ON A CHALK HILL 223 



and gravels above the chalk, the upper greensand just 

 below it, the impervious gault-clay, and in many places 

 the lower greensand also, are better supplied with water, 

 and are often very fertile. On these beds or close to them 

 are situate most of the market towns which supply the 

 chalk district. 



London is encircled on nearly every side, and also under- 

 lain by chalk. To the south lie the Hog's Back and the 

 North Downs, while far away, beyond the Weald of Surrey, 

 Kent and Sussex, stretch the South Downs ; all these are 

 chalk hills. The beechwoods of the Chilterns slope up- 

 wards to the north-western escarpment of the chalk, and 

 the rambler finds them so shady, still and lonely that he 

 is startled when the milestones tell him how near is that 

 vast city which he has been glad to forget a while. The 

 chalk-land of the Chilterns is John Hampden's country ; 

 the chalk-land of Lincolnshire is Tennyson's country. 

 Here on the chalk-hills of Yorkshire stood the palace of 

 Edwin, here Paulinus preached, here the aged ealdorman 

 spoke of human life and of the sparrow flitting from door 

 to door through the warm house, and here Coin profaned 

 his own temple. Salisbury Plain, Shakespeare's cliff, the 

 sea-worn pinnacles of the Needles, Beachy Head, and 

 the low river-cliff on which Windsor Castle stands, all 

 owe their existence to the chalk. In old days England 

 was thought by foreigners to be a land of chalk. The 

 merchant who landed in Kent, Sussex or Hampshire, and 

 made his way to the capital, saw while yet far from shore 

 our white cliffs, travelled on white roads through sheep- 

 walks and cherry-gardens, and often returned home with 

 the impression that all the rest of England was chalk too. 

 Some modern travellers, like Taine, have gone everywhere 

 by railway, and give their readers to suppose that a great 

 part of the England of to-day is covered with cinders. The 

 Englishman of course knows well that the chalk-downs 

 are but a small part of his well-endowed island. We have 

 a great tree-growing belt, once part of an unbroken forest, 



