14 SOILS OAKS. 



it passes to Guildford, and so into the Thames at 

 Weybridge ; and thus at the Nore into the German 

 Ocean. 



Our wells, at an average, run to ahout sixty-three 

 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 

 element, but which does not lather well with soap. 



To the north-west, 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, moulders 

 to pieces, and becomes manure to itself.* 



Still on to the north-east, 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 tim- 

 ber, and infamous for roads. The oaks of Temple 

 and Blackmoor stand high in the estimation of pur- 

 veyors, and have furnished much naval timber ; 

 while the trees on the freestone grow large, but are 

 what workmen call shakey, and so brittle as often 

 to fall to pieces in sawing. f Beyond the sandy 



* This soil produces good wheat and clover. 



f The common larch is very soon lost when planted above 

 a substratum of red sandstone. In the Vale of the Annan, 

 wherever the sloping banks have a substratum of this rock, or 

 one composed of a sort of red sandstone, shingle, or gravel, 

 the outward decay of the tree is visible at from fifteen to 

 twenty-five years of age. The internal decay commences 

 sooner, according to the depth of the upper soil, in the centre 

 of the trunk, at the root, in the wood being of a darker colour 



