A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



older beds of the Upper Greensand, Gault clay, and Lower Greensand, also 

 belonging to the Cretaceous system, make their appearance ; while north- 

 wards, towards Berkshire, the younger Eocene formations are found, prin- 

 cipally as large stretches of London Clay and Bagshot and Bracklesham 

 beds, separated from the chalk downs by a narrow but very well defined 

 continuous outcrop of the Woolwich and Reading beds. The latter are 

 equally well defined though broader along the southern limit of the Chalk, 

 where also the belt of London Clay is narrow and soon gives place to the 

 sandy and gravelly Bagshot and Bracklesham beds which predominate 

 throughout the New Forest and occupy the whole of the north-western 

 portion of it. To the south-west, south and south-east of Lyndhurst these 

 give place to the somewhat older Hamstead, Bembridge, Osborne and 

 Hendon beds of the Oligocene formation, which extend thence to about 

 the middle of the Isle of Wight, where they again give place to the older 

 strata. As in the north of the county, so here too, a ridge of chalk downs 

 forms the backbone of the island, the southern portion of which consists 

 chiefly of Lower Greensand, though in the other beds of the formation 

 Upper Greensand, Gault and Weald clay are also all to be found. 



This rich geological variety, providing chalk, clay and sandy soils, 

 having very distinctive mineral composition and physical properties, would 

 of itself be sufficient to furnish the natural conditions for wide differences 

 in the flora generally, and in the natural distribution of the woodland trees 

 in particular. The influence of these primary petrological factors is, how- 

 ever, greatly increased on account of the differences in configuration by 

 which they are accompanied. Thus while the chalk lands consist in the 

 main of uplands and elevated, breezy, wind-swept downs, the clays, sands 

 and gravels of the two younger formations have more the character of 

 the lower undulating country, of sandy moors and of low-lying, often 

 water-logged, gravelly tracts with peat-bogs, water-springs and swamp- 

 like ponds ; while the older beds of the Cretaceous system yield good 

 sands, clays and loams, separated by the steep hillsides of the Upper Green- 

 sand (malm) known locally as ' hangers,' and familiar by name to all 

 admirers of Gilbert White. 



The chalk downs, the highlands of Hampshire, occupy from about 

 one-third to two-fifths of the county. Consisting now of smooth rolling 

 downs and undulating tracts, wooded here and there, but otherwise bare, 

 bleak-looking and devoted to rough pasturage, they were probably at one 

 time thickly wooded, though there are now only the scattered remnants 

 of these primeval woods. Elevated considerably above sea-level, mostly 

 bare, easily permeable to rainwater, and of immense depth, these higher 

 chalk tracts have an essentially dry climate. Heavy downpours of rain 

 rapidly disappear without even forming springs in the coombes or bends 

 in the hillsides, although the water reappears in the shape of springs and 

 streams in the Lower Chalk of the gently undulating land near the Green- 

 sand. To the north and north-east the climate is also dry, the land 

 consisting principally of sandy heaths between 200 and 300 feet above 

 sea-level, overlooking lower and more fertile loams and clays. Towards 



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