INTRODUCTION IxXXl 



The sub-division drained by the main stream of the Kennet is also 

 of a very interesting character. Near Chilton Foliat there is a rich 

 marsh, but it is chiefly on the Wiltshire side of the stream. The 

 district also contains the slopes of Walbury Camp, the highest point 

 of the county, and the hanging woods of Kiever, which, as the writer 

 first saw them, were a sight of great beauty, for the undergrowth had 

 been cleared away, and the ground was covered with a profusion of 

 Eed Campion, which was visible from a distance of two or three miles. 

 On approaching nearer a misty blue colour became apparent in another 

 direction, and this proved to be due to Myosotis sylvaiica, a most 

 interesting addition to the county flora. The abundance of Eupatorium 

 cannabinum and Valeriana officinalis is a curious feature of this steep 

 Chalk slope. On the top of the ridge, upwards of 900 feet above sea 

 level, is a small pond called Wigmoreash Pond, in which Myriophylkan 

 aUerniJlorum and a pretty form of Ranunculus peltatus were found, but the 

 downs were rather bare of interesting species. Habenaria viriclis, 

 AsperuJa cxjnanchica, Thesium, and Polygala calcarea, &c., were observed. 

 Unfortunately the surface of the upper part of Walbury Camp is no 

 longer wholly turf, and the barren soil is almost entirely composed of 

 flints, having been brought into that sordid condition of so-called 

 cultivation, which is so annoying to the lover of nature and dis- 

 appointing even to the iitilitarian. A little below the level of the 

 camp, in an easterly direction, some deposits of tertiaries or brick earth 

 are probably present, since Rubus idaeus, Mercurialis, and Solidago occur 

 at what in Berkshire may be called alpine altitudes. 



The irrigated meadows of the Kennet are well known, and from 

 their occasional peaty character give a home to plants which are 

 absent from the meadows of the Upper Thames. The numerous and 

 extensive beds of reeds and osier-holts are another pleasing feature of 

 the valley ; in fact, a w^alk down the Kennet meadows from Hunger- 

 ford to Reading reveals a succession of charming pictures. The main 

 stream of the Kennet drains not only the valley, but also considerable 

 portions of the uplands on the north side of the stream, as, for instance. 

 King's Heath Common, parts of Wickham Heath, and Bucklebury 

 Common, the Parks of Elcot, Midgham, and Englefield, and the 

 ground on which stands the half-ruined moated house of Southcote, 

 and that occupied by the pleasant park of Calcot House, ' full of 

 dappled fallow deer.' On the south side of the stream there are parts 

 of Greenham Common, Hampstead Marshall Park, with its series of 

 lakes, so named from its formerly appertaining to the Marshal 

 of England, the site of the Elizabethan house of Ufton, Burghfield 

 Common, and what was once the rich heath of Sulhampstead. 



5. The Loddon and Blackwater, or the district of the Lower Thames, 

 i^ an irregularly shaped district which has the following boundaries, — 



f 



