Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/259

Rh and of more ells and ends for men, and stables for horses of an indefinite number. It was a large educational establishment for training horses for the turf and chase. We were told that frequently more than twenty boys or pupil-teachers might be seen at once giving these high-bred animals morning lessons to fit them for their course of unproductive life. Near this training college was a large farm, belonging to Mr. Eyke, which seemed to have been very highly cultivated after the most improved methods. We noticed an unusual extent of land put to turnips. Field after field of them were being gathered, and acres covered as with great ant-heaps showed the luxuriant production of this root crop. These heaps were made with geometrical precision as to line and circumference, at but a few paces apart. We watched the process which was rather unusual. The turnips were first covered with dried fern leaves brought to the field in large wagon-loads; being a substitute for straw both as a matter of economy and of better material for the purpose. The whole was then covered with earth, dug up around the heap. A field of twenty acres covered with these little conical mounds makes a pleasant sight to man and beast, especially to the latter. We tarried so long at Shiffnal, and sauntered so slowly along the road afterwards, that it was nearly sun-down when we reached the little village of Tong. Finding it was