Xvi FLORA OF BERKSHIRE 



rich meadows, the graceful outlines of the chalk hills, its high breezy 

 heathlands, its sombre pinewoods, and its stately royal park and 

 forest, afford varied and delightful scenes of quiet and peaceful 

 beauty. 



The contour of the county is rather unusual. If a section of it were 

 made from north to south from Lechlade to the Hampshire border, 

 which is to the south of Hungerford, it would be found that on the 

 north the river Thames at Lechlade is about 250 feet above the sea 

 level. From this level the country rises and attains the height of 

 465 feet on Badbury Hill, This hill is on the western side of a range 

 which stretches nearly west and east, its highest eastern points being 

 Pickett's Heath, which is 535, and Wytham Hill, which is 539 feet 

 above the sea. This range slopes gently down to the south so that near 

 Shrivenham its altitude is about 200 feet. The country then rises 

 rapidly to the summit of the White Horse Hill, which is 840 feet high. 

 This chalk ridge, like the preceding range of hills which belong to the 

 Coralline formation, also runs in a direction which is nearly west to 

 east ; in fact, it is one of the four ranges of chalk hills which radiate 

 from the high ground of Salisbury Plain ^ In its progress through 

 Berkshire it sinks slightly in elevation, so that while on the White 

 Horse it is 840 ^ at Wantage it is 740, at Letcombe Castle it is 690, at 

 Lowbury it is 585, and at King Standing Hill it is only 391 feet above 

 the sea : the river Thames at Mongewell is about 160 feet above sea 

 level. Returning to consider the imaginary section on the west of 

 the county it will be found that from the summit of the White 

 Horse Hill the ground gradually slopes towards the Kennet, which 

 enters the county near Hungerford ; there the river is about 328 feet 

 above the sea, while at its outfall into the Thames at Reading it is 

 not more than 123 feet. This river runs also in a direction nearly 

 west and east in Berkshire. From the trough of the valley at 

 Hungerford the ground soon rises in an abrupt escarpment of the 

 Chalk to the greatest altitude which this formation reaches in 

 southern England, namely, on Walbury Camp, which is 959 feet 

 above the sea ; the neighbouring hill, called Gibbet Hill, reaches 

 955 feet, and in the slight depression between the two hills there is 

 a small pond which is 912 feet above the sea. This range does not 



1 The four great ranges of chalk hills which radiate from Salisbury Plain 

 are : (i) The range which, under the names of the Marlborough Downs, the 

 Chiltem Hills, and the East Anglian Heights, the Lincoln Wolds, and the 

 Yorkshire Wolds, extends as far as to Flamborough Head. The line is not 

 unbroken throughout, as the Thames, the Wash, and the Humber cut 

 through it. (2) The range called the North Downs, which terminates at the 

 cliffs of Dover. (3) The range known as the South Downs, which runs through 

 Hampshire, and terminates at Beachy Head. (4) The range known as the 

 Dorset Heights, with the prolongation Blackdown Hill and Purbeck Heights. 



2 Not 893 feet as given in the Encyc. Brit. 



