IDictoria Ifoistor^ of the Counties of England

EDITED BY H. ARTHUR DOUBLEDAY

A HISTORY OF SURREY

VOLUME I

A HISTORY OF THE COUNTY

OF SURREY IN FOUR

VOLUMES EDITED BY

H. E. MALDEN, M.A.

THE

VICTORIA HISTORY

OF THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND

SURREY

WESTMINSTER

ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE

AND COMPANY LIMITED

This History is issued to Subscribers only

By Archibald Constable £3" Company Limited

and printed by Butler £3" Tanner of

Frame and London

INSCRIBED

TO THE MEMORY OF

HER LATE MAJESTY

QJJEEN VICTORIA

WHO IN HER LIFETIME GRACIOUSLY

GAVE THE TITLE TO

AND ACCEPTED THE

DEDICATION OF

THIS HISTORY

THE ADVISORY COUNCIL OF THE VICTORIA HISTORY

His GRACE THE DUKB OP DEVONSHIRE, K.G. SIR HENRY MAXWELL-LYTE, K.C.B., M.A., F.S.A.,

Chancellor of tbt University of Cambridge ETC.

His GRACE THE DUKE OP RUTLAND, K.G. Keeper of tb, Public Record,

His GRACE THE DUKE OP PORTLAND, K.G. CoL- SlR J- FARQUHARSON, K.C.B.

His GRACE THE DUKE OP ARGYLL, K.T. SlR Jos- HooKER» G.C.S.I., M.D., D.C.L., F.R.S.,

ETC.

THE MOST HON. THE MAROAJESS OF SALISBURY, « . -, T T ™ i? n o

KG SIR ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, LL.D., F.R.S., ETC.

Chancellor of the University of Oxford REV. J. CHARLES Cox, LL.D., F.S.A., ETC.

THE RT. HON. THE EARL OF ROSEBERY, K.G., LlONEL CusT> Es<J^ M-A., F.S.A., ETC.

K.T. Director of the National Portrait Gallery

THE RT. HON. THE EARL OF COVENTRY ALBERT C. L. G. GONTHER, M.A., M.D., PH.D.,

Preiident of the Royal Agricultural Society F.R.S.

THE RT. HON. THE VISCOUNT DlLLON President of the Linnean Sociey

President of the Society of Antiquaries Cot. DuNCAN A. JoHNSTON

THE RT. HON. THE LORD ACTON Director General of the Ordnance Survey

Regius Professor of Modern History, Cambridge PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, M.A., F.R.S., BTC.

THE RT. HON. THE LORD LlSTER Director of the Nat. Hist. Museum, South Kensington

President of the Royal Society REGINALD L. PooLE, ESQ., M.A.

SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, BART., LL.D., F.S.A., University Lecturer in Diplomatic, Oxford

ETC. F. YORK POWELL, ESQ., M.A., F.S.A., ETC.

Corpus Professor of Jurisprudence, Oxford Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford

SIR EDWARD MAUNDE THOMPSON, K.C.B., D.C.L., i HORACE ROUND, ESQ., M.A.

LL.D., F.S.A., ETC. „,

Director of the British Museum WALTER KYE, UsQ.

SIR CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.S.A. W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE, ESQ., M.A.

Pretident of the Royal Geographical Society Aisistant Secretary of the Sociey of Antiquariet

General Editor — H. ARTHUR DOUBLEDAY

GENERAL ADVERTISEMENT

THE VICTORIA HISTORY of the Counties of England is a National Survey showing the condition of the country at the present day, and tracing the domestic history of the English Counties back to the earliest times.

Rich as every County of England is in materials for local history, there has hitherto been no attempt made to bring all these materials together into a coherent form. There are, indeed, histories of English Counties ; but many of them — and these the best — are exceed- ingly rare and costly ; others are very imperfect ; all are out of date.

THE VICTORIA HISTORY will trace, county by county, the story of England's growth from its prehistoric condition, through the barbarous age, the settlement of alien peoples, and the gradual welding of many races into a nation which is now the greatest on the globe. All the phases of ecclesiastical history ; the changes in land tenure ; the records of historic and local families ; the history of the social life and sports of the villages and towns ; the develop- ment of art, science, manufactures and industries — all these factors, which tell of the progress of England from primitive beginnings to large and successful empire, will find a place in the work and their treatment be entrusted to those who have made a special study of them.

Many archaeological, historical and other Societies are assisting in the compilation of this work, and the editor also has the advantage of the active and cordial co-operation of the National Trust, which is doing so much for the preservation of places of historic interest and natural beauty throughout the country.

The names of the distinguished men who have joined »he Advisory Council are a \ vji b

guarantee that the work will represent the results of the latest discoveries in every department of research. It will be observed that among them are representatives of science ; for the whole trend of modern thought, as influenced by the theory of evolution, favours the intelli- gent study of the past and of the social, institutional and political developments of national life. As these histories are the first in which this object has been kept in view, and modern principles applied, it is hoped that they will form a work of reference no less indispensable to the student than welcome to the man of culture.

Family History will, both in the Histories and in the supplemental volumes of chart pedigrees, be dealt with by genealogical experts and in the modern spirit. Every effort will be made to secure accuracy of statement, and to avoid the insertion of those legendary pedigrees which have in the past brought discredit on the whole subject. It has been pointed out by the late Bishop of Oxford, a great master of historical research, that ' the expansion and extension of genealogical study is a very remarkable feature of our own times,' that ' it is an increasing pursuit both in America and England,' and that it can render the historian useful service.

Heraldry will also in this Series occupy a prominent position, and the splendours of the coat-armour borne in the Middle Ages will be illustrated in colours on a scale that has never been attempted before.

The general plan of Contents, and the names of the Sectional Editors (who will co-operate with local workers in every case) are as follows : —

Natural History. Edited by AUBYN B. R. TREVOR-BATTYE, M.A., F.L.S, etc.

Geology. By CLEMENT REID, F.R.S., HORACE B. WOODWARD, F.R.S., and otheri Palaeontology. Edited by R. L. LYDEKKER, F.R.S, etc.

(Contributions by G. A. BOULENGER, F.R.S, F. O. PICKARD-CAMBRIDGE, M.A., H. N. DIJCON, F.L.S, G. C. DKUCE, M.A., F.L.S, WALTER GARSTANG, M.A., F.L.S., HERBERT Goss, F.L.S, F.E.S., R. I. POCOCK.REV. T.R. R. STEBBING, M.A, F.R.S., etc., B. B. WOODWARD, F.G.S., F.R.M.S, etc., and other Specialists

Prehistoric Remains. Edited by W. BOYD DAWKINS, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A. Roman Remains. Edited by F. HAVERFIELD, M.A., F.S.A.

Anglo-Saxon Remains. Edited by C. HERCULEI READ, F.S.A, and REGINALD A. SMITH, B.A. Ethnography. Edited by G. LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A. Dialect. Edited by JOSEPH WRIGHT, M.A., Ph.D.

Place Names \

Folklore I Contributed by Various Authorities

Physical Types J

Domesday Book and other kindred Records. Edited by J. HORACE ROUND, M.A.

Architecture. By Various Authorities. The Sections on the Cathedrals and Monastic Remains Edited by

W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE, M.A. Ecclesiastical History. Edited by R. L. POOLE, M.A.

Political History. Edited by W. H. STEVENSON, M.A, J. HORACE ROUND, M.A, PROF. T. F. TOUT, M.A.,

JAMES TAIT, M.A., and C. H. FIRTH, M.A.

History of Schools. Edited by A. F. LEACH, M.A., F.S.A. Maritime History of Coast Counties. Edited by J. K. LAUGHTON, M.A. Topographical Accounts of Parishes and Manors. By Various Authorities

History of the Feudal Baronage. Edited by J. HORACE ROUND, M.A., and OSWALD BARRON, F.S.A. Family History and Heraldry. Edited by OSWALD BARRON, F.S.A.

Agriculture. Edited by SIR ERNEST CLARKE, M.A., Sec. to the Royal Agricultural Society Forestry. Edited by JOHN NISBET, D.OEC. Industries, Arts and Manufactures \

Social and Economic History V By Various Authorities

Persons Eminent in Art, Literature, Science J Ancient and Modern Sport. Edited by the DUKE or BEAUFORT

Hunting 1

Shooting V By Various Authorities

Fishing, etc. J

Cricket. Edited by HOME GORDON

Football. Edited by C. W. ALCOCE: Bibliographies Indexes Names of the Subscribers

viii

With a view to securing the best advice with regard to the searching of records, the Editor has secured the services of the following committee of experts : —

RECORDS COMMITTEE

SIR EDWARD MAUNDE THOMPSON, K.C.B. WM. PAGE, F.S.A.

SIR HENRY MAXWELL-LYTE, K.C.B. J. HORACE ROUND, M.A.

W. J. HARDY, F.S.A. S. R. SCARGILL-BIRD, F.S.A.

F. MADAN, M.A. W. H. STEVENSON, M.A.

F. MAITLAND, M.A., F.S.A. G. F. WARNER, M.A., F.S.A.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Among the many thousands of subjects illustrated will be castles, cathedrals and churches, mansions and manor houses, moot halls and market halls, family portraits, etc. Particular attention will be given to the beautiful and quaint examples of architecture which, through decay or from other causes, are in danger of disappearing. The best examples of church brasses, coloured glass, and monumental effigies will be depicted. The Series will also contain 1 60 pictures in photogravure, showing the characteristic scenery of the counties.

CARTOGRAPHY

Each History will contain Archaeological, Domesday, and Geological maps ; maps show- ing the Orography, and the Parliamentary and Ecclesiastical divisions ; and the map done by Speed in 1610. The Series will contain about four hundred maps in all.

FAMILY HISTORY AND HERALDRY

The Histories will contain, in the Topographical Section, manorial pedigrees, and accounts of the noble and gentle families connected with the local history ; and it is proposed to trace, wherever possible, their descendants in the Colonies and the United States of America. The Editor will be glad to receive information which may be of service to him in this branch of the work. The chart family pedigrees and the arms of the families mentioned in the Heralds' Visitations will be issued in a supplemental volume for each county.

The Rolls of Arms are being completely collated for this work, and all the feudal coats will be given in colours. The arms of the local families will also be represented in connection with the Topographical Section.

In order to secure the greatest possible accuracy in the descriptions of the Architecture, ecclesiastic, military and domestic, a committee has been formed of the following students of architectural history, who will supervise this department of the work : —

ARCHITECTURAL COMMITTEE

J. BILSON, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. W. H. ST. JOHN HOPE, M.A.

R. BLOMFIELD W. H. KNOWLES, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A.

HAROLD BRAKSPEAR, A.R.I.B.A. J. T. MICKLETHWAITE, F.S.A.

PROF. BALDWIN BROWN ROLAND PAUL

ARTHUR S. FLOWER, F.S.A., A.R.I.B.A. J. HORACE ROUND, M.A.

GEORGE E. Fox, M.A., F.S.A. PERCY G. STONE, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A.

J. A. GOTCH, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. THACKERAY TURNER

A special feature in connection with the Architecture will be a series of coloured ground plans showing the architectural history of castles, cathedrals and other monastic foundations. Plans of the most important country mansions will also be included.

The issue of this work is limited to subscribers onty, whose names will be printed at the end of each History.

•I

I

•

IB

/ICT)

EDITED BY

MALDEN

v i

2 V,

THE

VICTORIA HISTORY

OF THE COUNTY OF

SURREY

EDITED BY

H. E. MALDEN M.A.

VOLUME ONE

WESTMINSTER 2 WHITEHALL GARDENS

1902

DA

670

, I

County Committee for Surrey

THE RT. HON. THE VISCOUNT MIDLETON

Lord-Lieutenant, Chairman

THE RT. HON. THE EARL OF ONSLOW THE RT. HON. THE EARL OF DYSART THE RT. HON. THE VISCOUNT KNUTSFORD THE RT. HON. THE VISCOUNT CRANLEY THE REV. THE LORD VICTOR SEYMOUR THE RT. REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF

WINCHESTER

THE RT. HON. THE LORD THRINO THE RT. HON. THE LORD ASHCOMBE THE RT. HON. THE LORD FARRER THE RT. HON. THE LORD RENDEL THE RT. HON. THE LORD ALVERSTONE,

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE THE HON. EDWARD F. LEVESON-GOWER CAPT. THE HON. LIONEL F. KING-NOEL THE RT. HON. SIR CHARLES DILKE, BART.,

P.C. THE RT. HON. SIR ROLAND VAUGHAN

WILLIAMS, P.C. SIR WILLIAM VINCENT, BART. SIR CHARLES H. S. RICH, BART. SIR GEORGE E. COUPER, BART., K.C.S.I.,

C.B.

