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1805, only £57,158. 17s. 7d.; and in 1808, £437,697. 78. 3d.; in 1825, only £42,290. 10s. 4d.; and in 1839, £357,456. 16s. 8d.

It was the time for gathering the hops when we were at Wateringbury, and it affords for a few weeks employment for some thousands of men, women, and children. The hops are carefully picked, one by one, and dropped in a bin, which is a cloth formed into a pit, which will hold about twenty bushels, by crossing long poles. And the hop-pole being laid across the top thereof, the hops are gathered, then measured, as the pickers are paid by the bushel, and then taken to the kiln called an oast-house, where they are dried over a coke fire upon horse-hair cloths, and then pressed down by men stamping them into coarse cloth bags, which usually weigh two hundred weight and a half, or into finer cloth, called pockets, weighing one hundred weight and a half, and they are then fit for making beer. They fluctuate very much in price, having been sold for upwards of £20. per hundred weight, and at £2., so that very many persons who speculate in them have been ruined. Hops are used for making the daily drink of Englishmen, called beer. A grain called barley, is placed in water until it sprouts for growing; when it is placed in a kiln the vegetation is stopped, and the grain is roasted; this is called malt, which is bruised in a mill, and water at one hundred and sixty-eight degrees of tem

perature is poured over it in the proportion of about fifteen gallons of water to eight or nine gallons of ground malt; this is stirred about violently, which is called washing, and after about an hour, the liquor thus obtained, called sweet wort, is placed in a copper, and to about seventeen gallons, one pound of hops is added, which being boiled for an hour, is then poured out and cooled as quickly as possible; when it is down to blood heat, a little yeast (or leaven) is added, which causes it to ferment, and then it is beer. Beer is of several descriptions of strength and colour, according to the proportion of malt, and the different states of roasting to which the malt has been subjected. Brown stout and porter, from high roasted malt, is nearly black. And ales from pale malt are nearly without colour. We saw in Wateringbury pleasure grounds belonging to Alderman Lucas of London, who has a country residence here, which, from the road, looked very pretty, having several waterfalls in them. We crossed the Medway again from Teston to Farleigh, and here we saw a very pretty waterfall, the waste water of the Medway running over a tumbling bay, which had a pretty effect. Farleigh is celebrated for its hops, and the fruit called apples, and it may well be spoken of. We saw, indeed, here a sight we may perhaps never see again. In one large apple orchard near the church there were immense apple trees, with con

siderably more apples thereon than leaves, and so weighty was the fruit, that hundreds of wooden supporters were obliged to be kept under the branches to prevent them from breaking down. There are, perhaps, more than a hundred different sorts of apples, some fit to eat when first gathered from the trees, others that will keep good eight or nine months. They are a most valuable fruit; in England they are good to eat as a fruit, and are used in either puddings, pies, or tarts; the juice of them when pressed makes a drink called cider, which is nearly as good as champagne. The apples, when growing, present a very beautiful appearance; they are of varied colours; some of them have rosy cheeks, some yellow, others of every variety of green, whilst others are perfectly brown and rough. We shall not soon forget the - pleasure of seeing apples and hops growing. This clearly proves every country has its beauties. France and Portugal boast of their vines, India her plantains, mangos, and palm trees, and England her apples and hops. We should think we passed through a village called Tovil, where there are several large paper manufactories, to Maidstone, and drove to the house of an intimate friend of our companion, Mr. Baldock. His name was Thomas Charles, Esq.; he lived in a very large old-fashioned house, called Chillington Mansion; he is what is called an antiquarian; he shewed us a large collection of very ancient coins,

a quantity of old armour, and curiosities without number; he has also some fine old paintings, and is himself a very good painter; he shewed us scores of his own sketches taken from nature. He was kind enough to allow our servant to prepare tea and coffee for us, and treated us very kindly. We saw among his collection a valuable Indian inlaid cabinet. We walked about Maidstone; it is an old-fashioned, well-built town; it has a bridge over the Medway, and is 36 miles from London; there are several manufactories of paper close by. We walked to see the barracks, which are for horse soldiers designed for India; but we were followed by a dense crowd of persons attracted by our costume, and as our friend knew the governor of the gaol, we went in there to get rid of the pressure; but when we came out, they had increased so very considerably, that we could not see all that our friend wished to shew us. We went through the churchyard, from whence there is a very pretty view, and walked over the bridge to an eminence called Rocky Hill, where there is a spring, that supplies by pipes the town of Maidstone with water. Maidstone is seen to much advantage from the upper part of Rocky Hill. The gaol, and the court-house adjoining, where the prisoners are tried, is most extensive. They are built of Kentish rag-stone, quarried upon the spot, and possess every advantage which prisons can have for keeping prisoners distinct,

with tread wheels for the incorrigible, and the cleanliness of the cells surpasses belief. They must have cost very many thousands of pounds. We were accompanied in our walks all over the town by vast numbers of people. And we should have said, that all the little places through which we passed, poured forth nearly their whole population to gaze upon us in our foreign costume. We took refreshments with Mr. Charles, and although it was dark when we quitted his residence, some scores of people were assembled outside to see us get into our carriage. We were much pleased with our ride through the most beautiful part of Kent, and we think it is very properly named, from the variety of its productions, the "Garden of England."

We now take leave of the county of Kent, but not without conveying our grateful acknowledgments to our valued friend Thomas Baldock, Esq., through whose kind and polite attention we have been enabled to see a great many sights, and have obtained much general information.

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