14 



Report of a Field Meeting held at Limpsfield Chart, 

 June 27th, 1903. 



By Robert Adkin, F.E.S. Read October 22nd, 1903. 



It will be remembered that the field meetings placed under my 

 charge during the past two years, viz. Brasted ("Proc," 1901, pp. 20 

 — 23) and Otford (" Proc," 1902, pp. 47 — 51), were held on the hills 

 bordering the River Darenth, and when it was suggested that I 

 should undertake the arrangements for one during the present year 

 it occurred to me that I could not do better than fix upon some 

 adjacent part of this picturesque Kentish district, and accordingly 

 Limpsfield Chart was chosen. 



It should, however, be mentioned that, by the arbitrary division of 

 counties, Limpsfield Chart belongs to Surrey, and it is vqry doubtful 

 whether any of those attending the meeting set foot in Kent during 

 any part of their ramble; but as it forms the western extremity of the 

 Kentish ragstone hills, and many of the tiny rivulets which go to 

 make the River Darenth, already referred to, have their origin in its 

 midst, I think we may, for our present purposes, accept the natural 

 rather than the artificial boundary, and regard it as belonging to the 

 West Kent district. Its name too has a distinctly Kentish ring, for 

 I know no other county where the wooded common lands are desig- 

 nated by the name " chart." 



Having selected the venue for the meeting, my first business was 

 to work out a means for reaching it. Westerham is the nearest 

 railway station, and anyone who may like to further investigate the 

 locality, and can make his own arrangements as to trains, will find it 

 an easy walk thence to the chart. The way, on leaving the station 

 and gaining the High Street, is to the right through the village and 

 to the left just after passing the pond ; when little more than half a 

 mile up the lane an ill-defined footpath on the right across a field 

 brings one to the lower end of the chart, the distance from the rail- 

 way station being perhaps a mile and a half. Or the path through 

 the park may be followed to near the hill-top, and then, turning to 

 the right through the woods or along the Edenbridge and Oxted 

 Road, the upper part of the chart will be reached. But, although 

 Westerham is the nearest railway station, the train service on that 

 branch did not admit of convenient arrangements for a party being 

 made by that route, and I had, therefore, to fall back upon Oxted as 

 the only other available station whence we might gain our destina- 

 tion, and, indeed, by doing so secured some very distinct advan- 

 tages; for, being on a line worked jointly by the S.E.&C.R. and the 



