12 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of 

 white land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture 

 nor for the plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep 

 into the freestone, and have their poles and wood for 

 charcoal growing just at hand. This white soil produces 

 the brightest hops. 



As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer-forest, 

 at the juncture of the clays and sand the soil becomes a 

 wet, sandy loam, remarkable for timber, and infamous for 

 roads. The oaks of Temple and Blackmoor stand high 

 in the estimation of purveyors, and have furnished much 

 naval timber ; while the trees on the freestone grow large, 

 but are what workmen call shakey, and so brittle as often 

 to fall to pieces in sawing. Beyond the sandy loam the 

 soil becomes an hungry lean sand, till it mingles with the 

 forest ; and will produce little without the assistance of 

 lime and turnips. 



LETTER II 



In the court of Norton farmhouse, a manor farm to 

 the north-west of the village, on the white malms, stood 

 Yiithin these twenty years a broad-leaved elm, or wych 

 hazel, ulmus folio laiissimo scabro of Ray, which, though 

 it had lost a considerable leading bough in the great 

 storm in the year 1703, equal to a moderate tree, yet, 

 when felled, contained eight loads of timber ; and, being 

 too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet 

 above the butt, where it measured near eight feet in the 

 diameter. This elm I mention to show to what a bulk 

 planted elms may attain ; as this tree must certainly have 

 been such from its situation. 



In the centre of the village, and near the church, is 

 a square piece of ground surrounded by houses, and 



