Soil and products
HAVING thus described the several divisions of
this county, I shall now take some notice of the Air,
Soil, natural and artificial Products, and other particulars relating to the present state of it.
The air in this county is various, according to the
different parts of it: in many it is as healthy and pure
as any can be in this island; but on the north side
of the great road, leading from London to Dover,
almost as far as Canterbury, and from thence again
on the same side of that into the isle of Thanet, there
is a long space of country, lying near the banks of
the Thames and the Medway, along the Swale, and
adjoining to the river Stour below Canterbury, in
which the air is gross, soggy, and much subject to intermittents, owing to the large tracts of low, swampy,
marsh grounds, among which there are such quantities of stagnating waters, as render the country near
them exceedingly unwholsome, especially in the autumnal quarter. Romney-marsh labours under the
same inconvenience, and for the same reasons.
The general face of this county is very beautiful,
not only from the wealth and abundance with which
it is constantly covered, but from the great variety
and inequality of the ground, the former of which is
so great, that it may almost be called from thence an
epitome of the whole kingdom. Indeed, it has most
advantages that the rest of the kingdom enjoys, and,
many that are not to be found elsewhere.
The foil is so different in almost every parish, that
it is not possible to give any regular description of
it; I shall only observe, therefore, that the whole
county, excepting the marshes and the weald, is a general cluster of small hills; two chains of which,
higher than the rest, run through the middle of it,
from west to east, mostly at about eight miles distance (though at some places much less) from each
other, beginning at the county of Surry, and ending
at the sea. These are called the upper and lower hills,
and are, along the tops of them, covered with large
tracts of woods and coppice. The soil of them is but
poor and barren, that of the upper being mostly chalk
and flint, and of the lower various, as sand and gravel, and more easterly full of the rock stone, the richness of the soil increasing as you descend to a greater
distance from them.
The inclosures in Kent are in general small, and
consist promiscuously of arable, meadow, pasture, orchards, and hop-ground, and much woodland interspersed among them, except in the north-east part
of the county, beyond Canterbury, which is a much
more open and campaign country than the rest of it.
It has corn and grain of the like sorts with the rest
of the kingdom, as wheat, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, peas, beans, and tares, much more than can
be consumed in it, great quantities of which are
weekly sent by water to London and elsewhere. In
the eastern parts there are many fields and plats sown
with canary and hemp, and about Faversham are se-
veral fields planted with madder, which is there of
late manufactured for the use of the dyers, and woad
is likewise frequently sowed in West Kent for the
like use.
The pasture, meadow, and marsh ground is much of
it exceedingly rich and fertile, especially below the
hill, and in Romney-marsh, from which London is
weekly supplied with great quantities of the finest
and fattest sheep and oxen that are at any time brought
to market. Besides which, great numbers of sheep
are kept and fatted on the turnips, clovers, sansoins,
and other such grasses, which are continually sown on
the uplands, by which manure there is afterwards produced a much greater quantity of corn than would
be by any other method of husbandry.
As to the orchards of apples, pears, plumbs, and
cherries, there are great numbers of them everywhere,
but not so much as formerly, especially of the latter;
many of them having been destroyed and converted
into hop-grounds. The codling-tree is likewise more
scarce than it used to be in this county. In the neighbourhood of Maidstone the plantations of apples are
very large, and a great quantity of cyder is made from
them; and there are likewise in those parts many
plantations of filberts, which turn out to good account, the fruit of them being sent to the London
markets.
The hop-grounds have increased greatly of late years,
and about Maidstone, Faversham, and Canterbury
especially, hops are the principal commodity of the
country, though they were petitioned against by the
parliament so late as the reign of king Henry VI.
about 1428, as a wicked weed. They were introduced by king Henry VIII. but were not much cultivated in England for some time; and so late as
queen Elizabeth (fn. 1) they were fetched from the Low
Countries; since which they have so greatly increased, that the duty on hops throughout England, in
the year 1778, amounted to 1603581. 13s. 11¼d. of
which the county of Kent produced nearly one half,
viz. Canterbury district, 368621. 3s. 6d. and Rochester district, 42046l. 0s. 11d. together 789081. 4s. 5d.
These plantations, amounting to many thousand
acres, being of the greatest advantage to this county,
they employ great numbers of the neighbouring poor,
not only in their cultivation, but in the making of
the bagging for them; they greatly increase the value
of the woodlands, and are the cause of much money
being circulated within the county every year.
There are many nurseries for trees, plants, &c. and
acres of rich garden ground, in the western part of this
county, and in the environs of London, mostly used
for the supply of the metropolis, and there are others
of the like sort in the neighbourhood of the several capital towns in it; about Sandwich the soil is so
adapted to the growth of carrots, that it produces
larger ones, and of a more excellent flavour and colour than those that grow any where else.
The coppice wood in general is either oak, hazel,
birch, or beech, intermixed with ash, willow, chesnut,
&c. of which last there are large tracts in the neighbouring parts of Milton, near Sittingborne, and Newington, and so on for some miles towards the south.
The timber in the woods is mostly oak and beech,
and round the fields and hedge rows on the north side
the hill, and westward of Barham-downs, mostly
elm, with some very few oak and ash, but in other
parrs of the county, especially about Maidstone, below the hill, it is in general oak, and that not only in
the hedge rows, but in the woods, in great plenty,
and of a very large size, fit for the supply of his majesty's navy, insomuch that the timber growing on
many estates, if cut down and sold, would purchase
the freehold on which they stand. Ash, alders, and
willows, likewise grow in great plenty near the fresh
streams every where.
