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J. HOPKINSOH-CLIMATE OE HERTFORDSHIRE. 
rivers of clear water chiefly derived from springs in the Chalk, and 
is well bnt not too densely wooded. It has also many fine parks 
and country seats, a fair proportion of uncultivated land forming 
gorse-covered commons, and many of its main roads and country 
lanes have wide strips of grass-covered roadside wastes. Its 
atmosphere is not contaminated by factories, there being no industry 
in the county which interferes to any appreciable extent with the 
purity of the air, and the only manufacturing processes by which 
the rivers are contaminated are those of paper-making and (to 
a very small extent) of gas-manufacturing. It thus maintains the 
reputation for salubrity which it gained more than three centuries 
ago, when our earliest county historian, Norden, said : “ The ayre 
for the most part is very salutarie, and in regard thereof many 
sweete and pleasant dwellinges, healthfull by nature and profitable 
by arte and industrie, are planted there.”* Sixty-five years later 
Fuller remarked : “ It is the garden of England for delight, and 
men commonly say that such who buy a house in Hartfordshire 
pay two years’ purchase for the aire thereof.” f And nearly forty 
years later still Chauncy said : “ The Air is clear, sweet, and very 
wholesome, which probably in old time might invite several Saxon 
Kings to reside often, keep their Courts, and hold their Parliamentary 
Councils in this County; and divers Kings since the time of the 
Conquest, to breed and educate their Children here; as also the 
Physicians in London to recommend their Patients hither, in hopes 
that when Physick fails, the Air may effect the Cure ; and many 
of the Nobility and Gentry to build stately Pallaces and Eabricks, 
pleasant Dwellings and delicious Seats in this County, . . .” J 
Of the various factors which contribute to the salubrity of our 
county, that of most importance is its geological structure. 
The influence of soils and sub-soils upon the stratum of air which 
we breathe is very great, and the healthy dry air of Hertfordshire 
is due to the absorbent sub-soil which predominates owing to the 
Chalk forming the foundation of the county. If in place of this 
formation we had older rocks replete with mineral wealth, the 
air would not now be “ clear, sweet, and very wholesome,” to 
use the words of Chauncy, for it would be contaminated by smoke 
and deleterious fumes or vapours; and if, on the other hand, the 
London Clay had not been removed by erosion from very much 
the greater part of the county, “Physicians in London” in olden 
times would not have had so much reason “ to recommend their 
Patients hither, ” for the air, though probably sweeter, would not 
have been any drier than it was in London. And it is to geologic 
agencies that we owe the elevation of the ground, which averages 
at least 300 feet above sea-level, and reaches to upwards of 
800 feet, this considerable elevation being a potent factor in the 
“ salutarie” nature of the “ aire,” as is recognized in the present 
day far more than it was when Norden wrote. 
* ‘ The Description of Hartfordshire,’ p. 2. 1597. 
f ‘ The Worthies of England,’ part 2, p. 17. 1662. 
f ‘ The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire,’ p. 6. 1700. 
