CHAPTER II. 



HAMPSTEAD HILL — ITS STRUCTURE. 



The hill of Hampstead and its structure, with its consequent 

 surface features and characteristics, are so interesting and in- 

 structive that the locality has become, as it were, classic ground 

 for London geologists, who have often assembled on the Heath 

 to listen to a dissertation on the ground beneath them. Dr. 

 Wetherell, Professor Prestwich, Professor Morris, Mr. Whita- 

 ker, and Mr. Caleb Evans, and other well-known geologists, 

 have made Hampstead the theme of numerous papers and 

 lectures. The last-named gentleman, the late Mr. Caleb Evans, 

 F.G.S., a resident of Hampstead, from his attentive observation 

 of every instructive section displayed in the district through 

 many years, was the acknowledged master of the subject. By 

 him and by the late Professor Morris, Hampstead Heath was 

 made enchanted ground, for both those genial teachers' greatest 

 pleasure was in imparting to youthful students, on the ground 

 itself, the knowledge of it they so richly* possessed. So in- 

 teresting and instructive, indeed, is Hampstead Hill, that few 

 places in England are more frequently referred to in illustration 

 of physiographical teaching in London schools, for here can be 

 seen an example and an illustration of clay and sand deposits, 

 of hills formed by circumdenudation, of valleys of erosion, of 

 outliers, of the cause of springs, of the formation of marshes, 

 and the sources of rivers, as well as of the dependence of plants 



