Last Days in i Drann {47 Firith 3018}

Chronicled in Stock of i Drann in Eriador,
On this the 47th day of Firith in the Year 3018 of the Third Age.

Mistress Goodbody gifted me with a handsome copy of a map of the Shire from the Mathom-house.

A full arad did I spend in the library of the Great Smials perusing the aged Year-book of Tuckborough, which is called also the 'Great Writ of Tuckborough', and it was time well-spent indeed. For not only does it record legal details and divers important events in the Shire, but also an archaic form of the Hobbitish tongue, from which the Hobbit names for the the days of the week have been preserved unto the present day:

And so yesterday morning I departed the Tookland in a light wintery rain and moved on along the East Road into the Eastfarthing. Now the Shire is quartered into 'farthings': Northfarthing, Southfarthing, Eastfarthing and Westfarthing; and there is a point where the borders of the Eastfarthing, Westfarthing and Southfarthing come together, which is marked by the 'Three-Farthing Stone' by the side of the East Road. The Northfarthing meets not with the other farthings at this landmark, but instead its borders abut upon those of the Westfarthing and Eastfarthing about ten miles north of the Stone. Quoth a local Hobbit from nearby Bywater, "If you stand on a bench and squint, you can almost see the Northfarthing from here, too!"

Within the Farthings there are smaller, informal divisions of family lands; for instance, nearly all the Tooks live in or nigh Tuckborough, and outside the Farthings, Buckland was named for the Oldbucks (who were later called the Brandybucks.)

Now the Shire was once the hunting grounds of the King of Arnor, but it became deserted during the waning days of the Kingdom when it was known as the realm of Arthedain; but of the foundation of the Shire I told in my last chronicle, and yet have I to describe its countryside. For the Shire is a beautiful and fruitful land of green rolling hills and bountiful farmland; and though it is somewhat densely populated in parts, with many villages and several larger towns, still is it sufficiently open as to brook wide woodlands, meadows and marshes. It is needless to say that it is much beloved by its Hobbit inhabitants.

The Shire is largely given over to agriculture, and its fertile soil is well-suited for farming fields of cereals, orchards of fruits, and forests of timber. But chief of its products is galenas, or "Halflings' Leaf", which is called Pipe-weed by the Shire-folk, and is grown mostly in the Southfarthing's warmer regions. Now I have told of my first experience with pipe-weed and the smoking thereof, and discussion with local farmers at Bywater's renowned tavern, the Green Dragon, revealed that it was first introduced into the Shire by Tobold Hornblower in Longbottom sometime nigh the year 1070 in the Reckoning of the Shire. Popular varieties include Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby (named after the aforementioned Tobold), Southern Star, and Southlinch, which is Bree-grown.

The Shire is but a small land: from the west to the east, it measures forty leagues from the Far Downs to the Brandywine Bridge; from the north to the south, it measures fifty leagues from the northern moors to the marshes in the south. Nevertheless, I gratefully accepted the kind offer of Farmer Cotton to ride aboard a pony-cart of produce he was sending hence to Stock in the care of his son, Wilcome. Jolly, as he is known, was merry company and he told that he too had but just come of age last year, for Hobbits are acknowledged as adults at the age of thirty-three; long and loudly he laughed when I told him that it would be yet another fifty years afore I will be an ellon full-grown, for one hundred years is the average span of a Hobbit's lifetime!

We passed last night at the the Floating Log Inn in Frogmorton, and Jolly delighted in sampling the diverse and delicious Shire-brewed ales and beers with me. Today he cut across southwards from the Great East Road onto the Stock Road which follows eastwards from the Tookland; and coming this evening into the village of Stock, he brought me to the Golden Perch Inn which is famed among Hobbits for its beer, and thus we spent another merry supper before bidding one another farewell.

And so tomorrow shall mark my leaving the Shire, for nigh three leagues northwards lies the Brandywine Bridge, across which lies Buckland and, eastwards, my destination of Bree beckons ever nearer.

Scaled map of the Shire from the Encyclopedia of Arda.