ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 69 



the chalk. Notice that it is continuous, and that a pedestrian 

 could walk over every part of it without leaving it. With 

 reference to the general characters of the chalk, they are best 

 considered in connection with the different counties through 

 which the formation passes. First, with reference to the 

 chalk soils of Norfolk, we cannot say much, Norfolk soils 

 being the most difficult to classify or arrange of any soils in 

 England. They include all kinds of variations, from a stiff 

 clay to blowing sands and calcareous chalky soils. It would 

 be impossible, in fact, to describe the soils of Norfolk. It is 

 evident that even geological knowledge does not enable us to 

 say very much with reference to the characters of these soils. 

 In Suffolk it is somewhat different. But there is a con- 

 siderable similarity between the soils of North Suffolk, and 

 those of South Norfolk. They vary very much, and the 

 chalk, in fact, scarcely asserts its character in these two 

 counties. But when we leave Norfolk and Suffolk and come 

 into Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, 

 and the other counties already named, we find undulating or 

 rolling districts called Downs. Thus we have the Downs 

 of Cambridgeshire, the Downs of Buckinghamshire, Essex, 

 Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Wilts, Hants, Dorset, &c. They 

 form the North Downs, which extend past Croydon in Surrey, 



I and the Kent Downs, and the South Downs, which stretch 

 through Sussex towards Lewes and Brighton. Downs are 

 similar in character to what were described previously as 

 wolds in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. In the north the 

 chalk hills are called wolds, but in the south they 

 are called downs. They are sub-mountainous, undulating, 

 sometimes even approaching the grandeur of mountain 

 scenery, in which latter case cultivation is not attempted. 

 The upper portions of the downs produce a short, sweet, 

 and somewhat scanty herbage, well suited for the pecu- 

 liar breeds of sheep which graze them, and it is to be 





