ST. ALBANS AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
221 
Y. CLIMATE. 
Hertfordshire lias for long been renowned for the purity of 
its air. Its earliest historian, Norden, in his ‘ Description of 
Hartfordshire ’ (1598) already quoted, said of it: “The aire for 
the most part is very salutarie, and in regard thereof many 
sweete and pleasant dwellinges, healthfull by nature and profit¬ 
able by arte and industrie, are planted there.” Somewhat later 
Fuller, in his ‘ Worthies of England ’ (1662), remarked : “ It is 
the garden of England for delight, and men commonly say that 
those who buy a house in Hartfordshire pay two years’ purchase 
for the aire thereof.” And a little later still Chauncy, in his 
‘Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire’ (1700), said: “The 
air is clear, sweet, and very wholesome.” 
These remarks are as true of the neighbourhood of St. Albans 
as they are of the county generally. The salubrity, however, 
which in Fuller’s time appears to have become proverbial, is due 
quite as much, if not more, to the dryness of the soil as it is to 
the purity of the air. 
The influence of soils and sub-soils upon the stratum of air 
which we breathe is very great, and the dry and bracing air of 
St. Albans is greatly due to the strata upon which it stands. 
Its position on the Chalk, partly covered by gravel, not only 
gives it an absorbent sub-soil, but also enables a supply of pure 
water to be obtained, although for many purposes its hardness 
is objectionable. Its situation on a hill with its steepest side 
facing nearly south is also favourable, allowing the health- 
giving sunshine to have its greatest effect. 
Climate has, however, been defined by Dr. H. R. Mill as “ the 
normal or average condition of meteorological phenomena at 
a given place,” or in other words “the average weather of a 
place,” and it is this aspect of it which will here be considered, 
or rather will merely be shown by means of tables. 
Meteorological observations have been taken at St. Albans for 
a period of twenty-four years (1887-1910), and the results, 
together with those from other meteorological stations in the 
county, have been contributed annually to this Society, and, with 
the exception of last year’s, are printed in the ‘Transactions,’ 
in which also there is a paper on the “ Climate of St. Albans ” 
(Yol. IX, pp. 215-228), being results of observations made at 
The Grange, St. Albans, by the present writer, during the ten 
years 1887 to 1896. Kemoving to Watford at the commence¬ 
ment of 1897, the observer transferred his instruments, with the 
exception of the barometer and wind-vane, to the Hertfordshire 
County Museum, where all the observations required for a 
Climatological! Station of the Royal Meteorological Society have 
been taken regularly up to the present time by the caretaker, 
Mr. Polman. 
The following information as to the situation of The Grange, 
the instruments used (barometer and wind-vane excepted), and 