SIR ROLAND K. WILSON, BART. SIR ARTHUR T. WATSON, BART. SIR JAMES J. T. LAWRENCE, BART. SIR WILLIAM C. BOWMAN, BART. SIR EDGAR C. BOEHM, BART. SIR JULAND DANVERS, K.C.S.I., C.B. SIR CHARLES WALPOLE BARON DE WORMS, F.S.A., F.G.S. REV. G. C. ALLEN, M.A., HEADMASTER OF

CRANLEIGH SCHOOL J. LEWIS ANDR£, ESQ., F.S.A. LiEUT.-CoL. GODWIN AUSTEN, F.R.S.,

F.G.S., F.R.G.S. A. RIDLEY BAX, ESQ., F.S.A. A. P. BOYSON, ESQ. E. W. BRABROOK, ESQ., C.B., F.S.A.

H. E. MALDEN, ESQ., M.A.—

REGINALD M. BRAY, ESQ., K.C.

GEORGE CAVE, ESQ., J.P., D.L.

WILLIAM Y. COCKBURN, ESQ., J.P., D.L.

JEREMIAH COLMAN, ESQ., J.P.

CHARLES COMBE, ESQ., J.P., D.L.

REV. T. S. COOPER, M.A. F.S.A.

F. A. CRISP, ESQ., F.S.A.

COL. JOHN DAVIS, A.-D.-C., F.S.A.

WILLIAM J. EVELYN, ESQ., F.S.A., F.R.G.S.

JOSHUA FIELD, ESQ., J.P., D.L.

WICK.HAM FLOWER, ESQ., F.S.A.

EDMOND FOSTER, ESQ.

MONTAGUE S. GIUSEPPI, ESQ., F.S.A.

REV. CANON GRANT, M.A.

EDWARD J. HALSEY, ESQ., J.P.

E. C. HEALEY, ESQ., J.P.

ROBERT M. HOWARD, ESQ., J.P., D.L.

PHILIP M. JOHNSTON, ESQ.

ARTHUR H. N. KEMMIS, ESQ., J.P., D.L.

JARVIS KENRICK, ESQ.

S. W. KERSHAW, ESQ., M.A., F.S.A.

HENRY KIMBER, ESQ., M.P.

F. LAMBERT, ESQ.

F. A. HEYGATE LAMBERT, ESQ., F.S.A.

HENRY C. LEIGH-BENNETT, ESQ., M.P.

COLONEL LEWIN, J.P.

LIEUT.-COL. W. MARSDEN, M.A.

W. MINET, ESQ., F.S.A.

W. MORE MOLYNEUX, ESQ., M.A., J.P.

REV. CANON V. MUSGRAVE, M.A.

RALPH NEVILL, ESQ., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A.

PHILIP NORMAN, ESQ., F.S.A.

HENRY PARTRIDGE, ESQ.

JOHN G. PILCHER, ESQ, J.P., D.L.

REV. G. H. RENDALL, M.A., HEADMASTER

OF CHARTERHOUSE SCHOOL H. P. STURGIS, ESQ. ARTHUR STYLE, ESQ., F.R.I.B.A. JOHN WATNEY, ESQ., F.S.A.

Editor of The History of Surrey

Xlll

CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE

Dedication .......

The Advisory Council of the Victoria History . General Advertisement .

The Surrey County Committee . . . Contents .......

List of Illustrations.

Preface

Natural History

Geology

Palaeontology .... Botany .....

Introduction ....

Phanerogams, Summary of Orders

The Botanical Districts . .

Rubi (Brambles')

Vascular Cryptogams (Ferns, etc.) .

Musci (Mosses) ....

Characex ....

Freshwater Algx . . .

Lichenes (Lichens) Fungi ..... Zoology

Mollusca (Snails, etc.) Insecta (Insects)

Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Ear- wigs, etc.) ....

Neuroptera (DragpnJUa, etc.) and Trichoptera (Cadditflies, etc.) .

Hymenoptera Aculeata (Bees, etc.) . . .

By G. W. LAMPLUGH, F.G.S.

By RICHARD LYDEKKER, B.A., F.R.S., F.G.S.

Edited by W. H. BEEBY, F.L.S.

By W. H. BEEBY, F.L.S

By the Rev. W. MOYLE ROGERS, F.L.S.

By W. H. BEEBY, F.L.S

By HAROLD W. MONINGTON .....

By W. H. BEEBY, F.L.S

By WILLIAM WEST, F.L.S., and G. S. WEST, B.A.,

A.R.C.S

By E. M. HOLMES, F.L.S

By GEORGE MASSEE, F.L.S. .....

By B. B. WOODWARD, F.G.S., F.R.M.S. Edited by HERBERT Goss, F.L.S., F.G.S., Sec. to the Entomological Society . .' . .

By MALCOLM BURR, F.L.S., F.Z.S., with notes by WILLIAM J. LUCAS, B.A., F.E.S.

By WILLIAM J. LUCAS, B.A., F.E.S., with notes by CHARLES A. BRIGGS, F.E.S., and ROBERT MCLACHLAN, F.R.S., F.L.S., etc. .

By EDWARD SAUNDERS, F.L.S., Vice-President Ento- mological Society . ....

XV

PAGE

T

yii vii xiii

XV

xvii xix

i *9

35

39 40

47 49 5' 56

57 60

63

73

73

76

84

CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE

Chrysididae ....

Hymenoptera Phytophaga (Saw-

Jliet, etc.) ....

Coleoptera (Beetles)

Lepidoptera Rhopalocera (Butter- JHes)

Lepidoptera Heterocera(Af0/Ar), Nocturni, Geometre, Dre- panulidae, Pseudo-Bombyces, Noctuae, Deltoides, Pyralides, Crambites

Tortrices, Tineas, Pterophori

Diptera (FSes)

Hemiptera Heteroptera (Bugs)

Hemiptera Homoptera (Cicadas, Aphides, etc.)

Myriapoda (Centipedes, etc.)

Arachnida (Spiders') .

Crustacea (Crabs, etc.)

Pisces (Fishes) ....

Reptilia (Reptiles) and Batrachia (Batrachians)

Aves (Birds) ....

Mammalia (Mammals) Early Man ..... Anglo-Saxon Remains Introduction to the Surrey Domesday The Text of the Surrey Domesday . Political History .... Index to the Surrey Domesday

By the Rev. FRANCIS D. MORICE, M.A., F.E.S. .

By ETHEL F. CHAWNER, F.E.S., with notes by ALFRED BEAUMONT, F.E.S., and the Rev. FRANCIS D. MORICE, M.A., F.E.S

By GEORGE C. CHAMPION, F.Z.S., F.E.S., with notes by HORACE ST. J. K. DONISTHORPE, F.Z.S., F.E.S., and ROBERT WYLLIE LLOYD, F.E.S. .

By HERBERT Goss, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.E.S., with notes by THOMAS H. BRICGS, M.A., F.E.S., and SYDNEY WEBB

PAGE 90

By HERBERT Goss, F.L.S., F.G.S., etc., with notes by CHARLES G. BARRETT, Vice-President Entomological Society, THOMAS H. BRIGGS, M.A., F.E.S., and SYDNEY WEBB .......

By CHARLES G. BARRETT, Vice-President Entomo- logical Society, with notes by THOMAS H. BRIGGS, M.A., F.E.S., and SYDNEY WEBB

By ERNEST E. AUSTEN ......

By EDWARD SAUNDERS, F.L.S., Vice-President Ento- mological Society ......

By GEORGE BOWDLER BUCKTON, F.R.S., F.L.S., etc. .

By R. I. POCOCK .

By F. O. PICKARD-CAMBRIDGE, M.A.

By the Rev. T. R. R. STEBBING, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S.

By G. A. BOULENCER, F.R.S., F.Z.S. .

By GEORGE CLINCH, F.G.S. . By REGINALD A. SMITH, B.A. By J. HORACE ROUND, M.A. By H. E. MALDEN, M.A. .

91

94

109

116

'37

161

168 176 178 187 198

zoo

202

By J. A. BUCKNILL, M.A. ....

By J. A. BUCKNILL, M.A., and H. W. MURRAY, F.Z.S. 219

227 255

275 295

329 445

xvi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Southern Hills. By WILLIAM HYDE frontispiece

Palaeolithic Implement, Peasemarsh . . . . . . . . . . .23°

Neolithic Celts, Croydon. . \

Neolithic Celt, Ash near Farnham full-page plate facing 230

Neolithic Celt, Wisley .

Neolithic Flakes, Reigate . . . . . . . . . . . . • 233

Spearhead or Knife, Carshalton . .'. . . . . . . . .234

Urn found in Tumulus at Whitmore Common "I

M ..,..,,„.„ .... full-page plate, facing 235

Neolithic Arrowheads, Farley Heath

Bronze Celts, Beddlestead Green, Chelsham ..... „ „ „ 241

Bronze Celt, etc., Beddington . . . . . . . . . . . .241

Bronze Age Antiquities .............. 242

Bronze Sword, Battersea ............. 243

Bronze Socketed Celt, Wandsworth . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Bronze Rapier Blade and Spearhead, Ditton ......... 244

Bronze Socketed Celt, Riddlesdown full-page plate, facing 244

Bronze Celt, Guildford 245

Bronze Palstave, Guildford 245

Bronze Celts, Kingston ............. 245

Bronze Palstave, Wanborough ............ 245

Late Celtic Fibula, Farley Heath 247

British Coins found in Surrey ............ 248

Anglo-Saxon Ornaments, etc. ........ full-page plate, facing 257

The Mound, Guildford Castle „ „ „ 336

Sketch Map of Mediaeval Surrey ........ „ „ 340

The Great Hall, Guildford Castle „ „ „ 353

Sir William More .......... n „ „ 384

Sir George More ......... .n „ „ 401

Sketch Map of the Civil Wars in Surrey ....... „ „ 409

Sketch Map of Fortifications in Surrey Suburbs . . . . „ „ „ 412

Arthur Onslow „ „ „ 426

LIST OF MAPS

Geological Map between xxii, I

Orographical Map „ 22, 23

Botanical Map „ 34, 35

Pre-Historic Remains ............ 226, 227

Anglo-Saxon Remains „ 254, 255

Domesday Map „ 294, 295

Speed's Map facing 444

xvii

PREFACE

FOR the general design and scope of the History of Surrey the reader is referred to the General Advertisement of the Victoria History.

One history of the county of the first class exists already, Manning and Bray's, published in three volumes in 1814; the first volume had appeared alone earlier. But not only has something been learned in the last hundred years in history and archasology, but certain features of the county, which are treated in this volume, scarcely occupied the attention of those very learned and painstaking writers at all. The various sides of Surrey Natural History, which are dealt with by specialists here, lay outside their plan altogether. Geology was an unknown science then, for if a beginning had been made yet the geology of to-day is practically new knowledge.

Manning and Bray have the distinction of having started this Topographical History upon the right lines, by translating Domesday and engraving a map of the Domesday Survey of the county. But the literature of the Domesday Survey is now something very different from what it was. Mr. J. Horace Round, the unrivalled authority upon Domesday and the age of Domesday, has contributed an Introduction to the Survey of Surrey, and the Editor has executed an entirely new translation of the whole of the text, with notes, with the invaluable assistance of the same specialist.

The general sketch of the Political History is included in the present volume. One of the aims of the series is to ' show what part the county played in the larger History of the Empire.' The geographical position of Surrey, between London and the south coast, has made the county the scene of events, especially of the march of armies, connected with the most important crises of our histories. Yet the reader will find that local considerations have ruled the scope of treatment of political events. The Great Charter was granted in a Surrey meadow ; but it is not of local interest. Had John and the Barons adjourned across the Thames its effects would have been the same. The Chartist meeting of 1848 was in Surrey ; but the bad local choice of its promoters had a good deal to do with the peaceful fiasco which ensued. The Political History is amplified about the age of Elizabeth. The existence in a Surrey manor house of a vast mass of unpublished papers, the Loseley MSS., which the courtesy of the owner, Mr. More Molyneux, has placed at the disposal of the Editor,

xix

PREFACE

seemed to be a reason why county records should be more freely em- ployed in illustrating certain phases of history, to throw light not only on the administration of Surrey, but on that of any county under the Tudors. The history of Surrey undoubtedly contributes here to the understanding of ' the larger History of the Empire.'

The continuity of the Political History appears to be impaired by the necessary postponement of the section on Roman Surrey. The section will appear later ; but the break is more apparent than real. The Roman remains are not very extensive, and it is impossible to piece together with absolute certainty any continuous story from British tribes through Roman occupation to West Saxon and Mercian conquest. The Saxon remains are fragmentary, but their story has been given as fully as is compatible with certainty. Some further inferences are possible, but a few positive and negative facts stand out clearly. Among the latter is that Surrey was not South Saxon. The countries north and south respectively of a great forest were not inhabited by the same people, nor ruled by the same kings in primitive ages. This is among the fictions of the earlier histories of Surrey.

