126 How soil has been made 



patches, but not at the clay places. Now it was obvious 

 that an inn, a blacksmith's forge, and a few shops and 

 cottages would soon spring up round the ford, especially 

 as the gravel patch was better to live on than the clay 

 round about, and so we readily understood why our 

 village had been built where it was and not a mile 

 up or down the stream. Almost any river will show the 

 same things : on the Lea near Harpenden we found the 

 river flowed quickly at the ford (Fig. 58), where there was 

 a hard, stony bottom and no mud : whilst above and 

 below the ford the bottom was muddy and the stream 

 flowed more slowly. At the ford there is as usual a 



Wye Godmersham 



Fig. 57. 

 Sketch map showing why Godmersham and Wye arose where 

 they did on the Stour. At A, the gravel patch, the river 

 has a hard bed and can be forded. A village therefore 

 grew up here. 

 At B, the clay part, the river hai a soft bed and cannot be 

 forded. The land is wet in winter, and the banks of the 

 stream may be washed away. It is therefore not a good 

 site for a village 



small village. The Thames furnishes other examples : 

 below Oxford there are numerous rocky or gravelly 

 patches where fords were possible, and where villages 

 therefore grew up. Above Oxford, however, the possi- 

 bilities of fording were fewer, because the soil is clay 

 and there is less rock ; the roads and therefore the 

 villages grew up away from the river. 



