559 



of the Loddon forms part of the boundary between the counties of 

 Berks and Surrey. Its utmost length from east to west is about 

 thirty- nine miles and a half, and its extreme breadth from north to 

 south about twenty-five miles and a half The area is 789 square 

 miles; and it lies between the parallels 51° 5' and 51° 31' north lati- 

 tude, and 0° 3' east to 0° 51' longitude west of Greenwich. 



The surface of the county is varied and undulating throughout, the 

 hills in some parts rising to a considerable height, and presenting very 

 bold and commanding views. It will be found, on a general survey, 

 that Surrey presents as great a variety of scenery as any county in the 

 kingdom. In some parts the naked heaths impart a wildness to the 

 prospect, which is strikingly contrasted with the numberless beauties 

 scattered over the face of the county by the hand of art ; while the 

 hills, aspiring to the bold character and picturesque scenery of moun- 

 tains, gradually decline into richly-wooded dales, and plains in a high 

 state of cultivation. 



Geologically considered, the strata of the county of Surrey consti- 

 tute three principal groups, namely : — First, the wealden and iron- 

 sand formation, which is the lowermost and most ancient series of 

 deposits in the county (the latter only just appears at the south-east- 

 ern corner of the county), forms the whole of the southern border of 

 the county, except a very small part west of Haslemere. The wealden 

 clay occupies a broad valley at the foot of the greensand hills, and 

 in some parts forms the lower portion of the south side of the hills. 

 The extent of this formation to the east constitutes an area of eight or 

 nine miles across; but towards the west it is contracted to about three 

 miles. Secondly, the chalk and greensand, which is superimposed 

 thereon, the latter formation running parallel with the northern margin 

 of the wealden clay, and traversing the county from the east, where 

 its width does not exceed from two to two and a half miles across, to 

 the south-west, where the area is of considerable extent, being from 

 nine to ten miles across. The area of the chalk on the eastern side 

 of the county is from eight to nine miles, and extends by Godstone 

 into Kent, where the range is called the North Downs, and terminates 

 in the cliffs of Dover ; but towards the west it is contracted into that 

 narrow but beautiful ridge called the Hog's^back, which for six or 

 seven miles scarcely exceeds half a mile in breadth"; the whole occu- 

 pying the central portion of the county from the east to the south- 

 west. And Thirdly, the London clay, or tertiary beds, distributed in 

 basins, or depressions of the chalk, upon the last-named strata. There 

 are here and there accumulations of ancient drift, consisting of loam, 