The Ecclesiastical History of Surrey will follow in the next volume. The Topographical and Manorial History will occupy the greater part of the second, third and fourth volumes, taken together. Other matters, commercial, industrial and social, will be included. Under the last head Surrey may perhaps again illustrate general history. Epsom is one of the earliest considerable English watering places, and has other associations. The early history of cricket has much to do with Surrey. Wimbledon and Bisley are in Surrey. Putney and Mortlake are in Surrey. The first London railway terminus was in Surrey. London has annexed parts of Surrey, and has made it certain that there can be no cities in Surrey except parts of itself ; but the reader to the end of a story of this county is like the traveller —

Qui mores hominum multorum vidit,

For some of the illustrations in this volume the Editor is indebted to the courtesy of Sir John Evans, Mr. More Molyneux, the Mayor of Guildford, the Society of Antiquaries, the British Archaeological Association, and the Surrey Archaeological Society.

A HISTORY OF SURREY

JTORY OF SURREY

GEOLOi

45'

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EXPLANATION" OF COLOURING

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THE VICTOR IA HI STORY C

MAP.

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E COUNTIES OF ENGLAND

County Boundary shown thus

GEOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

IF it were possible completely to trace the series of changes which any part of the earth's crust has undergone, geological history would everywhere embrace the whole vast range of time that has passed in

the shaping of our planet to its present form. But in no place is more than a very small fragment of the record exhibited. The effects of the great cycles of earth-development have been ever varying from place to place. With the elevation of one tract into dry land, and the wearing down of its surface by the agents of sub-aerial erosion, there has gone on concurrently the depression of a neighbouring area beneath the waters, wherein the materials derived from that land were spread out in layers of sediment to become the solid strata of a newer land. Over every part of our country this chain of vicissitudes has passed unbrokenly since the remotest times to which our knowledge can reach, and it is still passing. The records of the older epochs are ground down into material for the newer history, even as the paper-maker may reduce old docu- ments to pulp which shall in turn become a vehicle for later knowledge.

To use the well-worn but none the less faithful simile, the geo- logical register is everywhere the mere fragment of a volume, with here and there a leaf or often only part of a leaf remaining ; and it is the aim of the geologist to reconstruct the history of the past from these frag- ments. We might even pursue the simile further, and speak of the geology of a limited district as the fragmentary copy of a work of world- wide distribution, decipherable only by comparison and correlation with similarly imperfect copies found in other districts in constantly varying states of mutilation. From this point of view, our Surrey record is a fragment containing portions of the later chapters only, with by far the greater part of the volume missing.1

In other words, of the three great groups into which we divide the fossiliferous rocks, namely, Palaeozoic (computed to represent in time- value nine-tenths of the whole), Mesozoic or Secondary, and Cainozoic or Tertiary, the strata actually visible in the county (excluding the com- paratively recent ' superficial ' deposits) belong entirely to the later part of the Mesozoic and the earlier part of the Cainozoic. It is true that, as will be shown in the context, older rocks are known to exist at some distance below ground, but these are too deeply buried to affect the present land-surface, and our knowledge respecting them is limited to the bare fact that they have been found in certain deep borings.

1 For detailed information regarding the geology of Surrey generally, the following Memoirs of the Geological Survey may be consulted : The Geology of the Weald, by W. Topley (1875), for the beds below the base of the Chalk and for matters connected with the valley systems of the Weald, and its denudation ; The Geology of the London Basin, by W. Whitaker (1872), for the Chalk and Eocene beds; The Geology of London and of part of the Thames I I B

A HISTORY OF SURREY

To illustrate the position in the wider geological scale of the forma- tions recognized in Surrey, we give below, as preliminary to the next table, a summary of the full succession of rock-systems according to the commonly-adopted classification, indicating which divisions are already known to exist in the county.

Classification	Rock-systems	Relation to Surrey
	Recent	Fairly represented
	Pleistocene	Partly represented
Cainozoic	Pliocene	Doubtfully represented
or Tertiary	Miocene	Absent
	Oligocene	Absent
	Eocene	Widely represented
	Upper Cretaceous	Widely represented
	Lower Cretaceous	Widely represented
	Upper Jurassic	Not yet proved, but almost certainly under-
Mesozoic or Secondary	Middle Jurassic	lying southern part of county In part represented in deep borings in north of county
	Lower Jurassic	Not yet proved
	Triassic	Possibly represented in deep borings in
		north of county (see p. 21)
	Permian
	Carboniferous
Palaeozoic	Devonian	Not yet proved ; but some part certain
or Primary	Silurian .	to exist deep underground
	Ordovician
	Cambrian
Eozoic and	Pre-Cambrian
Azoic (?)	Archaean

We may now turn to consider the classification and subdivision of the known strata of the county, as shown in the following table, including those which crop out at the surface and those which have been found only in deep borings.

Valley, vol. i., by W. Whitaker (1889), for later information respecting the Eocene, the River Drifts and other superficial deposits, and for discussion of the deep borings and deep-seated geology, and vol. ii. of the same memoir for details of Surrey well-sections ; The Cretaceous Rocks of Great Britain, vol. i., by A. J. Jukes-Browne (1900), for the Gault and Upper Greensand, and vol. ii. (in press), by the same author, for the divisions of the Chalk. The two first-mentioned memoirs contain full bibliographies of works on the geology of Surrey up to the date of their publication ; and it has therefore not been deemed necessary to give such references in the present sketch. References to some later papers will be found in footnotes to subsequent pages, but for a fuller list the reader should refer to the account of the bibliography for the period 1889 to 1899 contained in Mr. W. Whitaker's presidential address for 1900 to the Croydon Microscopical and Natural History Club (Proceedings 1900, pp. iii.-xvii.). The numerous reports of excursions in Surrey in Proceedings of the Geologists' Association should also be consulted, as these contain lists of references, besides frequently record- ing new observations. The greater part of the county lies within Sheet 8 (old series) of the Geological Survey map, on the scale of one-inch = one mile ; but it also enters Sheets 6, 7 and 9 of the same map.

GEOLOGY

TABLE OF STRATA

		Formation		Approximate
	Period	Character of material	thickness
			in feet
	Recent	Alluvium	Mud, silt, gravel, etc., at low levels in present valleys	rarely exceeding 20
		High-level Valley-gravel	Gravel, sand, sandy loam, etc., of	rarely
		and Brick-earth	ancient river terraces	exceeding 20
	Pleistocene	Clay with Flints	Angular flints and clay overlyingl Chalk	irregular, in 'pipes,' up to
				(	20 or more
		Plateau Gravel	Gravel, chiefly of flint, but with some pebbles of quartz, quartzite, etc.	rarely exceeding 1 5
	Older Pliocene (?)	Lenham Beds (?)	Ferruginous sand and sandstone in fissures at the top of the Chalk
		•f ("Upper Bagshot Sand	Yellowish sands	up to 150
		™ Bracklesham Beds o •<	Clay laminated with sand	40 to 60
		§> 1 Lower Bagshot Sand pa *	Light-coloured micaceous sands with a few pebbles	100 to 150
	T _„ ~,. _	- London Clay *fi	Stiff blue or brownish clay with layers of nodules	400 to 480
1 3	xLocene	| Oldhaven or Black- s' heath Beds	Rolled flint-pebbles with a little sand	up to 60
• o		.g Woolwich and Read- (3	Clay, loam and sand, usually of bright	•70 fn Rn
JB *j		O lj	ing Beds	varied colours	<W L\J O\J
M •		1 Thanet Beds	Light-coloured sand with green-coated	up to So
		o J		flints at base	r J
o.		Upper and Middle Chalk	Soft chalk, with flints	500 or more
X W	Upper Cretaceous	Lower Chalk with Chalk Marl a r '1 Upper Greensand O "i	Chalk, without flints Calcareous marl Glauconitic sand and marl, and cal- careous sandstone with chert	200 or more 30 to 100 30 to 1 50
		I [Gault	Stiff clay and sandy clay	100 to 150
		| ("Folkestone Beds	Coarse sand and ferruginous concretions	130 to 1 60
		j Sand gate Beds	Sand, sandstone and fuller's earth	up to 50
		<jf HytheBeds V	Sand, with some sandstone, ironstone and chert	180 to 250
		1 '•Atherfield Clay	Clay, sometimes sandy	up to 60
			(	Clay and shale, mostly dark-coloured,
	T nwpr	Weald Clay .[	with thin bands of shelly lime-	1000
	I >< ' WCl Irptapprtiic		(	stone and ironstone nodules
	V^l v_ Lttk.CUU.3	d "»	Upper Tunbridge Wells Sand	Sand and soft sandstone	150
		•s ' ?««	Grinstead Clay	Clay, usually red or greenish	3°
		l> '/. £ !>• I	Lower Tunbridge Wells Sand	Sand and soft sandstone	60
		s	Wadhurst Clay	Clay and shale with ironstone bands	150
			Ashdown Sand	Sand and soft sandstone	300 or more
r 11	Jurassic	Great	Oolite Series	Oolitic limestone, calcareous sand- stone and thin bands of clay	see p. 19
I1 £	Triassic (?) (or older)	New Red Sandstone (?)	Red, white and mottled sandstone, with marls	see p. 21

A HISTORY OF SURREY

Putting aside for the present the consideration of the deep-seated rocks, let us first examine the character and arrangement of the strata which occur at the surface, since it is in these that we shall discover the cause of its present configuration. The geological structure of the county is so simple and its existing features depend so closely upon this structure that it forms an ideal tract for the study of the elementary principles of the science.

As indicated by the different colours on the accompanying map, the outcrops of the several geological divisions tend to form bands of varying width running nearly east and west across the county, with the older for- mations in the south and the newer in the north. This arrangement arises from the general northerly dip or inclination of the beds, due to an un- equal uplift of the land in past times by which the southern part of the county has been raised to higher levels than the northern portion. Hence we may walk east and west upon the same formation along the line of ' strike ' from one end of the county to the other, while if we go southward we soon cross to underlying, and if northward to over- lying beds.

For our present purpose it is sufficient to note that, as shown in the section accompanying the map, this northerly dip prevails, with some minor irregularities, throughout the greater part of the county. We shall see later that it is dependent upon the presence of an elongated dome of elevation which included the whole country between the North and South Downs, having its axis a little to the southward of our county boundary and extending through Kent and Sussex into the eastern part of Hampshire. The central portion of this dome has been so greatly eroded that it is now for the most part lower than the sides, but at one time the successive belts of strata which now encircle it have extended across it in a flat arch rising many hundreds of feet above the highest ground now existing. The arch has been broken through by long-continued erosion, and as some of the inner or lower strata happen to be of less enduring composition than those by which they were originally covered, the wasting away after the removal of the higher portion has been more rapid towards the interior of the dome than at the sides.

Deep borings in Sussex and Kent have proved that immediately be- neath the central portion of the dome there occurs a thick series of marine deposits (Portlandian and Kimeridgian) of Upper Jurassic age ; but these do not reach the surface. The oldest strata actually outcropping within the uplifted tract consist of an estuarine series of shaly clays with thin cal- careous stone bands, and with lenticular beds of gypsum in their deeper portion. These ' Purbeck Beds ' cover a small area in Sussex some miles to the south-eastward of the Surrey boundary. They pass upwards into the ' Hastings Beds,' a thick series of soft sandstones and semi-coherent sands, with intercalated bands of clay, apparently the sediments brought down by a large river into a lake or estuary.

GEOLOGY

HASTINGS BEDS

Though the greater part of the outcrop of the Hastings Beds occurs in Kent and Sussex, the series also occupies a few square miles in the extreme south-eastern corner of Surrey, there forming the pleasant rising ground to the south of the Medway valley. Limited though this area is, it is sufficient to show nearly the whole sequence of the series, in- cluding the various subdivisions known as the Ashdown Sand, the Wadhurst Clay, the Lower Tunbridge Wells Sand, the Grinstead Clay, and the Upper Tunbridge Wells Sand. The general characters and aver- age thickness of these strata have been already given in the table, and need not be repeated. The fossils of these beds, which are most abundant in the clay-bands, consist chiefly of freshwater shells of the genera Cyrena, Unio and Paludina, along with the minute oval valves of Cypris, a small fresh or brackish water crustacean. In Sussex many plant remains have also been found, chiefly ferns and cycads, and from the same county have been obtained the teeth and bones of gigantic extinct reptiles of ungainly aspect, such as Iguanodon, Hylaosaurus, Cetiosaurus, etc., and the remains of turtles and of fish.

According to the usual classification the Hastings Beds constitute the lowest division of the Lower Cretaceous system, and they are thus shown in the table and on the map. Recently, however, it has been urged in several quarters 1 that the fossils indicate a closer affinity to the Jurassic system than to the overlying Cretaceous, and consequently that we should include the Hastings Beds with the Jurassic. This is a matter which is still under discussion, and we therefore need not enter further into it.

