Agricultural Notes on Hertford si tire. 
311 
by gentier undulations, which present a breadth of very useful 
arable land. This district is thus described by Sir Henry 
Chauncy in the 'Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire ' (1700) 
He says, "The Vale of llingtalc, or Wringtale, which lies north 
of the great ledge of hills crossing the northern part of this 
county (extending from Backway 10 OfHey), where the soil is 
mixed with white marl, yields the choicest wheat and barley, 
such as makes the best maultthat serves the King's Court or the 
City of London, which caused Queen Elizabeth often to boast of 
her Hitchin grape." 
It has been noticed that this county comprehends within its 
boundary a small tract of land to the north of the villages of 
Ashwell and Caldicot, on the outcrop of the trace of the green- 
sand and of the gault clay which underlies the lower chalk. It is 
all more or less covered by the drift of the chalk, though in some 
places the sheer gault lies very near the surface. Though its 
general features and management resemble those of the tract to 
the south just described, which rests on the lower chalk, there is 
this notable difference — that, as it rests on a clay subsoil, it 
requires thorough drainage. It was here that Mr. Bailey Denton 
carried out that mixed system of drainage of which there is 
so full and valuable a record in this Journal under the head 
of the Hinxworth Drainage. 
Irrigation, Miils, and Meadows. 
Although the streams which issue from the deep valleys by 
which the surface of the chalk is furrowed afford to this county 
abundant supplies of water, agriculturally they have not been 
turned to much account. 
Near Rickmansworth, on the Chess, on the Bean, and at the 
Hoo, water-meadows indeed may be seen ; but frequently the 
ancient weirs have been superseded by mills, the old water-rights 
having been either bought up by the millowner or lost by 
desuetude. The corn-mills themselves have often been diverted 
to the manufacture of paper, for which purpose machinery was 
first set up by M. Foudriener, its inventor, on the river Gade. 
The Gade, as its traverses this county, has a uniform fall of 
14 feet per mile, which offers great natural facilities for irrigation, 
as well as water-power. 
Drainage op Low Meadows. 
Perhaps there is nothing in the whole county which more 
obviously calls for improvement than the so-called water-meadows, 
or rather marshy swamps, which line the banks of some of the 
rivers. This is more striking in districts where there is little 
