ENGLISH LOWLANDS 81 



from Wiltshire into Norfolk. The intervening plains 

 may be illustrated by the Weald of Sussex, and by the 

 lower basin of the Thames. 



The differences between the successive geological 

 formations of the English lowlands never pass a re- 

 stricted limit in regard to composition and structure. 

 Essentially soft and easily decomposable, the rocks 

 include no thick bands of much harder material than 

 the rest, such as might project in prominent features. 

 The prevailing characteristic of the topography is 

 therefore unbroken placidity. Nowhere does any rug- 

 gedness obtrude itself. No part of the ground towers 

 abruptly above or sinks suddenly beneath the general 

 level. The successive ranges of low hills have rounded 

 summits and smooth slopes, which, even when steep, 

 seldom allow naked rock to appear, but conceal it 

 everywhere under a carpet of herbage. So gentle is 

 the inclination of the ground, from the watersheds to 

 the coast, that the drainage winds in sluggish streams 

 that often hardly seem to flow. ' Purling brooks ' are 

 scarcely ever to be found. Since the running waters 

 of the country have played no inconsiderable part in 

 the inspiration of our poets, it is well worthy of 

 remark that in the east and south-east of England 

 the streams are, for the most part, silent. We shall 

 see how strongly they are thus contrasted with the 

 brooks that traverse the lowlands of the north. 



Since the rocks of these eastern and southern dis- 

 tricts decay into soils that are on the whole fertile, 

 the surface, well watered by the rains from the western 

 ocean, is clothed with meadows, corn-fields, and gar- 

 dens, while trees have been planted along the roads 



