If it were requisite that I should speak of the sundry kinds of mould,
as the cledgy, or clay, whereof are divers sorts (red, blue, black,
and white), also the red or white sandy, the loamy, roselly, gravelly,
chalky, or black, I could say that there are so many divers veins in
Britain as elsewhere in any quarter of like quantity in the world.
Howbeit this I must need confess, that the sand and clay do bear great
sway: but clay most of all, as hath been and yet is always seen and
felt through plenty and dearth of corn. For if this latter (I mean the
clay) do yield her full increase (which it doth commonly in dry years
for wheat), then is there general plenty: whereas if it fail, then
have we scarcity, according to the old rude verse set down of England,
but to be understood of the whole island, as experience doth confirm--
"_When the sand doth serve the clay,
Then may we sing well-away;
But when the clay doth serve the sand,
Then is it merry with England_."
I might here intreat of the famous valleys in England, of which one
is called the Vale of White Horse, another of Evesham (commonly taken
for the granary of Worcestershire), the third of Aylesbury, that
goeth by Thame, the roots of Chiltern Hills, to Dunstable, Newport
Pagnel, Stony Stratford, Buckingham, Birstane Park, etc.
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