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the midland parts, the heaths, and the chalk-hills which cross the county in a direction from east to west, have an atmosphere which may be pronounced dry, somewhat keen, and to valetudinarians particularly bracing.

The soils are very much intermixed in small patches throughout the county, but may be said generally to be either moorish, clayey, loamy, or chalky. The heaths are numerous, and many of them of a nature little short of irreclaimable. The general appearance of Surrey, if we except the tract about thirty miles in length, and from three to five in breadth, denominated the Weald, is that of a pleasing alternation of hill and dale. The prospects are many of them far and justly famed, particularly those from Richmond, Cooper's, and Box Hills; the former, for richness, variety, and that description of beauty which results from the almost immeasurable spread of wood, water, and lands improved to the utmost limits of cultivation, may vie perhaps with the most celebrated in Europe.

But agriculture in general has, perhaps, made less considerable advances in this than in some others of the English counties; it may be observed also, that the proportion of grass to arable land is unusually small. Wheat and barley arrive here to greater perfection than oats. Turnips, it is said, have been a field-crop as long as in any part of the kingdom; and clover, we are informed by Aubrey, was cultivated in Surrey, for the first time in England, in the year 1645, by Sir Richard Weston, of Sutton, who introduced it from Flanders or Brabant. Farnham hops, it is well known, are in greater estimation than those grown in any other part of the country. Near London the lands are chiefly in the occupation of market-gardeners, who furnish a large proportion of the vegetables requisite for the supply of the metropolis. These lands have been calculated to exceed 3500 acres.

The most considerable rivers of Surrey (not to mention the Thames, which merely forms its northern boundary) are the Mole, the Wey, and the Wandle.

"The Mole," says Camden, "coming to White Hill (the same now probably called Box Hill), hides itself, or is rather swallowed up, at the foot of the hill there; and, for that reason, the place is called the Swallow; but, about two miles below, it bubbles up and rises again, so that the inhabitants of this tract, no less than the Spaniards, may boast of having a bridge that feeds several flocks of sheep." From this fabulous account (observes Mr. Manning), plainly founded on an idea suggested by common report, a reader might be led to imagine that the river actually disappears at this place, forms a channel beneath the surface of the earth, and, at a certain distance, rises again, and pursues its course above-ground. But the truth of the matter seems to be this: the soil, as well under the bed of the river as beneath the surface on each side, being of a spongy and porous texture, and by degrees, probably, become formed. into caverns of different dimensions, admits, through passages in the banks and bottom, the water of the river. In ordinary seasons, these receptacles being full, as not discharging their contents faster than they are supplied by the river, the water does not subside, and the stream suffers no diminution; but, in times of drought, the water within these caverns being gradually absorbed, that of the river is drawn off into them, and, in proportion to the degree of drought, the stream is diminished. In very dry seasons, the current is in places entirely exhausted, and the channel remains dry, except here and there a standing pool. At a place called the Way Pool, the method in which the water is thus occasionally drawn off is visible to the observer. It here forms a kind of circular basin, about thirty feet in diameter, which is supplied in the ordinary state of the current by an inlet from the river of about two feet in breadth and one

in depth. This inlet being stopped, the water in the basin soon subsides, and in less than an hour totally disappears; when the chasms through which it passes off, at different depths from the upper edge of the basin, may plainly be discovered; and from this circumstance of betaking itself occasionally to these subterraneous passages, the river probably derived its present name of the Mole, though in more ancient times it seems to have been called the Emlay; which will also account for the origin of the name of the hundred, through the heart of which the river takes its course, from the earliest times denominated Emley (now Elmbridge) hundred *.

The Wey is so called, probably, from a Saxon word, signifying water, as the Avon and Ouse are from British words of the same import. This river, having its origin on the border of the county south-west of Haslemere, takes its course by Liphook, in the county of Hants; but shortly after entering Surrey again, passes on the north of Frensham, and, united with a smaller stream from Farnham and Waverley, runs eastward to Godalming, and thence northward by Shalford and Guildford to Weybridge, to which place it gives its name, and there empties itself into the Thames.

The Wandle, or Vandle, rises near Croydon, and passing by Bedington, Carshalton, Mitcham, and Merton, runs into the Thames a little below Wandsworth, which derives from it its name; and though a trivial stream at its commencement, yet being increased by the numerous springs which join it at Carshalton, becomes of importance for its utility, as it turns near forty mills of different descriptions, and is said to furnish employment for about 2000 people.

The Wey was not navigable from Guildford to Weybridge, until a plan for rendering it so (which obtained the sanction of the legislature) was framed by Sir Ri

* Manning's History of Surrey, Vol. I. Introduction.

chard Weston, already mentioned, who also introduced the first locks ever seen in this country, taking the idea from those he had seen in the Netherlands, and erecting them on this river. A cut was afterwards made, by which, assisted by four locks, the navigation was extended to Godalming. Another canal runs from Basingstoke to the Thames; and the Surrey canal, the act for which passed in 1801, communicates with that river by means of an extensive dock at Rotherhithe. The Croydon canal, the act for which was obtained in the same year, after passing through the north-west corner of the county of Kent, enters the Surrey canal at Deptford. A canal from the Wey, at Stonebridge, in Shalford, to the Arun at Newbridge, in Wisborough Green, Sussex, was also projected in 1811, and the act for its formation passed in 1813: the estimated expense is 90,0007.

The Surrey iron rail-way, which may be noticed here, was the first of its kind intended for public purposes. It runs from Wandsworth to Croydon, and from thence to Merstham, but the latter division was not commenced until the success of the proprietors in their original undertaking became an inducement to its extension. A navigable communication between the Thames and the rail-way has been formed at Wandsworth. The roads in general, throughout this county, are considered inferior to those of some others; but this should, perhaps, be attributed to the badness of their material (small flinty gravel, which becomes too speedily pulverized), rather than to want of attention to the necessary repairs. Remains of the ancient Roman roads, as well as of stations and encampments attributed to those conquerors, are yet visible in various places.

Surrey has no manufactures which can properly be considered as peculiar to it, though its contiguity to London has naturally led to the establishment of many important ones within its limits, more particularly in the neighbourhood of the Thames. The recent erection

of Waterloo and Southwark bridges, works, the former especially, which confer honour on our age and nation, will doubtless prove an additional stimulant to its manufacturing and commercial industry; and continue to this county the distinction which it may already be presumed to enjoy, as in wealth, comparative population, and importance, second only to that which contains the metropolis of the empire.

EXCURSION I.

From Guildford, through Ripley, Cobham, Esher, Thames-Ditton, Kingston, Putney Heath, Wandsworth, Battersea Rise, Vauxhall, and Newington, to the Borough of Southwark.

GUILDFORD, in the hundred of Woking, and the county town of Surrey, is situated upon an eminence on the eastern bank of the Wey, though tradition states the original site of the town to have been on the opposite side of that river. The existence of such a tradition, countenanced, though not actually proved, by collateral evidence, argues a considerable, though perhaps not a very high degree of antiquity for its subject and accordingly the foundation of Guildford has, with sufficient appearance of probability, been ascribed to Saxon times; an opinion strengthened by the circumstance, that no mention occurs of the place, in the more ancient British or Roman annals. The name also, compounded of the Saxon Gild (i. e. a company, or fraternity, united for the purposes of trade), and a ford, or passage of a river, upon the supposition that some such trading establishment might have been formed here under the Saxon government of the country, is, in itself, almost conclusive evidence in favour of this opinion; and

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