WEALD CLAY

As the Hastings Beds sink down northward towards the Medway valley they pass beneath the thick mass of Weald Clay which extends over almost the whole of the southern part of the county. The outcrop of this clay constitutes the low gently undulating plain of the Weald which spreads out from the foot of the hilly ridges dominating it to the north- ward in which the more durable overlying formations terminate. The fossils of the Weald Clay are chiefly freshwater shells and cyprids, re- sembling those of the Hastings Beds, and they indicate that, as in the former case, the deposit represents an accumulation of mud and silt brought down into a lake or land-locked estuary by a river draining an extensive land. This land is generally supposed to have lain chiefly to the westward, but there is really much doubt as to its position, as evidence recently obtained tends to show that the more strictly fresh- water conditions prevailed in the eastern part of the Wealden area, while towards the south-westward there are indications of an estuary;

1 See Prof. O. C. Marsh, Geol. Mag., dec. 4, vol. iii. (1896) p. 8 ; A. S. Woodward, Geol. Mag., dec. 4, vol. iii. (1896) p. 70; and A. C. Seward, Nature, vol. liii. (1896) p. 462 ; see also G. W. Lamplugh, Geol. Mag., dec. 4, vol. vii. (1900) p. 443.

5

A HISTORY OF SURREY

hence it is possible that the stream may have flowed from the eastward across a tract extending over what is now the southern part of the North Sea. The prevalence of the freshwater conditions must have been of very long duration, since the thickness of the Weald Clay alone in Surrey is estimated to range between 600 and 1,000 feet, and to this must be added at least 600 or 700 feet more for the Hastings Beds.

The Weald Clay is interstratified here and there with thin bands of sand and silt, with layers of limestone made up almost entirely of a fresh- water univalve shell of the genus Paludina, and with nodular bands of clay-ironstone. These harder strata generally give rise to slight ' features ' or elevations of the surface, but they are rarely sufficiently thick to have much effect upon the character of the soil, which is principally a heavy clay. The farming of these ' strong ' lands has been most severely affected by the depression in agriculture, with the result that the acreage under the plough has largely decreased.

The ironstone of the Wealden Beds was at one time extensively dug and smelted, though not so largely in Surrey as in the neighbouring counties of Kent and Sussex. An Act of 23 Elizabeth (1581) to restrict the use of wood in these iron-works makes exemption of the woods of ' Christopher Darrell, gentleman, in the parish of Newdegate, within the weald of the countie of Surrie, which woods of the said Christopher have heeretofore beene, and be by him preserved and coppised for the use of his iron- works in these parts.' 1

Although the great thickness of these Wealden freshwater deposits implies the duration of the same conditions of deposition over the area for a very long period, this must not be taken to denote that the land remained for all the time at the same level. In fact we can only imagine such an accumulation taking place where there was gradual subsidence that kept pace with the rate of infilling of the basin. A similar balance of conditions seems to be established at the present day at the mouths of many large rivers, and it is supposed that the weight of the accumulated sediments causes a gradual downward movement of the tract upon which the mass is spread.

However this may be, it is clear that towards the close of the Wealden episode the waters of the sea began to gain ground, so that in the uppermost portion of the Weald Clay in Surrey, as exhibited recently in an enlargement of the railway-cutting between Redhill and Earlswood, brackish-water shells make their appearance among the freshwater fossils.* A further stage in the depression submerged the whole of the Wealden area beneath the sea, and henceforward for a long period marine conditions alone prevailed, though at first land probably still existed not far distant to the northward and north-westward. The submergence below sea-level seems to have taken place rather suddenly,

' See Geol. Survey Memoir, < Geology of the Weald,' chap. xix. pp. 329-346, for infor- mation regarding this extinct industry.

* See also ' Geology of the Weald,' pp. no, 114.

6

GEOLOGY

since the top of the Weald Clay, wherever exposed to examination, has proved to be sharp and well defined, and to be directly overlain by deposits containing a marine fauna.

ATHERFIELD CLAY

In the western part of the county the first sediment of this sea was a brown and greyish clay, somewhat sandy in places, known as the Atherfield Clay, from a locality in the Isle of Wight where it is typically developed. As the chief difference between this marine clay and the underlying Weald Clay is in the character of their respective fossils, which are destroyed by weathering at the surface, and as the two de- posits form ground of similar aspect, it is only in fresh and deeply cut sections that we can discriminate between them. In a railway-cutting near Haslemere, the Atherfield Clay was found to have a thickness of 60 feet, and yielded numerous fossils, including Ammonites, Nautilus and bivalve shells of many genera1; and in a stream-section at East Shalford near Guildford, where upwards of a hundred species of mollusca were obtained from it by Mr. C. J. A. Meyer, its thickness was estimated to be about 64 feet.2 This marine clay has hitherto been supposed to extend right across the county, but in the newly-exposed railway- cutting between Redhill and Earlswood previously referred to, its place was taken by sandy loams which could not be distinguished from the overlying Hythe Beds. Hence we may conclude that it was only in the quieter and deeper parts of the sea of the period that the Atherfield Clay was laid down.

LOWER GREENSAND

In our upward progress in the geological scale, or northward pro- gress across the present surface of the county, we now reach the belt of sands and sand-rocks which rise up boldly in a long escarpment over- looking the clayey lowlands of the Weald. These are all of marine origin, and are collectively known as the Lower Greensand. This term is often held to include also the Atherfield Clay at their base ; it has reference to the frequent occurrence of abundantly disseminated grains of glauconite, a green silicate of iron, which however is usually decomposed in the sands at the surface, giving rusty red and yellow tints to weathered exposures. These beds were accumulated in a shallow sea, swept by strong currents (as indicated by the prevalence of ' false ' or ' current '- bedding where the material has been deposited on the slopes of sand- banks), and they represent the steady wasting of a land not far distant. Their threefold division into Hythe, Sandgate and Folkestone Beds is based upon characters which are conspicuous at the places indicated by these names on the coast of Kent but become less marked as the beds

1 ' Geology of the Weald,' p. 115.

* ' On the Lower Greensand of Godalming,' by C. J. A. Meyer, Proc. Geol. Assoc., sup. to vol. i., 1868.

A HISTORY OF SURREY

are followed westward ; so that in Surrey there is some doubt as to their identification, and it is only in the tract between Reigate and Oxtead that the middle division, or Sandgate group, is recognized on the Geological Survey maps, though Mr. Meyer believes that it can be iden- tified also in the west of the county.1

In Kent the lowest of these divisions, the Hythe Beds, is character- ized by irregular bands and concretions of sandy limestone or ' Kentish Rag,' often associated with layers of chert formed by the concentration of silica derived from sponge-spicules, but in eastern Surrey it consists, for the most part, of unconsolidated slightly loamy sand, with only occa- sional nodular induration. These characters are modified, however, west of Dorking, where the belt occupied by the Lower Greensand suddenly expands from a breadth of less than a mile to nearly four miles, again increasing to over six miles west of Guildford, under the influence of a subsidiary fold of the strata which will be subsequently described. Some parts of the division here become indurated into cherty sandstone ; and in the Guildford district a hard calcareous sandstone or grit known as 4 Bargate Stone,' resting on pebbly sands, is developed in the upper part, and this part contains, among other fossils, the teeth and scales of many extinct genera of fish. Sponge-spicules may generally be detected in the cherts, and the decay of such spicules appears to have supplied the siliceous cement by which the sands are indurated.2 This lateral change in the composition of the beds is strongly reflected in the physical features of the country; for while between Reigate and Dorking, where the Lower Greensand includes very little hard material, its out- crop forms a comparatively low broken terrace dominated by the Chalk escarpment, it rises both eastward and westward into a bold hill-range which on the west is higher than the Chalk Downs, with its culminating points at Leith Hill (967 feet) and at Hind Head (894 feet) making the highest ground in the county.

In the district east of Reigate, where the Sandgate Beds of the Lower Greensand have been recognized as a separate division, they consist of alternations of soft sandstone with clayey material and fuller's earth, having a total thickness near Nutfield of 40 feet or more. The fullers' earth of this district is of considerable economic importance, having been extensively worked from an early date for use in the preparing and cleansing of cloth, and latterly for export to America for use in the dehydrating of cottonseed-oil and other vegetable oils, which it is said can then be used for adulterating lard. The demand for the former purpose had gradually dwindled, but the new use for the material has given a fresh lease of life to the industry.

The upper division, or Folkestone Beds, is persistent in character

1 'On the Lower Greensand of Godalming,' Proc. Geol. Assoc., sup. to vol. i., 1868 ; see also T. Leighton, 'The Lower Greensand above the Atherfield Clay of East Surrey,' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. li. (1895) pp. 101-123, which contains full references to pre- vious literature of the subject.

* See Dr. G. J. Hinde, Phil. Trans., vol. clxxvi. (1885) p. 403.

8

GEOLOGY

throughout the county, consisting of clean sharp incoherent sand or soft sand-rock, of white, yellow, brown or reddish tints, with irregular con- cretions of hard iron-sandstone locally known as ' carstone,' which is often dug for road-mending. The sand generally shows strongly-marked ' current-bedding ' ; it is usually about 100 feet thick. It forms, in many places, heathy common land, too poor for cultivation. Its topmost layers, immediately underlying the Gault, usually contain small phosphatic concretions, probably denoting a pause in the accumulation of the sedi- ments, when fresh supplies of sand were no longer brought down by the waves and rivers into the sea, but before the quiet conditions necessary for the settling down of the overlying clay were established.

Soon however the shallow sea or gulf with its strong currents and shifting sand-banks gave place to more open waters, as the renewed depression which ushered in the Upper Cretaceous period submerged more and more land, until finally, during the deposition of the Chalk, there was no longer any shore within a considerable distance of the area now constituting our county.

SELBORNIAN

The first deposit of this deeper sea was the Gault, a more or less calcareous mud or clay, which is so celebrated for the abundance and beauty of its fossils where exposed on the Kentish coast near Folkestone. This clay, as indicated on the map, has a continuous outcrop across the county in a narrow belt at the foot of the Chalk Downs, causing by its more rapid wasting a longitudinal depression between the Downs and the Lower Greensand hills. Good sections of the Gault are rare in Surrey, and there is some uncertainty as to its thickness, which is believed to be usually between 90 and 120 feet at the outcrop, and may be much less in places, but is said to reach 343 feet in a boring at Caterham,1 and about 200 feet in borings in the north of the county (see p. 19).

The next division of the series, the Upper Greensand, a name having little reference to the composition of the rock in Surrey, is closely associated with the upper portion of the Gault ; and in the latest scheme of classification the two are linked together as a single formation under the term Selbornian, since it is suggested that there is a lateral as well as a vertical passage between them, and that the upper part of the Gault clay of Kent was deposited contemporaneously with the Upper Greensand rocks of Surrey.2

These Upper Greensand or ' Merstham Beds ' of Surrey consist in the lower portion of slightly glauconitic silty marl, containing large sili- ceous concretions, surmounted by beds of Malm-rock or Fire-stone, a peculiar more or less calcareous sandstone with cherty aggregations,

1 See W. Whitaker's ' Some Surrey Wells and their Teachings,' Trans. Croydon Micro- scop, and Nat. Hist. C/ub, 1886, p. 48.

* See A. J. Jukes-Browne in Geol. Survey Memoir, ' The Cretaceous Rocks of Great Britain,' vol. i. (1900) p. 93.

9

A HISTORY OF SURREY

which in the east of the county are about 20 feet and in the west from 60 to 80 feet in thickness. The Malm-rock is peculiar in containing a large amount of colloid silica, soluble in alkaline solutions, this material having been derived from organic sources, chiefly from the siliceous spicules or internal framework of sponges which have lived in the ancient sea. Some beds of this stone are valued for building, while the softer kind is dug for rubbing on hearths. It has been extensively worked at Godstone, Merstham, Reigate and other places, not only in open quarries but also by long galleries driven under the Chalk from the outcrop. These stone-bands give rise to a terrace-like feature at the foot of the Downs. They are overlain by 5 to 1 5 feet of marly greyish- green sand, which forms the top of the Upper Greensand and passes up gradually into the Chalk Marl. The soil of this tract is peculiarly favourable to the growth of hops and for orchards.

CHALK

The general aspect of the Chalk, which is the next formation to demand our attention, is so familiar in England that description seems almost superfluous. It forms the range of the North Downs, and the bold escarpment marking its southward termination runs from east to west across the county, broken only by the transverse valleys of the rivers Mole and Wey. In the west, between Farnham and Guildford, the northerly dip is so steep that the Chalk is rapidly carried out of sight beneath newer beds, its outcrop where it forms the well-known ridge of Hog's Back averaging only about half a mile in width. But eastward from Guildford the dip lessens and the area of Chalk widens out gradu- ally, until in the eastern part of the county it has a breadth of about seven miles.