The only remains of a forest in this county is what
is called the south and north srith, near Tunbridge,
most part of which is now woodland. There were,
in queen Elizabeth time, fifty-three ancient parks,
which are now all disparked, except those of Knoll,
Cobham, Mereworth, Greenwich, Eltham, Lullingstone, Leeds, and Chilham; but there are others inclosed since, as Langley in Beckenham, Lamienby and
Blendon in Bexley, Chilston in Boughton Malherbe,
Charlton by Greenwich two parks, Foot's Cray, God
mersham, St. Stephen's, alias Hackington, Knowlton, Lee, Linsted, the Moat in Maidstone, Bradborne
in East Malling, Mersham, Penshurst, Surrenden in
Pluckley, Kippington in Sevenoke, Fairlawn in Shipborne, East Sutton, Teston, Waldershare, and Eastwell. Befides the above, there are many plantations
and lawns near gentlemen's seats, which though they
have no deer in them, are kept up and inclosed as
parks, and more profitably sed with sheep and oxen.
There are very few heaths of any size in this county; the principal being Black-heath, Bexley-heath,
Cox-heath, Charing, Dartford, and Malling heaths;
those besides are hardly worth the name of such, being mostly of the smaller sort, such as commons, lees,
forstals, minnises, and the like; land being too valuable in it, and the spirit of industry too prevalent,
to suffer much land to lie waste and uncultivated. In
the easternmost parts of Kent, and on the high chalk
cliffs and hills on the coast, there are, however, several
tracts of downs, viz. from Barham-down to Deal,
and from thence to Dover, and so on to Folkestone
and Hith, and in some other places on the summit of
these hills; but they are in general well covered with
grass, and afford good pasture for sheep, &c.
In the Weald, about Bethersden, there is a broad
stone dug up, called, from the excellent polish it
bears, Bethersden-marble, which was formerly so highly
esteemed, that tombs and ornamental pillars in most
of the churches were made of it, and in most of the
antient seats the chimney pieces, in the grandest apartments, were made of it; and in the weald adjoining
to Suffex are iron mines and furnaces, the manufacture of which is, by the navigation on the Medway,
carried to market. Near Maidstone are large quarries of stone, called the Kentish rag-stone, which, when
worked up and squared, is conveyed away by the
same means. And at Greenhith, Northfleet, and
near Rochester, chalk is dug, and the lime from it
is carried, by means of the Thames and Medway, not
only to distant parts of this county, but into Effex,
Norfolk, and Suffolk, in great quantities.
There are but few manufactures in this county, as
well owing to the great attention paid to agriculture
and grazing, as to the great number of easy and lucrative employments in the disposal of government;
yet there are some. For instance, at Canterbury is a
manufactory of muslins, called Canterbury muslins,
brocaded silks, and of stockings; at Whistaple and
Deptford there are large copperas works; at Stonar,
in the isle of Thanet, and likewise in the isle of
Graine, there are works for the making of salt; at
Ospringe are large works erected by government for
the manufacture of gunpowder, besides smaller ones
in other places; in the Weald, adjoining to Suffex,
are large surnaces for the casting of iron; at Boxley,
near Maidstone, is the most extensive and curious
manufacture of paper perhaps in Europe; at Dartford and Crayford there are mills for the manufacturing of iron; at the latter there are large works for the
printing of calicoes, and the whitening of linens;
near Sevenoke are extensive mills for the manufacturing of silk. As to the cloathing manufactory,
which used to be carried on so largely in the Weald,
it is now, I believe, entirely laid aside.
This county produces, in great plenty, every kind
of provision for the support of its inhabitants, besides
large quantities, which are weekly sent from it to
London and its environs, and which are continually
expended for the shipping, at the several ports round
the consines of it. The beef, veal, mutton, lamb,
and pork, are well fatted and excellent. The poultry of every sort is large and fine, and the fish, caught
on its own shores, and in the rivers and ponds within
it, not only supply the tables of the rich in great
plenty, but afford a cheap and constant support to the
poor. The native Milton oysters are superior to all
others, and the lobsters caught off the isle of Thanet,
exceed in goodness all others taken in any other part
of England. From the several warrens in it the markets are well supplied with rabbits. From the number of parks in it there is great plenty of venison;
which, in those of Eastwell, Knoll, and Cobham, is esteemed superior in flavour and goodness to all others.
The game likewise is in great plenty throughout
the whole of it; viz. hares, pheasants and patridges;
the pheasants being esteemed larger, and finer flavoured, than in any other part of the kingdom.
In short, I know not what this county has not, that
a country should have, for the ease, pleasure, profit,
and health of its inhabitants, nor can I conclude better than with the verses of our old English poet, Michael Drayton, who in his Poly Olbion, thus celebrates
the praises of it:
Oh! famous Kent, quoth he,
What county has this isle that can compare with thee!
Which hast within thyself as much as thou canst wish,
Thy conies, ven'son, fruit, thy sorts of fowl and fish;
And what comports with strength, thy hay, and corn, and wood,
Not any thing thou wants, that any where is good.