Soils. 
251 
of tlic soils. Thus — to connect the statement with the <jeological 
tlesciiption before jyiven — the Headon and Osborne beds, at tlie 
basis of the triangh^, consist of heavy brick-earth and clay, of 
which the Beaidieu white bricks are made, the tops of the hills 
being capped with gravel. The upper Bagshots, about Burley 
Beacon, round by Rhinefleld and Denny Lodges, and so on 
towards Fawley, are hungry sands devoid of staple. At Fawley 
itself there is a considerable improvement. The Barton clay 
next succeeding to the north, and coming out on the Southampton 
Water at Dibden, is the oak and timber soil. This clay is blue 
in its original state, yellow when weathered. 
In the extreme south-west of the county the soil is alluvial in 
the valleys of the two rivers there (the Avon and Stour), peaty 
below Ringwood in the basin of the Avon ; but on the higher 
ground towards the Forest, between Ringwood and Christchurch, 
there is some of the best natural soil for turnips in the counfy. 
The eminences by the Stour, and thence towards Poole, are 
capped with extensive beds of gravel. 
In the middle or cretaceous district soils are also threeiold : 
1. A strong clay on the tops of the hills. 2. A thin chalky surface 
on their abraded sides. 3. An alluvial deposit in the long 
watered valleys.* The basis of all is what is locally termed 
" the chalk rock," in the upper layers of which there are cavities 
— " pot-holes," — filled with drift clay, loam, and flints, as may be 
seen in any railway cutting. That a strong, stiff, loamy clay, 
in many places 20 feet deep, an evident aqueous deposit (but 
whether of the same geological character as the plastic and 
London clays in the Eocene districts north and south, geologists 
differ), should crown the hills, is the distinguishing feature of 
soils in the chalk country. As to the fact itself, Golonel George 
Greenwood writes : — " On the hill-tops the clay may be said to 
be continuous, north and south, from the tertiary strata of the 
London basin at Old Basing, to the Hampshire basin at Horn- 
dean, by Herriard, Bradley, the Wealds, Medstead, Rotherfield, 
Basing Park, Froxfield, Henwood, Old Winchester Hill, Butser 
Hill, Chai'lton Down, and Catherington." j 
So also from west to east, from Winchester to Nore Hill, 
along the upper valley of the Itchen, the hill-tops at Hampage, 
at Fulley Wood, beyond Titchbourne, between Titchbourne 
* 1 am aware of the more multifarious division of chalk soils, but I must express 
my conviction, founded on personal observation and inquiry, that such a descrip- 
tion is not generic, and is only partially applicable. The triple division above is 
that which any chalk farmer in Hants, from Combe to Charlton, will give as the 
result of his experience. " Light hazel mould" is a designation frequently men- 
tioned in print, but is applicable rather to Sussex than to Hants. 
t Letter to 'Hampshire Chronicle,' 21st January, 1859. 
VOL. XXU. T 
