Chapter Eleven Wastes

THIS county contains no moors, mountains, bogs, fens, or marshes, or at least none of any extent, or worth the least notice in a general survey : its only wastes of any account, are known by the names of Charnwood Forest, and Rotheley Plain; they are both of them properly commons, or sheep-walks; the former is said to contain 15 or 16 thousand acres, and the latter 5 or 6 hundred. Ashby Wolds, lately a waste, have been enclosed and cultivated within the last 6 years.
Charnwood, though termed a forest, is quite bare and naked, containing no timber or underwood, nor even the remains, appearances or vestiges of any, nor am I with certainty informed, either by history or tradition, whether it ever did contain any ; it is situated in the North-east of the county, but some miles from its boundry ; it contains no deer, nor any thing else to give it the appellation of forest, except barrenness, wilderness and nakedness ; yet from the terms Wood and Forest applied to it, it is natural to conclude, it must formerly have been covered with timber and underwood ; its present general appearance is bold and romantic, with a great variety of swells and elevations, terminating generally in bare and rugged rocks, which form a very picturesque appearance, to a considerable distance in all directions : those rocks are not a gritstone or calcareous, but soft quartzose primeval-stone, being a true mountain stone, of the vitreous order, and carried to a considerable distance in all directions to mend roads ; the forest contains, I believe no other useful mineral yet discovered, except some slate, at or near its borders.
The rocky precipices of the forest, from their number, variety and elevation, have a wild romantic and mountain appearance ; they are, I believe, the highest grounds in Leicestershire, and probably from 700 to 800 feet above the level of the sea ; this mountain appearance seldom commences but at a higher elevation ; it is here within the temperate climate for corn, grass or plantation, although the air is cold and bleak, having nothing but the bare rocks to break off the course of the winds, or afford shelter to the passing traveller.
The soil of this forest is generally a moist grayish loam, in want of drainage in many places ; but considerable tracts of sound land are to be found : the whole is worthy of cultivation and improvement, and I am acquainted with large tracts of old enclosed land of a staple inferior to this, which is capable of producing both corn and pasture, and its impracticable rocky precipices might advantageously be planted with timber, to the great ornament of the country, and which would afford shelter to the adjacent lands ; there is no doubt of timber thriving on these precipices, as although the rock comes near the surface, it is full of crevices and interstices filled with earth, into which the roots of trees would strike for nutriment, and where they would find it. The chief proprietors, according to Mr. Monk, are the Earl of Stamford, the Earl of Moira, William Herrick, Esq. of Beaumoor, and a few others ; the enclosure of it is in agitation, and is expected to be soon carried into effect.
This large waste in its present state is by no means overrun with rubbishy growth ; heath and furze abound in patches, and rushes indicate a want of drainage ; but large spaces are covered with a grassy verdure, and sheep and cattle find pasture ; yet Mr. Bakewell, whose modes of thinking were singular and original, was of the opinion that it was actually a loss to those who had the privilege of turning stock upon it, and that, if one man who has this right turns his cow upon the forest in the spring, and another man at the same time gives a farmer eighteen pence a week for the keep of his cow in an enclosure, both being then of the same value, and both being driven to the market at Michaelmas, the difference in price will more than repay the expense of keep, and that the difference in sheep would be still greater. I am, however of opinion, that wether sheep and young cattle would, if fairly proportioned, improve there in the course of a summer, and consequently, that it is of some value, suppose 2s. 6d. per acre ;but that by enclosure and cultivation it might be improved tenfold, or made equally well worth one pound five shilling per acre, after the first round of cultivation.
The following memorandums were made upon Ashby Wolds in July 1797 ; for its state in October 1807,-See Chap. VI. Enclosures.
Ashby Wolds, a large common or waste of wet loam, a little but not much encumbered with furze and heath, but for want of drainage, very full of rushes, and sedge grasses, of the aird and carex species ; abounding also with a few of the better grasses, and with the Tormentilla reptans in flower ; stocked also with sheep of the waste land species, having gray or dark coloured faces, with legs of the same colour, some with and some without horns, an on the whole, of an enferior sort. The inclosure and improvement of land of this description is a public benefit of the first kind, and would render land productive, which is at present almost useless. Further memorandums on the spot, October 1801 ; the cultivation is begun before subdivision, land having been let for crops; potatoes have succeeded well, especially after paring and burning, and also common and Swedish turnips, and oats ; a small proportion of the Wolds, thus cultivated, but I suppose not more than 1-20^th of the whole.

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