The most striking characteristic of the formation is its homogenous composition throughout its extensive range, both horizontally and ver- tically. From its lowest to its highest beds with a thickness in some parts of England reaching from 1,000 to 1,500 feet,1 and from the shores of the English Channel to the shores of the North Sea in East Yorkshire this clean white limestone preserves everywhere the same general characters, with only such minor modifications of structure as require special study to discriminate. The whole of this enormous mass has slowly accumulated at the bottom of an open sea as a calcareous mud, made up for the greater part of the relics of generation after gene- ration of lime-secreting organisms, among which the minute shells of foraminifera usually predominate. The presence of any extraneous mat- erial of other than microscopic dimensions in the formation is extremely rare, so that the discovery some years ago in the Hay ling chalk-pit at Croydon of a boulder of granitic rock along with some other fragments alien to the Chalk and a similar discovery more recently in the Middle

1 See Mem. Geol. Survey, ' The Cretaceous Rocks of Great Britain,' vol. i., by A. J. Jukes- Browne, pp. 1-3.

TO

GEOLOGY

Chalk at Betchworth have attracted much attention.1 These stones have probably been rafted from a distant shore either by floating ice or en- tangled in the roots of a fallen tree, whence they have dropped and sunk to the mud of the sea-floor. In this mud the remains of many of the denizens of the sea have been embedded and preserved, so that the Chalk is famous for the beauty and variety of its fossils, which in many parts of the mass can be extracted and cleaned from their matrix with little trouble. Among these fossils we may note the teeth and other hard parts of extinct fish and reptiles ; the shells of Ammonites and several other extinct genera of Cephalopoda ; a few univalve and many bivalve shells, the latter including characteristic species of Inoceramus and Spon- dylus ; the tests of sea-urchins, often in great profusion, the different species and gradual evolution of which have been closely studied, and have afforded a method of dividing the Chalk into zones where the same- ness of composition would otherwise render this task difficult or im- possible * ; abundant traces of sponges whose siliceous spicules have supplied most of the material for the nodules of flint which are a con- spicuous feature in a considerable part of the Chalk ; and the remains of corals, polyzoa, etc.

In Surrey the Chalk is thinner than in most parts of its range in England, and in some places has evidently lost a considerable portion by denudation before the deposition of the Eocene beds,3 especially where, in the south-east of the county, the Blackheath Beds rest directly upon it and the older divisions of the Eocene are absent. Where the last-men- tioned conditions prevail, its present thickness is estimated at about 500 feet ; but as we shall presently see, where penetrated in deep borings far- ther north it was between 600 and 700 feet thick, while in a boring at East Horsley a thickness of 8 17 feet was proved.4 Its northerly dip carries it down beneath the Tertiary strata along a line running from the vicinity of Farnham, past Guildford, Leatherhead, Epsom and Sutton, to the eastern boundary of the county near Croydon ; and it is not again seen at the surface to the northward of this line in Surrey, except at one spot at the north-eastern boundary presently to be mentioned. It is known, however, from the evidence of numerous borings, to underlie the newer strata throughout the northern part of the county ; and by a reversion in the direction of dip is brought gradually nearer the surface again further northward, until it emerges to form the Chalk range running across the south-midland counties west and north of London (see

1 See R. A. C. Godwin- Austen, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xiv. p. 252 ; and W. P. D. Stebbing, ibid. vol. liii. (1897) PP- 213-220.

* See especially the recent papers of Dr. A. W. Rowe, ' On the genus Micraster, between the zones of Rh. Cuvieri, and M. Cor-anguinumJ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. Iv. (1899) pp. 494-548 ; and 'The Zones of the White Chalk of the English Coast,' Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. xvi. (1900) pp. 289-368.

8 For discussion on this point see Prof. J. Prestwich in ' Geological Inquiry respecting the Water-bearing Strata of the Country around London' (London : Van Voorst, 1851), and W. Whitaker in Mem. Geol. Survey, ' The Geology of the London Basin,' p. 23.

* See W. Whitaker, ' Some Surrey Wells (Second Paper),' Trans. Croydon Microscop. and Nat. Hist. Club, 1894-95, p. 138.

TI

A HISTORY OF SURREY

map). The Tertiary deposits thus lie in a shallow trough or basin of Chalk, termed by geologists the London Basin. A trough of this kind formed by strata dipping towards a medial line from both sides is tech- nically known as a syncline. This arrangement of the strata is of course the reverse of an anticline such as we have traced out in the Weald. The dome or anticline of the Weald and the trough or syncline of the London Basin, taken in conjunction, are the governing factors in the geological structure of Surrey.

To return to the description of the Chalk at its outcrop ; we shall find that when closely examined its successive parts exhibit slight differ- ences of character, which enable us to distinguish the divisions given in the table on p. 3.

Of these, the lowest or Chalk Marl consists, as the name implies, of a marly admixture of calcareous and clayey material. Above this comes rather hard greyish chalk, slightly clayey, and then i oo to 1 50 feet or more of white chalk. The beds up to the top of this ' Lower Chalk' division are marked by the absence of flint; but from this horizon to the top of the formation in Surrey flints in scattered nodules and occasionally in thin continuous layers are everywhere present ; and the whole formation is thus roughly divisible into an upper part containing flints and a lower part without flints, of which the former is always thicker than the latter. As previously mentioned, it is however from the suc- cessive appearance and disappearance of the different species of fossils in the slowly accumulated sediment that we are best able to divide the Chalk into zones ; but at present it is only in certain parts of the county that this has been done,1 and further research on these lines is greatly to be desired.

In the Hog's Back ridge the Chalk has scarcely sufficient width to display the typical down-land scenery, but farther east where the outcrop begins to widen it exhibits the rounded steep-sided hills and deep dry winding valleys which are everywhere so characteristic of a chalk country. The elevation of the Downs also increases eastward through Surrey, their highest ground, 876 feet above sea level, occurring near the eastern boundary of the county.

The dry thin soil of the Downs where the Chalk immediately under- lies the surface is generally treeless, and covered only with smooth short turf. But these conditions are largely modified in the Surrey uplands by the presence on the hills of an irregular surface-deposit of clay or clayey earth containing many flints derived from the Chalk, hence termed the ' Clay-with-flints.' This material occurs as a variable sheet which fills all the little pits and hollows in the weathered surface of the Chalk wherever the ground is not too steep for it to rest. Its origin bears a simple explanation. We know that the calcareous matter of the Chalk is slowly taken up and carried away in solution by the downward percolation

1 Consult C. Evans' paper, « On some Sections of the Chalk between Croydon and Oxtead, with Observations on the Classification of the Chalk,' Proc. Geol. Assoc., supplement to vol i., 1870 ; also that of G. E. Dibley, ibid. vol. xvi. (1900) pp. 489-496.

12

GEOLOGY

of surface waters ; and the Clay-with-flints represents the insoluble residuum of the rock thus dissolved, often with the addition of a little detritus from the Tertiary strata which have once overlain the Chalk.1 From this cause many parts of the Chalk Downs possess a deep loamy soil, and are either enclosed and cultivated, or support a thick wood- land growth, the beech, yew and ash all thriving well in these tracts.

The Chalk is of economic consequence as an inexhaustible source of lime, and perhaps still more on account of its valuable properties as a water-bearing formation. The rain which falls on its surface is rapidly absorbed and stored in the pores of the rock and in the innumerable cracks or joints by which it is traversed, so that at low levels the Chalk is in a state of saturation, and yields a copious supply of water when wells are sunk, besides feeding the springs which are thrown out along the base of its escarpment, and in other places where the surface falls below the plane of saturation.

Between the deposition of the uppermost part of the Chalk in Surrey and that of the lowermost Tertiary beds now overlying it there must have been a long lapse of time. Not only do we find that the physical conditions of the area were completely changed during this interval, but also that a new group of life-forms were developed, so that the species of fossils in the Tertiary deposits are quite different from those in the Chalk. In both respects the Chalk bears witness to a re- mote past in which there was no approximation towards the present conditions, while the Eocene strata dimly foreshadow the existing state notwithstanding the great cycles of change which had still to pass over our country before the present distribution of land and sea was attained.

As to the course of events during the transition from Cretaceous to Tertiary times we can glean very little information in England, since there are no deposits in this country which bridge the gap. The bottom of the Chalk sea seems to have been gently and evenly uplifted, until brought within the influence of erosive agencies ; and these agencies affected wide tracts so equally that when the newer deposits were formed, their stratification was almost parallel to that of the Chalk on which they rested. Hence in actual sections no discordance can be traced between the Chalk and the Tertiary Beds, although other data indicate that con- siderable erosion of the older rock had occurred before the newer strata were laid down. The great change in physical circumstances which had taken place in the meanwhile is shown in the character of the sediments. The homogenous mass of chalk denoting widespread and long-continued marine deep-water conditions is succeeded by a changeful group of sands, clays and pebble-beds, constituting the ' Lower London Tertiaries,' the earliest division of the Eocene Period, which was accumulated in part in a shallow sea and in part in the estuary of a large river. In the aggregate this group rarely attains a thickness of more than 100 feet in

1 See W. Whitaker, Mem. Geol. Survey, 'The Geology of London' (1889), chap, xviii., where this subject is fully discussed, with references to previous literature.

13

A HISTORY OF SURREY

Surrey and is subject to much variation in this respect as well as in the local development of its different members.1

LOWER LONDON TERTIARIES

The Thanet Sand, which forms the lowest portion of the group, is a fine light-coloured slightly clayey sand, having at its base a band of green-coated chalk flints derived from the erosion or dissolution of the Chalk.2 This sand is best developed in the county of Kent, but extends thence into Surrey,' where its narrow outcrop fringes the Chalk in an indented belt running from Addington past Croydon, Sutton and Epsom, and thinning away gradually westward towards the Mole Valley until no longer traceable. Numerous small outlying patches of this and overlying divisions are also found capping the Chalk Downs some distance to the southward of the main outcrop, being the relics of the sheet which has once extended over the whole of the Chalk of Surrey.

The scanty fossils which the Thanet Sand has yielded in our county support the evidence of the more plentiful organic remains which it contains in Kent in proving that the bed is essentially of marine origin.

The Woolwich and Reading Beds, so named from the localities at which the different forms of these very variable deposits are typically de- veloped, constitute the middle division of the Lower London Tertiaries, and either overlie the Thanet Sands, or where these are absent rest directly upon the Chalk. Their outcrop stretches across the middle of the county from west-south-west to east-north-east in a narrow belt along the northern edge of the Downs, and in West Kent sweeps north- ward to the banks of the Thames between Erith and Greenwich, as shown on the map, and re-enters the north-eastern corner of Surrey for a limited space in the neighbourhood of Peckham and Dulwich, along with the Thanet Sands, encircling a small ' inlier ' of Chalk which reaches the surface at the county boundary west of Greenwich. These beds have been laid down in the estuary of a large river, which probably flowed from west to east. Like most estuarine deposits, their composition varies from place to place ; in the western part of the county they consist chiefly of lenticular alternations of plastic clay and coarse and fine sand, generally of bright tints, the clay often red and mottled, and the sand green, yellow, or greenish-grey. Almost the only fossils of the beds of this type are the plant-remains which occur in some of the laminated clays. Gradually changing eastward, the series at the eastern border of the county is mainly composed of light-coloured sands and finely-bedded grey clay, often crowded with estuarine shells and sometimes with layers of oysters compacted into rock, with pebble-beds of rolled flints towards the base, and occasionally with thin seams of lignite. Besides shells and plant- remains, the beds of this character have yielded traces of an extinct

The most important contributions to our knowledge of the Eocene deposits of the county were made by the late Prof. J. Prestwich in a series of papers contributed to the Geological Society between 1847-57.

2 See W. Whitaker, Mem. Geol. Survey, ' Geology of London' (1889), vol. i. pp. 103- 106.

14

GEOLOGY

mammal, bird, turtles, crocodiles and fish, chiefly from sections at Croydon1 and Dulwich.2 These fossils, like those of the London Clay, indicate a climate considerably warmer than that which now prevails in the district.

The Blackheath or Oldhaven Beds, which come next above the Woolwich and Reading Beds in the sequence, need not detain us long, as they attain their chief development to the eastward of the county boundary, and thin out westward soon after crossing it, finally disap- pearing at Croydon. Small ' outliers ' of these beds are scattered over the Chalk Downs to the southward of Croydon, up to the very crest of the escarpment south of Caterham. They consist of pebble-beds of extremely well-rounded flints more or less intermingled with sand. They seem to have been accumulated as shingle-banks in a shallow sea some little distance from the shore. Though in some places containing estuarine shells they yield more marine fossils than the Woolwich and Reading Beds, and thus herald the submergence which brought the waters of the sea once more over the whole of the south-east of England.

