16 NATURAL HISTORY 
feet, and, when sunk to that depth, seldom fail, but 
produce a fine limpid water, soft to the taste, and 
much commended by those who drink the pure ele- 
ment, but which does not lather well with soap. 
To the northwest, north, and east of the village 
is a range of fair enclosures, consisting of what is 
called a white malm, a sort of rotten or rubble stone, 
which, when turned up to the frost and rain, mould- 
ers to pieces, and becomes manure to itself.* 
Still on to the northeast, and a step lower, is a 
kind of white land, neither chalk nor clay, neither 
fit for pasture nor for the plough, yet kindly for 
hops, which root deep into the freestone, and have 
their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at 
hand. ‘This white soil produces the brightest hops. 
As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer 
Forest, at the juncture of the clays and sand the 
soil becomes a wet, sandy loam, remarkable for 
timber, and infamous for roads. The oaks of 
Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the estima. 
tion of purveyors, and have furnished much naval 
timber; while the trees on the freestone grow 
large, but are what workmen call shaky, and so 
brittle as often to fall to pieces in sawing. Beyond 
the sandy loam the soil becomes a hungry, lean 
sand till it mingles with the forest, and will produce 
little without the assistance of lime and turnips. 
LETTER Il. 
In the court of Norton farmhouse, a manor farm 
to the northwest of the village, on the white malms, 
* This soil produces good wheat and clover. 
