INTEODUCTION Ixxvil 



name, where there is a fine Elizabethan house, which is said to occupy 

 the site of a Saxon palace belonging to King Alfred ; the river then 

 passes Eastbury, East Garston (370 feet), and the pretty villages of 

 Great and Little Shefford. It is here a pleasant, clear, trout-stream, 

 with a gravelly bottom, and the narrow meadows are on peat, since 

 peat was cut for fuel here about a century since. The tussocks of 

 Carex pmiiculata are conspicuous in the marshes, and Oenmithe crocata 

 grows here and there in the irrigated fields. The small disused 

 church of Little Shefford contains some monuments to members of 

 the Fettiplace family. The river then passes the village of Weston 

 and reaches the pleasant park and village of Welford (the Willow ford), 

 where there is a row of fine old Crab trees, a Lime avenue, and a con- 

 siderable growth of Mistletoe ; it then flows by Boxford and past the 

 ruined ivy-mantled castle of Donnington to the Kennet. 



The more northern part of this Lambourn division consists of Chalk 

 downs, which are now to a considerable extent bare arable fields, 

 singularly poor, even in weeds of cultivation, and the grassy downs 

 themselves are not quite as rich in species as those nearer the river. 

 But the delightfully fresh air, and the extensive prospect which is to 

 be seen from the thymy Eidgeway, to some extent compensates for the 

 comparative poverty of its flora. From the White Horse range it is 

 said that nine counties can be seen ; at any rate such distant objects 

 as the Cotswolds, the Sarsden Larches, Tadmarton Camp, the high 

 ground of Steeple Aston, Long Crendon, and the Aylesbury Chilterns 

 can be seen. It is stated that the Breconshire Hills have been seen 

 from it. 



The upper part of the Lambourn subdivision produces, among others, 

 the following plants : — Clematis, Ranunculus peltafus, var. penicillatus, 

 Thlaspi arvense, Reseda lutea, Polygala calcarea, Cerastium arvense, Rhamnvs 

 catharticus, Eiwnymus, Astragalus danicus, Anthijllis, Hippocrepis, Prunus 

 Cerasus, Spiraea Filipendula, Rubus idaeus, Saxifraga granulata, Oenanthe 

 crocata, Caucalis arvensis, Aspenda cynanchica, Valeriana dioica, Valerianella 

 olitoria, V. dentata, Scabiosa Columbaria, Erigeron acre, Inula Comjza, Senecio 

 sylvaticus, S. campestris, Carlina vulgaris, Serratula, Centaurea nigra, vars. 

 radiata and decipiens, Picris Hieracioides, Campanida glomerata, Legouzia 

 (Specidaria), Calluna, Erica cinerea, Gentiana Amarella, and var. praecox, 

 G. germanica, Atropa, Verbascum nigrum, Verbena, Origanum, Calamintha 

 arvensis, Nepeta Cataria, Viscimi, Thesium, Habenaria viridis, H. conopsea, 

 H. chloroleuca, Ophnjs apifera, Polygonatmn midti/lorum, Allium vineale, 

 Zannichellia, Carex panicidata, C. cUvulsa, Milium, Trisetum, Avena pubescens, 

 A. pratensis, Bromus erectus, &c. 



The southern portion of the country, drained by the Lambourn, is 

 very different from the upper, as the Chalk is in many places covered 

 with tertiary deposits, such as the Bagshot Sands, or by patches of 