LONDON CLAY

With the deepening of this sea during the subsequent stage a thick and widespread mass of marine clay was deposited, which extends with- out much change throughout the London Basin and reappears to the south-westward of the Wealden dome in Sussex and Hampshire, having evidently once been continuous over all the intervening tract.

This deposit, which from the fact of its underlying the metropolis is known as the ' London Clay,' occupies a wide area in Surrey ; and though concealed by newer deposits in the north-west of the county, it is continuous either at or beneath the surface in all that part of Surrey which lies to the northward of the outcrop of the Lower London Ter- tiaries. In composition it is a tenacious bluish-grey clay, weathering brown at the surface, containing layers of nodular concretions of clayey limestone. These nodules generally show shrinkage-cracks lined with calcite or aragonite, giving them a divided appearance, whence they are termed septaria ; they are often very fossiliferous. For a few feet at its base the London Clay generally shows an admixture of green and yellow sand, with rounded pebbles of flint, and part of this ' basement-bed ' is sometimes indurated into tabular rocky masses. The topmost layers of the clay are also intermingled with sand, thus passing gradually upward into the overlying Lower Bagshot Sand ; but otherwise its composition is remarkably uniform.

Its thickness in Surrey ranges from about 300 to about 400 feet, increasing gradually from west to east. Its fossils, not everywhere present and obtained more abundantly in the neighbouring counties of Middlesex and Kent than in Surrey, include extinct mammals, birds, turtles, croco-

1 See H. M. Klaassen, Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. viii. (1883) No. 4, pp. 236-242. 8 See C. Rickman, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.t vol. xvii. p. 6 ; and Mem. Geol. Survey, ' Geology of London,' pp. 211-213.

15

A HISTORY OF SURREY

diles and fish, together with marine shells numerous both in individuals and in species, and plant- remains ; and these, as already mentioned, indicate a warm, almost sub-tropical temperature.

Where the outcrop of the London Clay enters the county on the west, near Farnham Park, it is comparatively narrow — from a half to three-quarters of a mile in width — owing to the steep northerly dip, but it expands as the dip decreases, until near Leatherhead it attains a width of about three miles. East of this locality, owing to the upward shelving of the south-eastern margin of the London Basin the strike of the beds swings northward, and the London Clay, no longer covered by the Bagshot Beds (except by a few small outliers), lies exposed in a wide sheet extending to the banks of the Thames and occupying all the north-eastern part of the county around the suburbs of London, save the little strip previously described where the underlying strata come to the surface. The Clay also stretches along the Thames Valley at the northern border of the county to Chertsey and Egham, though usually covered in this quarter by the Recent Valley-deposits presently to be discussed. Wherever exposed at the surface it forms a heavy cold clay-land, but in many parts of its outcrop this character is modified by the presence of thin ' superficial ' accumulations of gravel, loam and brick-earth of Post-Tertiary or Recent age.

BAGSHOT BEDS

After the long period of depression indicated by the London Clay, the pendulum of change once more swung slowly back, and a gradual re-elevation set in which brought shallow water conditions again into our area. This change is indicated by the character of the beds by which the London Clay is overspread, which consist of a thick mass of sand and pebbly beds, with a subordinate clayey portion, known collec- tively as the Bagshot Beds. Fossils are extremely rare throughout this series in Surrey, but the few that have been found indicate that the deposits are of marine origin. The equivalent beds in the Hampshire Basin are, however, in their lower portion, partly fluviatile and estuarine, so that we seem, as in case of the Woolwich and Reading Beds, to have evidence of the existence of a river flowing from west to east during the accumulation of the series.

Much has been written respecting the subdivision and correlation of the Bagshot Beds,1 but for our present purpose it is sufficient to note that in Surrey a threefold division, based on the composition of the strata, is possible.3 Of these, the lowest (Lower Bagshot Beds) consists mainly of fine whitish or yellowish sand, often micaceous, sometimes slightly laminated or intermixed with clay, and occasionally containing

1 See J. S. Gardner, Geol. Mag. 2, dec. vol. vi. (1879) p. 151, and Quart. Journ. Geol. Sec., xxxv. p. 210 ; Rev. A. Irving, Quart. Journ. Geol. Sec., vol. xlviii. p. 485, and several other papers ; H. W. Monckton, Quart. Journ. Geol. Sac., xxxix. p. 352, and xlviii. p. 48, etc. ; Monckton and Herries, ibid. xlii. p. 415 ; H. G. Lyons, ibid. vol. xlv. p. 633 ; etc., etc.

It is now generally agreed that the so-called Upper Bagshot Beds of Surrey are not strictly equivalent to the Upper Bagshots of the Hampshire Basin.

16

GEOLOGY

rolled black flint pebbles, thin layers and nodules of iron-sandstone, and concretionary masses of hard siliceous sandstone. The last-mentioned material is also developed abundantly in the Thanet Sands and Woolwich and Reading Beds ; and from its superior durability large blocks, popularly termed ' grey-wethers,' are frequently strewn over the surface when the remaining portion of the bed of which they formed part has been wasted away.

The thickness of the Lower Bagshot division varies from 100 to 150 feet. Its outcrop corresponds in shape to that of the London Clay, being similarly contracted to a narrow belt between the western border and the valley of the Wey and then broadly expanded as it sweeps round northward on both sides of that river up to its junction with the Thames, whence it returns westward to the county boundary in the neighbourhood of Virginia Water and Egham. Many detached ' outliers ' also occur on the London Clay beyond the limits of the main outcrop.

The middle division of the Bagshot series, or ' Bracklesham Beds ' as they are usually called, from a place on the coast of Sussex where beds supposed to be of the same age are typically exposed, consists in Surrey of laminated clays and sands (sometimes containing a little lignite) from 40 to 60 feet thick. The sands are often of a dark-green colour, and occasionally include layers of flint pebbles. The clayey character of this division serves to distinguish it from the other portions of the series ; the water percolating through the porous overlying beds is thrown out along its outcrop in a line of small springs and boggy patches. The soil also is less sterile than on other parts of the Bagshot Beds, on which as a rule the proportion of uncultivated common is great.

The outcrop of the Bracklesham Beds in Surrey occupies a broad much-indented tract between the valleys of the Blackwater and the Wey, lying within the crescent-shaped rim of Lower Bagshots. Outliers are also found between the Wey and the Mole, and again to the north of the main mass.

The Upper Bagshot Beds of Surrey consist of light-yellow or ochreous sands, from 120 to 300 feet in thickness, which form for the most part dry barren land covered with heath and in places with fir, occurring only in a limited tract near the western border within the bounds of the Bracklesham Beds. Their most continuous development in the county is in the Chobham Ridges, extending thence southward into Fox Hills and Ash Common ; a large outlier occurs on Pirbright Common to the east of Pirbright, and a northerly chain of smaller outliers to the north of Bagshot and Chobham. They contain few pebbles, but many ferruginous concretions which sometimes exhibit the casts of marine shells. The ' grey-wether ' sandstone of these sands has already been mentioned.

With these strata our survey of the materials which have gone to

the making of the county is nearly concluded. Up to this time we have

concentrated our attention upon the piling up of masses of strata by the

accumulation of matter removed from other areas and deposited in our

i 17 c

A HISTORY OF SURREY

district, although it is true that now and again we have found the forces of destruction and reconstruction going hand in hand even within this limited field of observation. But henceforward we shall have to deal only with the shaping of the land as the strata which we have been con- sidering were uplifted above the waters and broken down piecemeal by rain, frost, heat and wind, to be carried away by brooks into rivers and by rivers into seas, to take their part in the construction of a newer land.

In the passage, seaward, however, the detritus of the land makes many halts. It forms gravel-banks and flats in the streams, of which portions are sometimes left stranded for a while as terraces on the slopes when the valley is deepened ; it is blown by the wind from dry channels and spread over tracts where it may find temporary rest ; or it is carried as mud by river-floods and deposited on low ground beyond reach of im- mediate re-transport. In these and other similar ways, the remnants from the waste of the land, termed by geologists the ' superficial ' deposits, are formed ; and as we shall presently see, we may glean from their examina- tion some knowledge of conditions which though geologically ' recent ' are still long since past.

It is not indeed certain that because no newer ' solid ' strata than the Bagshot Beds now exist in our county none were ever deposited ; in Hampshire there are newer (Oligocene) beds several hundred feet in thickness ; but if such were ever laid down in Surrey they have since been entirely removed. Of a still later period — the Pliocene — it is be- lieved that there are actually some faint traces in the form of small masses of ferruginous sand and loam which are preserved in ' pipes ' or hollows of the chalk in a few places on the summit of the Downs. No conclusive evidence has yet been found in Surrey to indicate the age of this material, though it has recently yielded a few ill-preserved traces of shells at Netley Heath, while in hardened sand similarly situated at Lenham and Harrietsham in Kent the casts of marine shells of Early Pliocene age have been discovered.1

DEEP-SEATED ROCKS

Before following the later development of the geological history of our county, however, let us turn back for a moment to investigate its very foundations. We started our examination with the oldest rocks which are exposed at the surface ; but as previously mentioned there have been two deep borings in the north of the county which have proved the existence of a sequence of much older rocks at considerable depths below the surface. These borings were made at Richmond and at Streatham, and their results are arranged and classified in the following summary. In both records the lower portions printed in italics represent strata older than those exposed at the surface in Surrey, or indeed in any part of the south-east of England.

1 See C. Reid, Mem. Geol. Survey, ' Pliocene Deposits of Great Britain ' (1890) p. 48 ; and W. P. D. Stebbing < Excursion to Netley Heath and Newlands Corner,' Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. xvi. (1900) pp. 524-526.

18

GEOLOGY

I. — BORING AT RICHMOND WATERWORKS, 1 876-84. *

Thickness in feet

Kind of Material

Geological Classification

10 160

22*

300

150

220

16

IO

87i 207^

Made ground and sandy gravel

Clay

Mottled clays with a bed of sand

Light grey and greenish sand with green- coated flints at base

White chalk with flints

Greyish and cream-coloured chalk without flints

Grey marly chalk passing downward into chalk marl

Calcareous sandstone

Pale and dark blue clay with glauconitic sand and phosphattc nodules at base

Limestone, somewhat oolitic, with thin bands of clay

Limestones, more or less oolitic, with a thin band of clay and some layers of calcareous sandstone

Alternations of red, white and mottled sand- stone with red and variegated marls ; dipping steeply

Total depth

Recent

London Clay "j

Reading Beds I Eocene

Thanet Sands I

Upper Chalk Middle Chalk

Lower Chalk Upper Greensand Gault

Upper Creta- ceous

( ?) Lower Greensand. (?) Lower Cre- taceous

Great Oolite Series. Jurassic

(?) New Red Sandstone. (?) Triassic

II. — BORING AT STREATHAM COMMON FOR THE SOUTHWARK AND VAUXHALL WATER

COMPANY, 1 882-88.*

Thickness in feet

10 153 43i

35

22l£ 2I9

188^ 38*

138

1,258

Kind of Material

Gravel and mud

Blue clay, sandy and pebbly at base

Black and mottled clay, sandy clay and

thin beds of green sand Green and grey sand, with flints at base White chalk with flints Hard greyish chalk without flints Grey chalk passing downwards into chalk

marl

Greenish-grey calcareous sandstone Firm clay with phosphatic nodules at base Alternations of oolitic limestone, calcareous

sandstone, sandy clay and clay Greenish-grey, reddish and mottled sandstone,

with bands of hard reddish clayey rock ;

dipping steeply

Total depth

Geological Classification

Recent London Clay Woolwich and Reading

Beds

Thanet Sands Upper Chalk Middle Chalk

Eocene

Lower Chalk

Upper ceous

Creta-

Upper Greensand Gault

Great Oolite Series ) ~

,, ,-, ,, , ,, > Jurassic (( Forest Marble) ) J

Triassic (?), or Devonian (?)

1 For fuller details see Prof. J. W. Judd and C. Homersham, Quart. Journ. Geol. Sac., vol. xl. (1884) pp. 724-783 ; and vol. xli. (1885) pp. 523-527.

2 Mem. Geol. Survey, 'The Geology of London,' vol. ii. (1889) pp. 224-229.

19

A HISTORY OF SURREY

We shall notice that in these borings the older rocks are much closer to the surface than they would have been if the whole sequence which we found in crossing the county from south to north had been continuous underground up to the places where the borings were made. The various divisions of the Eocene, with the Chalk, the Upper Greensand and the Gault, are indeed fairly represented ; but the great mass of the Lower Greensand is absent altogether at Streatham, and if present at Richmond (respecting which there is much doubt) has dwindled to a thickness of only i o feet ; while the Wealden Series is entirely unrepresented in either section. Furthermore, although the Jurassic rocks at their outcrop in the middle and the west of England constitute a great and varied system rivaling the Cretaceous in extent, and have likewise been proved by deep borings in Kent and Sussex to attain a considerable development beneath the Cretaceous rocks in certain parts of those counties, they are most scantily represented in these sections, only one division of the Middle Jurassic having been recognized therein. If, however, the bor- ings had been made in the southern part of Surrey instead of in the north, it is almost certain that Jurassic strata of very much greater thick- ness and more varied character would have been encountered.

