STEEAMS. 15 



manner, two veiy incongruous soils. To the south-west is 

 a rank claj, that requires the labour of years to render it 

 mellow ; while the gardens to the north-east, and small 

 enclosures behind, consist of a warm, forward, crumbling 

 mould, called black mahn, which seems highly saturated with 

 vegetable and animal manure ; and these may perhaps have 

 been the origiual site of the town ; while the woods and 

 coverts might extend down to the opposite bank. 



At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to 

 north-west, arises a small rivulet: that at the north-west 

 end frequently fails ; but the other is a fine perennial spring, 

 little in&uenced by drought or wet seasons, called "WeU- 

 head.* This breaks out of some high grounds adjoining to 

 'Nare HiH, a noble chalk promontory, remarkable for sendiag 

 forth two streams iuto two different sqas. The one to the 

 south bejcomes a branch of the Arun, running to Arundel, 

 and BO falling iuto the British Channel ; the other to the 

 north. The Selborne stream makes one branch of the 'Wej ; 

 and, meeting the Blackdown stream at Hedleigh, and the 

 Alton and Jamham stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a 

 considerable river, navigable at Grodahning; from whence 

 it passes to Guildford, and so into the Thames at "Weybridge ; 

 and thus at the N^ore into the German Ocean. 



Oiu" wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, 

 and, when sunk to that depth, seldom fail ; but produce a 

 fine limpid water, soft to the taste, and much commended by 

 those who drink the pure element, but which does not lather 

 well with soap. 



To the north-west, north, and east, of the village, is a 

 range of fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a white 

 malm, a sort of rotten or rubble stone, which, when turned 

 up to the frost and rain, moulders to pieces, and becomes 

 manure to itself.t 



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



* This spring produced, September 14, 1781, after a severe hot summer, 

 and a preceding dry spring and ■winter, nine gallons of water in a minute, which 

 is five hundred and forty in an hour, and twelve thousand nine hundred and 

 sixty, or two hundred aud sixteen hogsheads in twenty-four hours, or one 

 natural day. At this time many of the wells failed, and all the ponds in the 

 vales were dry. 



"f* This soil produces good ■wheat and clover. 



