246 
Farming of Hampsliire. 
and Anton cut their Avay, through an alluvium of their own making, 
between the chalk hills as far as Kembridge Mill, above Romsey, 
Avhere they enter the Eocene deposits. 
The Itchen, said to have its source in the pond at Alresford 
(constructed by De Lucy, bishop of Winchester, in the latter end 
of the twelfth century), increased by rivulets from Bishop's 
Sutton and Bighton, receiving contributions on the right and 
left banks from the valley of the Candovers, from that of Cheriton 
and Titclibourne, flowing sometimes by no less than five channels, 
as at Winchester (the work of ecclesiastical improving agricul- 
turists probably), sometimes by one, as at St. Cross just below, 
having various affluents from Ofterbourne, Marwell, Durley, 
Hursley, and North Stoneham, reaches the Southampton Water, 
after a course of about 25 miles. The Itchen leaves the chalk, 
and enters the Eocene, between Otterbourne and Bambridge. 
The villages on the banks of these chalk streams are the homes 
of the great bulk of the agricultural population in the district. 
Next, to the east, succeeds the Hamble, mostly an estuary, 
through the Eocene. Its two branches rise at Durley and Bishop's 
Waltham, and it flows by Botley and Bursledon with a course of 
12 miles. 
A nameless stream, east of the Hamble, which I venture to 
call the Titchfield Brook, rises in the chalk about 2 miles west 
of Butser Hill, enters the Eocene at Soberton Heath, and runs 
into the Solent, after a course of 20 miles. 
I estimate the Southampton Water basin at 906 square miles. 
Passing now to the outlying block in the south-west, where 
low watersheds separate, from each other, streams nearly parallel 
in their channels. Here the Dark Water, the Exe or Beaulieu, 
.13 miles long, the Lymington Water, 15 miles, the Avon Water, 
all drain the New Forest into the sea at the south ; and lastly the 
Wiltshire Avon runs directly south, from Breamore to Christ 
Church, for 20 miles. 
This basin I estimate at 300 square miles. 
The collected measurements of these drainage areas are : Lon- 
don basin 275, Arun 45, Southampton Water 906, West Coast 
300 square miles ; in all 1516 square miles. 
II. " The Nature of the Soils in the different Districts 
OR NATURAL DIVISIONS OF THE CoUNTY." 
The statements already made as to the geological character of 
the rocks in the county, and the physical configuration of its 
surface, will be our guides in dividing it into certain natural 
districts for agricultural purposes, and in ascertaining the quality 
of their respective soils. 
