1852.] TRIMMER ON THE SOILS OF KENT. 275 



forming, in West Kent, " clay on the tops of the chalk-hills, much 

 mixed with flints, cold and tenacious, and requiring six strong horses 

 to plough an acre a day, and when not ploughed till dry in the sum- 

 mer, hardly practicable with eight horses : depth 8-14 inches, on 

 chalk rock, with yellow clay between in some places." 



These soils of West Kent appear to answer to those which, in 

 East Kent, he calls " strong cledge, a stiff tenacious earth, with a 

 small proportion of flints, and at some places small patches of chalk ; 

 6-10 inches deep on the tops of the hills, and resting on a hard rock 

 of chalk. When wet," he adds, " it sticks like bird-lime, and when 

 thoroughly dry, the clods are so hard as not to be broken with the 

 heaviest roller. When well-managed, and the season is favourable, it 

 yields good crops of wheat, beans, clover, and oats ; but in unkindly 

 seasons for working, and in dry summers, it is very unproductive." 



From Portobello Inn to the edge of Wrotham Hill the road runs 

 near the summit-level, crossing several hollows which are about 20 

 feet deep. These are the upper portions of dry valleys, which com- 

 mence at the crest of the watershed, about a mile to the S.E., and 

 run northwards nearly parallel to the valley of the Darent, until they 

 wind round towards their lower part to join it. Road-cuttings, made 

 to reduce these irregularities, exhibit the depth and composition of 

 the subsoil, and show it to be from 3 to 5 and 6 feet deep, and 

 to rest on an irregular surface of chalk. It consists of very te- 

 nacious clay, with large unabraded flints. The clay is generally red- 

 dish brown ; but in some places it is mottled with white, yellow, and 

 bright red. The surface is in some places covered with about a foot 

 of sandy loam, with numerous angular flints, more broken than those 

 in the subsoil, which last appear merely as if just detached from the 

 chalk, but are covered with a yellow instead of a white coating. 

 Rounded eocene pebbles are associated more or less with the flints in 

 both deposits. Where the chalk is exposed in the deeper cuttings, 

 its surface is indented with pipes and furrows. 



The chalk is covered with this deposit to the very edge of the steep 

 descent of Wrotham Hill. In descending, all traces of it are lost, 

 except as filling pipes, and extending as a thin layer between them, 

 covered by about a foot of cream-coloured calcareous loam, which 

 appears to be the run of the hilly the result of atmospheric action, 

 and contains fragments of chalk, angular flints, and rolled eocene 

 pebbles. 



At Portobello Inn a by-road branches off to Stanstead, and by the 

 side of this road, about two furlongs from the inn, is a chalk-pit, on 

 the edge of one of the transverse hollows before mentioned as form- 

 ing the commencement of valleys. This section, which is about 

 12 feet deep, exhibits the chalk worn into large irregular cavities, 

 12 to 15 feet wide, covered by dark brown clay, containing numerous 

 unabraded flints, and alternating with light-coloured sandy loam, red 

 and yellow ochraceous sand, and seams of small, rounded eocene 

 pebbles. These alternations pass from a horizontal position on the 

 edge of the cavities to a nearly vertical position within them. They 

 are covered by a thin horizontal deposit of clay, sandy loam, and 



