344 
Farmiiifj of Hamjjshirc. 
2. Description of the Drainage of a portion of the Valley of the 
River Test at Broadlands. 
In tlie autumn of tlio year 1852 I made a survey, as engineer 
of the General Land Drainage and Improvement Company, of 
the valleys of the rivers Test and Anton, and addressed a 
Report thereon to the owners of land in those valleys, in which 
it was recommended that the whole district should be divided into 
several smaller areas, wherever an outfall could be obtained for 
effective deep drainage, without the destruction of mill property. 
The nature of the valleys favoured this subdivision, as will be 
seen by the following description : — 
" The rivers Test and Anton take their rise in the southern chalk ridge, 
popuLarly known as the Hog's Back, which extends across the kingdom from 
east to west. Each river pursues its course in a southern direction between 
the hills which branch from the main ridge and have a lateral inclination 
towards the south. The two rivers then unite at Fullerton, and though 
frequently divided again into several cliannels, flow down one valley between 
a continuation of the chalk hills to Eomsey ; near which place the chalk 
imdulations become altogether covered with the gravel and clays which are ' 
the varied constituents of the Tertiary formation. Several of the chalk hills 
on each side of the valleys, and indeed at the sources of each river, are 
capped with the clays of this formation, which give an essential character to 
the alluvial deposit throughout the valleys, and, in combination with the 
accumulated vegetable matter incident to excess of water, form the prevailing 
soils of the valleys. From Komsey the river flows through the same alluvial 
deposit, hut with a smaller proportion of peat, into the sea at Eedbridge. 
" The formation of each valley above liomsey is marked by great irregu- 
larity. In one place the chalk sides approach within 32 chains of each 
other ; in another within only 23 chains, and in a third within 16 chains ; 
while above the several necks, or passes, plains exist of 89 chains, of 
48 chains, and 40 chains wide. 
" The fall, or inclination, of the valley surface from 
Feet. Feet. 
Andover'to Fullerton is 47 
"Whitchurch to the same spot 88 
Fullerton to liomsey .. ., 93 .. 83 
Eomsey to Hedbridge at low water neap tide .. 50 .. 50 
Total fall from Andover to Eedbridge .. 190 
Ditto from Whitchurch to Eedbridge 221 
" These extreme falls give a mean inclination or average of 9,257 feet 
per mile. The mean rate of inclination, however, not being preserved, in 
consequence of the irregularities in breadth and other impediments, or bars 
peculiar to the undulatory base of a chalk valley, an irregular velocity has 
been given to the water flowing down the valley. The alluvium has thereby 
been deposited partially, and vegetable growth has accumulated in the 
broader spaces, or basins, where the water has been less rapid in its passage. 
It is necessary to give a vent or outlet to these basins. It is also to be 
observed tliat the general inclination of the water level in the surrounding 
chalk approximates the surface line of the valley, when that water level is at 
its greatest depression. As the chalk becomes replenished by winter rains, 
