THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



view, being an assemblage of hill, dale, woodlands, heath, and 

 water. 1'1'e prospect is bounded to the south-east and east by 

 the \asi range of mountains called the Sussex downs, by Guild- 

 down near Guildford, and by the downs round Dorking, and 

 Eyegate in Surrey, to the north-east, which altogether, with the 

 country beyond Alton and Farnham, form a noble and exten- 

 sive outline. 



At the foot of this hill, one stage or step from the uplands, 

 lies the village, which consists of one single straggling street, 

 three-quarters of a mile in length, in a sheltered vale, and run- 

 ning parallel with the Hanger. The houses are divided from 

 the hill by a vein of stiff clay (good wheat land), yet stand on 

 a rock of white stone, little in appearance removed from chalk ; 

 but seems so far from being calcareous, that it endures extreme 

 heat. Yet that the freestone still preserves somewhat that is 

 analogous to chalk, is plain from the beeches which descend as 

 low as those rocks extend, and no farther, and thrive as well on 

 them, where the ground is steep, as on the chalks. 



The cart-way of the village divides, in a remarkable manner, 

 two very incongruous soils. To the south-west is a rank clay, 

 that requires the labour of years to render it mellow ; while the 

 gardens to the north-east, and small inclosures behind, consist of 

 a warm, forward, crumbling mould, called black malm, which 

 seems highly saturated with vegetable and animal manure ; and 

 these may perhaps have been the original site of the town ; 

 while the woods and coverts might extend down to the opposite 

 bank. 



At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to 

 north-west, arises a small rivulet: that at the north-west end 

 frequently fails ; but the other is a fine perennial spring, called 

 Well-head, little influenced by drought or wet seasons, inas- 

 much as it produced on the 14th September, 1781, after a severe 

 hot summer and a preceding dry spring and winter, nine gal- 

 lons of water in a minute, at a time when many of the wells 

 failed, and all the ponds in the vales were dry. 



This spring breaks out of some high grounds joining to Nore 

 Hill, a noble chalk promontory, remarkable for sending forth 

 two streams into two different seas. The one to the south 