This rapid thinning away northward of the Secondary rocks under- lying the Chalk in the south-east of England is a fact of great economic importance in view of the discovery that among the older rocks brought by this cause within practicable reach of the surface, the Coal Measures are included. The possibility that such might be the case was suggested on theoretical grounds by R. A. C. Godwin-Austen nearly half a century ago,1 and since that time much has been written on the subject.2 It was not however until 1890 that the existence of Coal Measures was actually proved, in an experimental boring at the foot of Shakespeare's Cliff at Dover, where they were entered at a depth of 1,157 feet below the surface, and penetrated for 1,173 ^eet further and found to contain several coal seams.3 Several other borings have since been made in Kent, and one of these, at Ropersole eight miles west- north-west of Dover, again reached the Coal Measures, beneath 1,580 feet of Secondary rocks.4 Meanwhile efforts have been made to sink shafts for the mining of the coal at Dover, but at the time of writing the coal has not actually been reached in the pits.

The westerly limits of this concealed coalfield still remain to be proved, and therein lies the importance of the matter in regard to Surrey.

' On the Probable Extension of the Coal Measures beneath the South-eastern part of England,' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xii. p. 38.

8 For references to this literature up to 1889, see Mem. Geol. Survey, f The Geology of London,' vol. i. chaps, ii. and iii. : and for recent review of the subject see W. Whitaker's Presidential Address to the Geological Society, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. Ivi. (1900) pp. Ixxi.— Ixxxv.

8 See Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, ' On the History of the Discovery of the South-eastern Coalfield,' Trans. Manchester Geol. Soc., vol. xxv. pt. vi. (1897), containing references to pre- vious publications.

* Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, Rep. British Assoc. for 1899, p. 735.

20

GEOLOGY

It has been surmised that the buried Coal Measures may extend beneath some portion of the county, but the factors bearing on the question are so complex and the evidence at present in hand so scanty, that further deep boring can alone give proof or disproof to the supposition.

Since the Richmond and Streatham borings are as yet the only instances in Surrey where rocks older than the Jurassic have been pierced, it is the more unfortunate that doubt should exist as to the age of these rocks in both places. No fossils were obtained from them in either case, so that we have only their general aspect on which to base an opinion, and this is not sufficiently distinctive to determine the point with any certainty. By some geologists they are thought to belong to the New Red or Triassic system — that is to say, to a system newer than the Coal Measures : while other geologists have inclined to the view that they more nearly resemble the Old Red or Devonian rocks, in which case they will be older than the Coal Measures, — a difference of opinion of course very seriously affecting the question as to the most likely quarter in which to search for Coal Measures.

The main point has, however, been clearly established, that in the northern part of Surrey rocks unconformably underlying the Jurassics are within comparatively easy reach of exploration by borings ; and such exploration, at some time or other, will no doubt be undertaken. More might be said as to the bearing of the evidence from deep borings outside the county limits on the probable range of its concealed Jurassic rocks, but to enter more fully into the subject would be to transgress the bounds and scope of this article.

We will now therefore ascend from the depths to follow the fortunes of the land-surface after the newest of its ' solid ' strata was laid down.

ELEVATION AND DENUDATION

We have seen that throughout the building up of its strata the area was now rising, now sinking, and probably never for long quite stationary. But from the Wealden onward to the close of the Eocene these movements were all of a simple character, elevating or depressing the whole tract without seriously disturbing its horizontality. Some slight tilting and sagging there doubtless was, by which during sub- mergence the waters became relatively deeper or shallower in one place than in another ; but this was never sufficiently sharp to destroy the general parallelism of the successive deposits in any particular spot, or, to use technical parlance, to develop strong unconformability between any of the separate formations.

But subsequently, during the Miocene Period, there came a time of storm and stress in the earth's crust, which affected the British Islands in common with the greater part of the European continent : a time of mountain-building in some quarters, as for instance in the Alps : and of great volcanic eruptions and outpourings of lava in others, as in Scotland and Ireland. And during this time of disturbance the rocks of the south-east of England were forced by lateral pressure into broad waves

21

A HISTORY OF SURREY

and hollows, which remained ever afterwards as the dominant factors in its structure. The dome of the Weald and the trough of the London Basin, referred to in the foregoing pages, are the results of this earth- movement with which we are principally concerned in Surrey.

In the Wealden dome the strata were raised up in a huge oval tract extending from Hampshire on the west to the Bas Boulonnais in France on the east, now broken through towards the eastern end by the Straits of Dover. ' We must not however overlook the fact pointed out by W. Topley, that the Secondary rocks attained their maximum thickness within this dome, and therefore that its elevation may be in part the result of original irregularities of deposition.1 But it seems highly probable, though the point seems to have escaped notice, that where the strata are thickest, there also will they be most likely to bulge upwards under lateral pressure, thus accentuating the original inequality. At any rate, there can be no doubt that considerable disturbance tending to elevation has taken place throughout the dome.

Broadly speaking the Wealden uplift forms a single anticline ; but when examined more closely we find that it is made up of numerous subsidiary waves or flexures, arranged en echelon, which usually rise up gradually from the south and plunge over more steeply towards the north, and flatten and fade out longitudinally. One of these flexures or minor folds explains the sudden expansion of the Lower Greensand outcrop west of Dorking, and its crest brings up a small ' inlier ' of Atherfield Clay and Weald Clay, surrounded by the overlying formations, in the neighbour- hood of Pease Marsh two miles south of Guildford, whilst its northerly plunge gives rise to the steep dips and narrow outcrops of the Hog's Back and its vicinity. Less pronounced waves of the same kind occur farther south between Godalming and Haslemere, and to the eastward near Dorking, Reigate and Westerham.

But besides these flexures, the strata are sometimes broken through by fractures or ' faults,' between the two sides of which there has been differential movement, so that a once continuous bed now occurs at different levels on the opposite sides of the dislocation. A pronounced ' fault ' of this kind is found about a mile to the eastward of Farnham, where the strata on the north-east side of the fracture are carried down from i 50 to 200 feet lower than the corresponding strata on the south- west side. This fault is sufficiently large to affect the line of outcrop considerably, the Hog's Back ridge being brought to a termination by the setting back of the Chalk escarpment on the west ; and a depression of the surface has been subsequently developed at this point, through which the railway between Farnham and Guildford is carried. Another fault has been traced running east and west from the southern outskirts of Dorking to beyond Wotton, with a downthrow to the north amount- ing in places to 100 feet ; and again at Betchworth, two miles east of Dorking, there is a line of fracture striking from south-east to north-west,

1 See Quart. Journ. Geol. Sac., vol. xxx. p. 186, and Geology of the Weald, pp. 241, 242. The result of recent deep borings in Kent has added fresh weight to Mr. Topley's argument.

22

HISTORY OF SUIi KEY

OROGR,

THE VI CTORIA HISTORY 0

;AL MAP

15'

:sn

$^y witm ' ^';$v"^ -"&«>»"•'-

. COUNTI ES OF ENGLAND

County Boundary shown thus

GEOLOGY

with a drop on the south-west side of about the same amount as the last.1 Several smaller faults have also been recognized, chiefly in the Lower Greensand tract ; but these need not detain us, as the instances already given are sufficient to show the general character of this kind of disturb- ance.

At the close, then, of this period of great earth-movement the strata in the south of the county, including the Chalk and the under- lying beds, formed part of the elevated dome and probably extended con- tinuously from the present line of the North Downs to the present line of the South Downs, while the north of the county was relatively depressed to form part of what we now know as the London Basin. It is, however, probable that before the elevation had attained its maximum the Chalk had already been partly worn away over the rising area, since in many parts of the Eocene deposits, as we have seen, there are water-worn flints derived from the Chalk ; but on the other hand there is evidence to show that some of the Eocene deposits were them- selves once continuous over at least a portion of the elevated tract ; so that we may estimate the original surface to have been not less than 2,000 feet higher than it now is in the middle of the tract. We have next to consider how this huge pile of material has been removed and the land brought to its present shape.

At about the time of the relative upheaval of the Wealden dome there was, besides, a general elevation, by which the whole area became dry land. When the rain fell on this land and gathered into streams, these streams of course flowed down the slopes from the dome towards the lower ground. Hence in our particular district they flowed north- ward from the Wealden tract towards the London Basin ; and in this direction the main streams have never since ceased to flow, although what was once relatively the higher ground has now been worn away until it has become relatively low ground, and the streams have had to cut deep valleys across the hilly ridges of the present land to maintain their courses. Thus we find the Wey at Guildford and the Mole at Dorking crossing the Chalk in trenches which they have excavated transversely through the escarpment which threatened to bar their passage ; and the same conditions prevail with regard to the Darent and the Medway in Kent ; while on the opposite side of the dome the Arun and the Adur in Sussex break their way through the South Downs in an exactly similar manner, but in the reverse direction. If the configuration of the land when these streams began to flow had been even approximately that of to-day, such courses would have been impossible ; and we are compelled to recognize that these drainage-channels were established in a remote past before the escarpments were in existence. They are the sluices down which the greater part of the waste of the land has been conveyed to the sea, and their channels have been scoured and deepened at a more rapid rate than that at which the general level has been lowered. Meanwhile, as formation after formation crumbled away on the elevated tract, the

1 F. Drew, Mem, Geol. Survey, ' Geology of the Weald,' p. 233.

23

A HISTORY OF SURREY

unequal hardness of the strata had its effect in the development of ridge and hollow in agreement with the strike of the rocks ; and thus longi- tudinal depressions were formed in which the surface-waters gathered and flowed until intercepted by an older transverse stream. Hence the trunk-streams crossing the strata gradually developed lateral branches or tributaries running parallel to the strike of the rocks. And this trenching of the land has gone on until in the central tract the soft Weald Clay has be'en reached and partly scooped out, while the broken rim of overlying harder beds forms steep escarpments facing inwards to the hollow. But in the rim also the wasting back has been irregular, so that the present Lower Greensand escarpment west of Dorking attains higher levels than the Chalk escarpment to the north, though in other parts of the county this relation is reversed.

PLEISTOCENE AND RECENT DEPOSITS

We shall now be better able to appreciate the evidence afforded by the shreds and patches of transported material which, as previously mentioned, have >here and there been left behind during the erosion of the land. We may find such material at all levels, though it is necessarily the more abundant the more nearly we approach the level of the present rivers. Even on the higher slopes and ridges of the Chalk Downs there are patches of gravel and sand which represent the residue of the Chalk and of once-existing Tertiary strata rearranged and modified by the flow of water. In the north and west of the county also, small tracts of high-level gravel and sand occur on the highest ground, often capping the little plateaus and ridges into which the Tertiary strata have been eroded ; and these gravels contain not only the detritus of the Chalk and Tertiary beds, but also many pebbles of quartz- ite and other rocks which must have been transported for long distances. The conditions under which these ' high-level ' or ' plateau gravels ' were deposited have been the subject of much discussion and difference of opinion l ; by some geologists they have been thought to indicate old beaches, and to denote a period of submergence during which the land was planed down to an even surface by the sea ; by others, whose views are now more generally accepted, they are considered to be flood-gravels formed at a time when the rivers were far more powerful than at present, and when the bottoms of the valleys were approximately at the level of these gravels. In some of these high-level deposits, as well as in others at lower levels, the agency of floating ice seems to be indicated by the presence of large blocks of grey- wether sandstone, etc., in positions which it is believed they could not otherwise have attained ; and as we know that after the close of Pliocene times there was a long period dur- ing which the climate in our islands was so inclement and moist that

1 See Prof. J. Prestwich, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., xlvi. (1890) p. 159 ; Rev. A. Irving, Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. viii. (1883) p. 143, and Quart. Journ. Geol. Sac., vol. xlvi. (1890) p. 562 ; H. W. Monckton, ibid. vol. liv. (1898) p. 184 ; and Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. xvi. (1900) p. 443. Other references will be found in these papers.

24

GEOLOGY

the greater part of the country north of the Thames was covered by a vast accumulation of snow and ice, there is much reason to assign the formation of some of the older gravel-deposits of Surrey to this Glacial Period. The ice-sheet during its maximum development spread south- ward as far as the northern margin of the Thames Valley, but there is no evidence of a permanent ice-field to the southward of that valley. Thus the conditions in Surrey at this time would be peculiarly favourable to rapid erosion ; for although the ice-sheet itself planes away the land in its gradual outward flow, it also protects the surface from the severer action of streams and of alternate freezing and thawing. We may picture the Surrey of the Glacial Period as a bleak tract lying just beyond the margin of the ice-fields ; its surface frozen and rendered impervious by the autumn frosts ; then deeply covered by the winter snows ; to be drenched and torn during the thaw in the late spring by the sudden re- lease of the waters. And as the land probably ^tood higher above sea- level than at present, the torrential denudation during the short summer may have been extremely great. The turbid rivers, laden with mud from the disintegrated clays and with stones from the harder strata, deepened their channels rapidly, and cast down wide sheets of detritus wherever their course was checked. Hence, throughout all the Glacial time there was everywhere in the county a rapid wasting of the hills and slopes, and a transference of the material to lower and lower levels.

