By the Rev. A. C. Smith, 31. A. 



325 



the parish is under the plough/ and — in common with the great 

 bulk of this part of the county — the great expanse of cornfields is 

 unbroken by trees or hedges. This is more especially the case in 

 the southern and eastern parts of the parish : but northwards, though 

 the fields are large, they are usually divided by hedges. Almost all 

 trees thrive here luxuriantly, but the beech is par excellence the tree 

 of the district : it seizes so firm a hold of the ground that it is 

 seldom blown down in the fierce hurricanes we often experience from 

 the south-west, and as it often retains its leaves through the winter, 

 it forms a valuable protection from the cutting blasts, which at 

 times roar over our exposed downs with amazing force. Evergreens, 

 too, take kindly to our heavy retentive soil ; and the yew, the holly, 

 the box, and the laurel flourish with remarkable vigour. The Scotch 

 fir, again, grows well here and is most valuable for shelter, while 

 the spruce fir seems scarcely able to stand the buffetings it meets 

 with, and the larch, when arrived at a certain size, invariably becomes 

 stag-headed, and declines. 



So retentive is the clay which overlies the chalk that the drier 

 the summer, the better are our crops of corn ; and that, notwith- 

 standing our broad fields have little shade or shelter, but are exposed 

 to all the evaporating influence of the sun : not so, however, our 

 grass lands, which need copious rains throughout the spring and 

 summer, and are never so productive of hay as after a dripping 

 season. 



For the most part our wells provide ample supplies of excellent 

 water : they are very deep, never less than sixty, oftener eighty 

 feet, sometimes — as in the case of the rectory well — one hundred 

 and twenty feet, and even — in the case of a well I had occasion 



1 At a rough computation the following are about the relative proportions : — 



Arable 1175 acres. 



Pasture 410 „ 



Down 16 ,, 



Woods and Plantations .... 14 „ 



Homesteads and Gardens ... - 20 „ 



Roads and Lanes ------ 32 „ 



Total 1607 



