The Rural Economy of the West of England: Volume 2
Including Devonshire, and Parts of Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, and Cornwall

A 1796 two-volume study of the farming, geography, public works and produce of districts in Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Cornwall.

William Marshall (Author)

9781108067546, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 November 2013

418 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.53 kg

Between 1787 and 1798, the agricultural writer and land agent William Marshall (1745–1818) published a number of works on the rural economies of England, covering Norfolk, his native Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, the Midlands and the South. This two-volume study appeared in 1796 and investigated the farming, geography, public works and produce of districts in Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Cornwall. Volume 2 looks in detail at the upland areas of Cornwall and Devon, at Dartmoor, North Devon, the vales of Exeter and Taunton, and West Dorset. The coverage includes aspects of the laws surrounding land ownership, the chemistry of the soil, notes on the dairy industry, and suggested improvements to farming practices. The result is a richly detailed survey of the area in the Georgian period and an important record of rural and agricultural life, so often overlooked by other contemporary chroniclers.

3. The mountains of Cornwall and Devonshire
Excursions in Cornwall
Dartmore, and its uncultivated environs
4. North Devonshire
5. The Vale of Exeter
6. The dairy district of west Dorsetshire
7. The Vale of Taunton
Retrospective view of the west of England
Minutes in west Devonshire.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ]