excel- lent arable land. The manufactures are chiefly con- nected with the metropolis, and include silk weaving, which is extensively carried on in the parishes of Spital- fiiLld, Shoreditch, and Bethnal Green, employing about 12,000 hands ; clock and watch making at Clerkenwell, employing 4,000; cotton spinning, 1,200; woollen and worsted mills, 257 ; also the gunpowder mills at Twick- enham, known as tho Hounslow Mills; the ordnance small-arms factory at Enfield ; extensive distilleries in the vicinity of London, which yield a revenue equal to that of all other distilleries in Great Britain ; the brew- eries, too, are of great extent, as are also the soap and candle factories, chemical works, naval stores, &c. But these have been already described in connection with London (which see). Besides the prodigious amount of the imports and exports of the port of London, innume- rable small cargoes of coal, grain, malt, and merchandise of various descriptions are conveyed to the towns and villages by means of the inland barges on the Thames and the Lea. The river navigation, however, above the port of London, has recently declined owing to the more rapid transmission of goods by rail, so that some fears are entertained as to the feasibility of maintaining the locks in the upper portion of the stream. The London and North- Western railway commences at Euston-square, and, after passing through a tunnel at Primrose-hill, traverses about sixteen miles of the country in a north- westerly direction by Willesden, Sudbury, Harrow, and Bushy, to Watford in Herts. The Great Western rail- way has its London terminus at Paddington, and tra- verses thirteen miles of this county by Ealing, Hanwell, and Southall, to West Drayton. The Great Northern has its terminus at King's Cross, and runs for fourteen miles by Hornsey and Barnet, to Hadley. The Great Eastern railway intersects only a small angle of the county, commencing at Shoreditch, and passes by Mile- End and Bow, across the Lea into Essex, whence the Cambridge section re-enters Middlesex near Tottenham, and continues just within its boundary to Waltham, throwing off a branch line near Edmonton to Enfield. The Midland Counties railway is now being continued to London, having previously used the Great Northern line to King's Cross. Besides the main lines, there are other short connecting lines and extensions, as the Me- tropolitan, Blackwall, North London, and West London extension, which facilitate the transmission of passengers and goods into the centre of London, which has now established its rank as the grand centre of railway con- centration and radiation to the whole empire. Second only in importance to tho railways are the numerous roads, which radiate from the metropolis as a common centre to all parts of the kingdom, occupying a consider- able part of the surface of this small county. The principal lines of road follow the direction of the old Boman ways. The south-western road proceeds along the old Silchester way to Brompton, and, passing by Brentford and Hounslow, crosses the Thames into Surrey near Staines, the ancient Ponies, finally leading to Salis- bury and Exeter. Another section branches off near Hyde Park-corner, and crosses the Thames at Putney Bridge, going to Portsmouth; while a third section, branching from it at Hounslow, crosses the Colne at Colnebrook, and ultimately leads to Bath and Bristol. The north-western road proceeds along the old Watling Street, leaving London by Hyde Park-corner, and pusses by Kilburn, Edgware, and Brockley Hill, the ancient Suttoniacce, whence Watling Street turns off to St. Alban's, but the modern road continues through Stanmore to Watford in Hertfordshire. The north-eastern road pro- ceeds along the old Ermine Street, leaving London at Shoreditch, and passes by Tottenham, Edmonton, and Enfield Wash, into Hertford and Cambridge shires. Between these two last-named lines of road runs the Great North road, which leaves London by Islington, and passes through Highgate and Barnet to South Mimms in Hertfordshire. The Oxford and Birmingham road leaves Oxford-street at Hyde Park-corner, and, passing through Acton, Hanwell, and Uxbridge, crosses the Colne in Buckinghamshire. Tho main eastern road commences from Cornhill, and follows the line of the old Boman way, by Whitechapel church to Bow Bridge, where it crosses in to Essex, going to Komford, the ancient Durolitum, and to Colchester, the Boman Colonia. Another section of the same road leaves London by Shoreditch Church, and passing through Hackney, crosses the Lea at Lea Bridge, into Essex. The southern and sonth-eastern roads proceed from Middlesex by the metropolitan bridges through