I see that some plantations of ash and of hazle have been made along here; but, with great submission to the planters, I think they have gone the wrong way to work, as to the mode of preparing the ground. They have planted _small trees_, and that is right; they have _trenched_ the ground, and that is also right; but they have brought the bottom soil to the top; and that is _wrong_, always; and especially where the bottom soil is gravel or chalk, or clay. I know that some people will say that this is a _puff_; and let it pass for that; but if any gentleman that is going to plant trees will look into my _Book on Gardening_, and into the Chapter on _Preparing the Soil_, he will, I think, see how conveniently ground may be trenched without bringing to the top that soil in which the young trees stand so long without making shoots. This country, though so open, has its beauties. The homesteads in the sheltered bottoms with fine lofty trees about the houses and yards form a beautiful contrast with the large open fields. The little villages, running straggling along the dells (always with lofty trees and rookeries) are very interesting objects, even in the winter. You feel a sort of satisfaction, when you are out upon the bleak hills yourself, at the thought of the shelter which is experienced in the dwellings in the valleys. Andover is a neat and solid market-town. It is supported entirely by the agriculture around it; and how the makers of _population returns_ ever came to think of classing the inhabitants of such a town as this under any other head than that of "_persons employed in agriculture_," would appear astonishing to any man who did not know those population return makers as well as I do. The village of Uphusband, the legal name of which is Hurstbourn Tarrant, is, as the reader will recollect, a great favourite with me, not the less so certainly on account of the excellent free-quarter that it affords. THROUGH HAMPSHIRE, BERKSHIRE, SURREY, AND SUSSEX, BETWEEN 7th OCTOBER AND 1ST DECEMBER, 1822, 327 MILES. _7th to 10th Oct. 1822._ At Uphusband, a little village in a deep dale, about five miles to the North of Andover, and about three miles to the South of the Hills at _Highclere_. The wheat is sown here, and up, and, as usual, at this time of the year, looks very beautiful. The wages of the labourers brought down to _six shillings a week_! a horrible thing to think of; but, I hear, it is still worse in Wiltshire. _11th October._