14 NATURAL HISTORY 
rising three hundred feet above the village, and is 
divided into a sheepdown, the high wood, and a 
long hanging wood called the Hanger. ‘The cov- 
ert of this eminence is altogether beech, the most 
lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its 
smooth rind or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful 
pendulous boughs. The down or sheepwalk is a 
pleasing park-like spot of about one mile by half 
that space, jutting out on the verge of the hill-coun- 
try, where it begins to break down into the plains, 
and commanding a very engaging view, being an 
assemblage of hill, dale, woodlands, heath, and wa- 
ter. The prospect is bounded to the southeast 
and east by the vast range of mountains called the 
Sussex Downs, by Guild-down near Guildford, and 
by the Downs round Dorking, and Ryegate in Sur- 
rey, to the northeast; which altogether, with the 
country beyond Alton and Farnham, form a noble 
and extensive outline. 
At the foot of this hill, one stage or step from 
the uplands, lies the village, which consists of one 
single straggling street, three quarters of a mile in 
length, in a sheltered vale, and running parallel 
with the Hanger. The houses are divided from 
the hill by the vein of stiff clay (good wheat-land), 
yet stand on a rock of white stone, little in appear- 
ance removed from chalk, but seems so far from 
being calcareous that it enduresextreme heat. Yet 
that the freestone still preserves somewhat that is 
analogous to chalk, is plain from the beeches, which 
descend as low as those rocks extend, and no far- 
ther, and thrive as well on them, where the ground 
is steep, as on the chalks. ; 
The cartway of the village divides in a remark- 
