CLIMATE 



SOME of the principal elements of the climate of Hertfordshire 

 may be ascertained by examining maps in a meteorological atlas, 

 such as the Meteorological Atlas of the British Islands issued by 

 the Meteorological Council, or the splendid Atlas of Meteorology 

 recently published which forms volume iii. of Bartholomew's Physical 

 Atlas. 1 Here for instance may be ascertained approximately the 

 monthly as well as the annual temperature and rainfall of the county, 

 with the advantage of easy comparison with the same elements of the 

 climate of other parts of the British Isles, of Europe, or of the world. 

 But climate is such a complex phenomenon that any views thus formed 

 must be wanting in definiteness. Not only have we to consider the 

 rainfall, temperature, humidity, amount of cloud, and direction of the 

 wind, but also the nature of the soil, the extent of water, of woods, of 

 barren heaths and cultivated land, and the presence or absence of manu- 

 facturing districts. 



More than three centuries ago Norden said of Hertfordshire : ' The 

 ayre for the most part is very salutarie, and in regard thereof many 

 sweete and pleasant dwellinges, healthfull by nature and profitable by 

 arte and Industrie, are planted there.' 2 Sixty-five years later Fuller 

 remarked : ' It is the garden of England for delight, and men commonly 

 say that such who buy a house in Hertfordshire pay two years' purchase 

 for the aire thereof.' 3 Thus the salubrity of Hertfordshire had by then 

 become proverbial, and the county is certainly favoured from a hygienic 

 point of view, having a dry soil, being hilly though not mountainous, 

 with a great extent of surface considerably elevated above sea-level, being 

 well watered with numerous rivers deriving their supply chiefly from 

 springs in the Chalk, and therefore pure, being well wooded, having 

 many parks and country seats, a fair proportion of uncultivated land 

 forming gorse-covered commons, and wide stretches of grass on each 

 side of many of its roads (roadside wastes), and also by the absence of 

 manufacturing towns. There is no industry which interferes with the 

 purity of the air, and the only manufacturing process by which the 

 rivers are contaminated is that of paper-making. There are several 



1 The Physical Atlas, byj. G. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S. (London: Archibald Constable 

 & Co., Ltd.). In progress. 



! The Description of Hartfordshire, p. 2 (1597). 



3 The Worthies of England, part 2, p. 17 (1662). 



1 33 D 



