STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ARBORICULTURE IN HAMPSHIRE. 513 
(Lord Northbrook), Hursley (the Heathcote Trustees), Norman 
Court (William Baring, Esq.), and many others, besides the 
historical forest of Harewood, where King Edgar, in the year 
963, at the instigation of Elfrida, the wife of Earl Ethelwold, 
and a daughter of the Earl of Devon, slew with his own hand the 
said Earl Ethelwold, that he might obtain Elfrida for his queen. 
Harewood is one large area of about 700 acres. 
The northern part of the county, from the chalk to the boundary 
with Berks, is occupied by the Woolwich and Reading beds (plastic 
clay), the London clay, Lower Bagshot, Bracklesham, and the 
Upper Bagshot beds with alluvium in the valleys, and forms part 
of the basin of the Thames. ; 
The plastic clay forms a narrow strip skirting the chalk on the 
north, and consists of dark blue, reddish, and yellow clays, inter- 
stratified with sand of various colours, and is favourable to the 
growth of the oak, and may be called the oak zone. 
The London clay comes next, skirting the plastic clay and along 
the Embourne and Blackwater rivers, dividing the counties of 
Hants and Berks, being connected by irregular bands from north 
to south. The mixture of this deposit with the others gives a 
distinctive character to the woodlands of this part of the county. 
On this formation is Strathfieldsaye (Duke of Wellington), rich in 
woodland scenery. Most of our hardwood trees thrive on the 
London clay. 
The Lower Bagshot beds occur in large and small irregular 
patches. They consist of brown and yellow sands, gravel both 
sharp and pebbly intermixed with different coloured clays, also 
poor sandy and peaty soil—a veritable hotch-potch of geology ; so 
that there is every sort of soil suitable for every sort of tree, and 
what are popularly known as “American plants.” <A large por- 
tion is open heaths, but it has also the large woods of Penwood 
and Pamber Forest; and the finely wooded parks of Heckfield 
(Lord Eversley) and Dogmersfield (Sir H. P. St John Mildmay) 
are mostly on this formation. 
The Bracklesham or Middle Bagshot beds are not of large 
extent, the most considerable patches being at Bramshill and 
Elvetham Parks, Hazeley Heath, Hartley Wintney, and by 
Winchfield, and consists of various clays, sand, and gravel, suit- 
able for the growth of most of our trees. 
The Upper Bagshot forms the arid soil of Aldershot and the 
large tract of heath called Hartford Bridge Flats ; and although 
called “ flats,” they are of considerable elevation above the sur- 
