2 SOIL OF GODALMING. 



stricken downs crossing the country from Reigate to Farn- 

 ham. Between the chalk and the sand is an exceedingly 

 narrow tract of blue clay, sometimes scarcely ten yards in 

 width. These three distinct soils do not gradually inter- 

 mingle, but are separated by the most abrupt transition, and 

 their effect on the produce, where the three soils occur in 

 the same field, is very marked. The sandy soil produces 

 a variety of surface ; in most parts it is excessively poor, 

 and wholly unprofitable to man : in some of the low bot- 

 toms it becomes an almost continuous marsh, occasionally 

 presenting large sheets of water ; these ponds, in the pro- 

 cess of time, enrich the soil which they cover, and make it 

 worth the expense of draining ; thus, the once fine piece 

 of water known as Old Pond, has been embanked, divided, 

 drained and filled, at different times and in various ways, 

 until nearly an hundred acres have been redeemed and 

 devoted to agriculture ; still, it is a pool of respectable 

 dimensions.* In many places, this labour would be ill 

 bestowed, and there are fine pools of water which have 

 existed for centuries all along the valley that winds by 

 Peperharrow, Elsted, Frensham, Thursley, the Pudmoors, 

 Headly, &c. Ascending thence by Bramshot to Liphook, 

 we find a tract producing coarse sour grass, heath, furze 

 and hurts, or whortleberries, but light and dry, and easily 

 scattered by the wind; this is a peculiar character of Hind- 

 head. Wherever the sand bears the red tint of iron, the 

 chief natural produce is furze ; but this colour, as we pro- 

 ceed westward, yields to a blue tint. The two colours stain 

 the wool of the sheep which range the wastes, and the red 

 and blue are very conspicuous in their fleeces, the blue 



* In 1832. - E. N. 



