Besides, he
hath made observations for thirty years, that the mannours in the
easterne parts of the netherlands of Somersetshire doe yield six or
eight per centum of their value; whereas those in the westerne parts
doe yield but three, seldome four per centum, and in some mannours but
two per centum. Hence he argues that the winds carrying these
unwholesome vapours of the low country from one to the other, doe make
the one more, the other less, healthy.
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This shire may be divided as it were into three stories or stages.
Chippenham vale is the lowest. The first elevation, or next storie, is
from the Derry Hill, or Bowdon Lodge, to the hill beyond the Devises,
called Red-hone, which is the limbe or beginning of Salisbury plaines.
From the top of this hill one may discerne Our Lady Church Steeple at
Sarum, like a fine Spanish needle. I would have the height of these
hills, as also Hackpen, and those toward Lambourn, which are the
highest, to he taken with the quicksilver barometer, according to the
method of Mr. Edmund Halley in Philosophical Transactions, No. 181.
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Now, although Mindip-hills and Whitesheet, &c., are as a barr and
skreen to keep off from Wiltshire the westerly winds and raines, as
they doe in some measure repel those noxious vapours, yet wee have a
flavour of them; and when autumnal agues raigne, they are more common
on the hills than in the vales of this country.
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