38 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



about a quarter of a mile from the main river. As I knew it, 

 it was a circular pond nearly a hundred feet in diameter, filled 

 with the most crystal clear water, and very deep in the centre, 

 where the springs were continually bubbling upward, keeping 

 up a good stream which supplied a considerable part of the 

 water in the New River. But its chief beauty was, that the 

 centre was filled with great flocculent masses of green con- 

 fervae, while the water in the centre appeared to have a blue 

 tint, producing exquisite shades of blue and green in ever- 

 varying gradations, which were exceedingly beautiful. In 

 fact only once have I seen another spring which equalled 

 it in beauty, in the little island of Semau, near Timor, and 

 that was by no means equal in colour-effects, but only in the 

 depth and purity of the water and the fine rock-basins that 

 contained it. I am informed that now this beautiful Chadwell 

 Spring has been entirely destroyed by the boring of deep 

 wells in the neighbourhood, which have drawn off the springs 

 that supplied it, and that it is now little more than a mud- 

 hole, the whole New River supply being drawn from the 

 river Lea or pumped up from deep wells near Ware. Thus 

 does our morbid civilization destroy the most beautiful works 

 of nature. This spring was, I believe, unequalled in the 

 whole kingdom for simple beauty. 



While the country to the north and west of the town was 

 characterized by its numerous streams, mills, and rich meadows, 

 that to the east and south was much higher and drier, rising 

 gradually in low undulations to about four hundred feet and 

 upwards at from four to five miles away. This district was 

 all gravelly with a chalk subsoil, the chalk in many places 

 coming up to the surface, while in others it was only reached 

 at a depth of ten or twenty feet. In the total absence of any 

 instruction in nature-knowledge at that period, my impression, 

 and that of most other boys, no doubt, was, that in some way 

 chalk was the natural and universal substance of which the 

 earth consisted, the only question being how deep you must 

 go to reach it. All this country was thickly dotted with 

 woods and coppices, with numbers of parks and old manor 



