130 Mr. P. J. Martin on the Anticlinal Line of 



that side of the saddle. This little pass is the entrauce of the 

 long valley of Bramdean, which is in the synclinal line of the 

 upheaval. The character of this valley is suflBciently well marked, 

 and it corresponds very curiously with that on the south side of 

 the Peasemarsh anticlinal line west of x\lton, on the road to 

 Lassam. For several miles the bottom of the Bramdean Valley 

 is covered by a thick bed of washed but angular flint. In its 

 progress westward it soon shows signs of moisture^ and a tribu- 

 tary of the Itchin rises in it and runs by Titchborne northward. 

 On the south side of the saddle runs the denudation of East 

 and West Meon, till it is closed in by the Beacon and Kilmeston 

 Downs. Bierly, Old Down, Kilmeston, Hinton Ampner, are 

 in the anticlinal line. From Hinton the saddle spreads wider, and 

 rises into greater importance ; and the northern synclinal line 

 falls back into the course of the Itchin, from Alresford to Win- 

 chester. The elevation increases now in a series of heights to 

 Easton High Down, where the saddle bursts suddenly open to 

 form the anticlinal denudation of Chilcomb, at the north-west 

 comer of which Winchester is situated, and where it is intersected 

 by the Itchin. St. Giles' and St. Catherine's Hills are anticlinal. 

 The same disposition might have been observed in the railway 

 cutting when it was fresh, west of the city. The upper chalk 

 becomes confluent again at CromwelPs Battery. From this point 

 the same high and saddle-shaped elevation is continued on in 

 Pitt and Farley Downs to the Test. In this part of its course 

 the line is accompanied on its northern side by a continuation 

 of the synclinal valley which carries the Itchin from Alresford*, 

 till it is lost at Kings Sombourne in the Valley of the Test. 

 Viewed from the country north of Winchester, all this line of 

 elevation gives the idea of a " chalk-bladder," especially as the 

 denudation of Chilcomb is not there visible. Crossing the Test, 

 the line of elevation seems to be taken up again by the Broughton 

 Hills at Bossington. But such a labyrinth of hill and dale 

 succeeds, owing to the deep denudations (many of them water- 

 courses) which occupy the countiy north-east of Salisbury, that 

 in the absence of sections I have not attempted to follow it 

 further. If it has not died out, and if it still continue its 

 usual westerly course, it points directly to, and perhaps unites 

 with, the Warminster anticlinal line. Where it becomes obscure 

 on the banks of the Test, it passes by the Wardour line, as that 

 line sinks under the tertiary beds at Timsbury near Michelmarsh. 



* A stricter examination of this valley would probably prove it to be a 

 trough occupied by tertiary dejwsit. There is a patch of this kind on the 

 northern slope of Easton Down, and the agricultural character of the coun- 

 try of " the Worthies " (villages so called), and other parishes in the line of 

 the Itohin, favour the supposition. 



