THE RIVER WANDLE. 



27 



runs uninterruptedly over the blue clay, and empties itself into the 

 River Thames at Wandsworth. 



The second branch rises by many springs almost entirely within a 

 radius of a mile south-west ; one spring, indeed, rises on our eastern 

 boundary and traverses the garden to form the Central Brook. A 

 second rises near the mill, and discharges itself into the backwater. 

 One, yielding a very large supply of water, comes from the grounds 

 of Wallington House, and makes the Crystal Waterfall. Another large 

 spring rises in Carshalton Park, and, after traversing the grounds of 

 Mr. Philpotts, drives a water-wheel. Near Carshalton Church a great 

 body of water rises from the ground. One of these springs is sup- 

 posed by the villagers to have been caused by Anne Boleyn's horse 

 making a hole in the ground, from which water has flowed ever since 

 (fig. 38, vign. ix.) : another large stream rises from the ground in a pond 

 at Carshalton House. All these latter springs discharge their water 



into two large ponds in front of 



Carshalton Church; thence they 



pass to a flour mill, thence to a 



paper mill, and then, from a second 



flour and snufif mill, to the grounds 



of Shepley House, to unite with the 



Croydon branch. 



The snuff" mill, in the occupation of Mr. Ansell, is very picturesque, 



and I am enabled to give a graphic view of it (plate 7) from the 



pencil of Mrs. Jackson, of Beechwood Lodge, Carshalton. 



The River Wandle depends upon springs for its water, and receives 



but verj' little from immediate rainfall. The river may be discoloured 



for a short time by heavy rain from road-washings, but the addition 



to the water is but small. 



The rationale of this phenomenon is interesting, as the rain which 



falls upon the porous chalk to the south is immediately absorbed, and is 



only given up slowly in the springs. In the hard impermeable chalks 



of the south of France and Italy, the rainfall runs off" in a desolating 



mountain torrent ; and when it ceases the water is lost, and the bed 



FtG. 38. — ^Anne Boleyn's Well. 