In the vicinity of the main valleys, like that of the Thames, it is more or less difficult to distinguish between the lower portion of the high-level accumulations and the higher of the deposits clearly connected with the existing valley, although in some other districts the distinction seems well marked. It is probable that at the close of the Glacial Period there was no such radical change in the conditions in this area as in places which had been actually overridden by the ice-sheet, but only a gradual and progressive amelioration by which the past was merged insensibly into the present. The streams and rivers still maintained their courses and continued to deepen their channels, but with diminishing activity as their flow diminished ; until they reached their present shrunken state, in which the main streams are able to transport only the finer detritus, while many of the smaller head-valleys, especially those traversing the more porous strata, are no longer able to maintain a permanent stream.

The older of the undoubted valley-deposits are especially interesting from the fact that they yield the earliest indications of ancient man, in the form of coarsely-chipped implements of flint, associated with the remains of extinct animals.1 Though these ' Palaeolithic ' implements have not been obtained so plentifully in Surrey as in some of the neighbouring counties they have already been recorded from many localities, and fresh discoveries are constantly being made as the search by qualified observers

1 For numerous records of Palaeolithic and Neolithic implements in Surrey consult Sir J. Evans' Ancient Stone Implements, 2nd ed. (1897), where references to previous literature will also be found.

25

A HISTORY OF SURREY

is extended. These implement-bearing deposits occur for the most part on the slopes of the existing valleys at varying heights above the present streams ; but at Limpsfield worked flints have been found in an ancient gravel which, though probably originally belonging to the Darent drainage system, now lies on the watershed between the Darent and the Medway at an altitude of 500 feet above sea level.

It is of course in the larger valleys that the valley-deposits attain their widest development ; hence in Surrey we find that the old river- gravels and flood-loams, and also the more recent alluvium, are thickest and most extensive in the vicinity of the Thames. The older gravels fringe the valley irregularly, in somewhat ill-defined terraces at varying elevations, throughout its extent, but are generally widest near the confluence of the larger tributaries with the main river. At the lower levels they are well seen between Walton and Petersham ; between Richmond and Wands- worth ; and between Wandsworth and Deptford ; while the remnants of high terraces are found on Kingston Hill, Wimbledon Common, Rich- mond Hill and Putney Heath ; and again at Clapham, Balham and other places.1 It is however on the northern side of the river in Middlesex and in Essex, and on the southern side in Kent, that the Thames Valley Drifts reach their greatest importance both in extent and in fossil con- tents. Among the mammalian remains which they have yielded in these counties we may mention those of the wolf, lion, hyaena, bear, bison, musk-ox, reindeer, Irish elk, horse, elephant, mammoth, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, beaver, etc., some being of species now extinct ; and along with these are many land and freshwater shells, all except two or three belonging to species still living in England. It is in association with these mammalian remains that the Palaeolithic implements are found, in some places in considerable abundance ; and in the study of these rude implements the sciences of geology and archasology join hands. In Surrey, as instances of the occurrence of the fauna, we may mention that elephant remains have been obtained from Thames Ditton, Kingston and other places in the Thames Valley, and Palaeolithic implements at Cookham, East Sheen, Battersea Rise, Wandsworth, Lewisham and other places ; in the valley of the Wey similar relics of elephant have been found in the neighbourhood of Shalford, at Waverley near Farnham, in gravels 150 feet above the present river between Alton and Godalming (where Palaeo- lithic implements are very abundant, especially in the pits near Wrackle- sham), and again along with a flint implement at Pease Marsh ; in the valley of the Mole remains of elephant have been obtained at Charlwood, Dorking, Betchworth and Petridge Wood Common, with those of rhi- noceros also at the last named place ; remains of the horse, rhinoceros and elephant at Sutton2 ; the horse, rhinoceros, reindeer and roebuck from

Among recent papers on this subject, and for references to previous literature, consult H. W. Monckton, Quart. Journ. Geol, Soc., vol. xlviii. (1892) pp. 29-47, and vol. liv. (1898) pp. 184-195 ; and Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. xiii. pp. 74-81 ; and A. E. Salter, ibid. vol. xv. (1898) pp. 264-286.

3 See W. W. Watts, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. Iv. (1897) p. ii.

26

GEOLOGY

the neighbourhood of Mitcham,1 and portions of an elephant's tooth and tusk at Croydon, in the valley of the Wandle ; mammoth, rhinoceros, horse, reindeer, etc., with a Palaeolithic implement, from the Caterham Valley2; and many palsoliths from West Wickham, in a branch of the Ravensbourne.

In its tributary valleys we find the phenomena of the Thames Valley repeated on a smaller scale, strips of gravel, sand or loam of ancient date occurring at varying levels above the streams, sometimes sharply defined and sometimes more or less coalescent down the slopes to the present valley-floors, all telling the same story of a continuous, though now abated, wearing away of the land and deepening of the drainage-hollows.

With the more recent deposits or alluvia of the rivers — the sand, loam and mud of the lowest levels, which in some cases are still receiving additions in times of flood — the work of the geologist closes and that of the historian commences. The mammoth, rhinoceros and its companions disappeared, and the makers of the rude implements of the gravels gave place to a more advanced race of workers in stone, whose finely chipped tools and weapons lie scattered here and there over the surface of the land. The time-interval from the Palaeolithic or Older Stone Age to the Neolithic or Newer Stone Age and thence through the Age of Bronze and the Age of Iron to the dawn of history is, as measured by our human standards, of vast duration, but as compared with the asons of geological time it is indeed but as yesterday.

SUMMARY OF GEOLOGICAL HISTORY

In the foregoing pages we have dealt with periods of time that it is beyond our grasp to estimate. To follow the sequence of events is all that we can attempt in the present state of our knowledge, without venturing to guess at their absolute time-value. Before concluding the chapter let us briefly rehearse this sequence.

Our earliest glimpse was of a land of ancient rocks, now hidden deep below the surface : a land planed down by erosion, and afterwards buried under the slowly-accumulated deposits of Jurassic seas. These deposits were in turn hidden by the sediments of the mighty Wealden river flowing from a continent whose confines we cannot trace. By renewed submergence this river, after a protracted existence, was obliterated, and its site covered with the sandbanks of the shallow current-swept Lower Greensand sea. Then, with the gradual deepening of the ocean there followed an accumulation of clay and of siliceous silt, forming the Gault and Upper Greensand, until the shore-line had receded so far that scarcely any waste from the land could reach our tract, and only a gentle

1 See G. J. Hinde, ' Notes on the Gravels of Croydon,' Trans. Croydon Microscop. and Nat. Hist. Club (1896-97).

2 See J. P. Johnson, ' Palaeolithic Man in the Valley of the Wandle,' Science Gossip, vol. vii. (1900) p. 75.

27

A HISTORY OF SURREY

shower of calcareous organic particles descended upon the sea floor ; and the duration of this shower was so long that the great Chalk forma- tion was built up by it. Then we found a wide gap in the records; and when we crossed this gap to the Eocene strata, we learnt once more of a shallow sea, inhabited by animals all different from those of the older time, and this sea had already made great inroads upon the consolidated sediment of the preceding period ; the climate was warm, perhaps sub-tropical, and not far off there was a land clothed with rich vegetation ; and as the sea grew shallower the estuary of a large river invaded our tract, but was soon driven back by a renewed sinking of the land. Then, as the Eocene Period drew to its close, we observed how re-elevation set in, with the renewal of shallow-water conditions ; and with this stage the building up of our county was concluded.

Regarding subsequent events our evidence has been scanty, but we have been able to gather that the strata were disturbed and uplifted into dry land ; and that owing to inequalities of the uplift this land sloped to the north, so that the rivers which flowed from it took a northerly course, which they have since maintained. And we have traced the work of these rivers and their tributaries through a period of gradually increasing cold, until conditions of arctic severity ruled in the land ; and finally through a period of gradual amelioration, which has continued up to time recent ; and meanwhile great piles of strata have melted away, and the remnants have been carved into hill and dale under the persistent sapping of the agencies of erosion.

28

PALAEONTOLOGY

I

'finds' made some years ago by Mr. H. M. Klaassen in the Lower Eocene Woolwich and Reading beds of the Park Hill railway cutting at Croydon constitute the chief point of interest in the palaeontological history of the county, so far as vertebrates are concerned. The first of these ' finds ' is one of the bones (ulna) of the fore-limb of a large primitive type of hoofed mam- mal referable to a genus first described by Sir R. Owen from the London clay of Essex under the name of Corypbodon, in allusion to the ridges capping the crowns of the molar teeth. By Mr. E. T. Newton, who described it,1 the Croydon fossil is regarded as indicating a species dis- tinct from the one to which the Essex remains belongs, and it was ac- cordingly named Corypbodon croydonensis.

The second peculiar form is a gigantic flightless bird, considerably superior in size to the ostrich ; it is represented by two imperfect bones of the leg, likewise obtained from the Park Hill railway cutting. These bones were also described by Mr. Newton,3 who named the bird to which they belong Gastornis klaasseni, after the finder of the specimens. The genus Gastornis, it may be mentioned, was first established on the evidence of bones from Lower Eocene deposits at Bas-Meudon, in France, and was subsequently discovered at Rheims. Mr. Newton regards the English bones as indicating a species distinct from the one represented by the Meudon specimens. Whether Gastornis belongs to the same group of birds as the ostrich may perhaps be doubtful, as it is now ascertained that representatives of other groups have acquired a large bodily size concomitantly with the loss of flight. The limb-bones present a con- siderable resemblance in certain respects to those of the duck tribe.

Corypbodon croydonensis and Gastornis klaasseni, together with the undermentioned Icbtbyodectes e/egans, appear the only extinct vertebrates peculiar to the county.

The Surrey chalk has yielded remains of at least two species of reptiles and several kinds of fishes, and doubtless more remain to be dis- covered. The first reptile is Polyptychodon interruptus, of which remains from the chalk of the county were described by Sir Richard Owen.3 This reptile was a swimming marine creature allied to the plesiosaurs of the Lias, but with a much shorter neck and larger head. In these respects it resembles the pliosaurs of the Jurassic strata, from which it differs by

1 Proceedings of Geologists' Association, vol. viii. p. 254 (1883). 8 Trans. Zoo/. Sec. London, vol. xii. p. 143 (1866). 3 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xvi. p. 262 (1860).

29

A HISTORY OF SURREY

its many-ridged teeth being uniformly conical instead of more or less distinctly trihedral.

The second reptile is a huge marine turtle allied to the existing leathery turtle (Dermatocbelys) ; it was named by the present writer 1 Protostega anglica on the evidence of two imperfect specimens of the upper arm-bone (humerus) in the British Museum, one of which was obtained from the chalk of Lewes and the other from that of Dorking.

In several geological works it is stated that remains of another reptile, Mosasaurus graci/ts, have been met with in the chalk of the county. These, however, are now known to belong to fishes of the genus Pacbyrhizodus, whose teeth are of unusual size and strength.

Some of the most common fish-remains that occur in the Surrey chalk are the well-known crushing palatal teeth of rays of the genus Ptychodus, of which several species are represented in the county. Of Ptychodus mammillaris the British Museum possesses twenty associated teeth in a block of chalk from Guildford, and likewise an associated set of twenty-three teeth obtained from the same locality in 1851 ; in addition to these there are also teeth from the chalk of Dorking. In the same collection there are likewise teeth of Pt. rugosus from Guildford, of Pt. decurrens from Dorking, as well as of Pt. polygyrus from a chalk-pit on St. Catherine's Hill near Guildford, while, there is a single large tooth of Pt. latissimus from Croydon and a smaller one referable to the same species from Guildford. A Cretaceous ray belonging to the genus Squatina is represented in the national collection by several vertebra? from the chalk of Dorking.

Among sharks, a tooth from the chalk of Guildford in the British Museum is referable to Notidanus microdon, one of the comb-toothed representatives of the group. In the same collection are an associated set of eleven vertebrae and a fin-spine from Guildford, as well as a tooth from Warlingham near Croydon, referable to Cestracion rugosus, a com- paratively rare species of pavement-toothed shark, nearly related to the living Australian representative of the genus. Another type of pavement-toothed shark is represented by Synecbodus illingivortbi (formerly known as Acrodus] of which the British Museum possesses teeth from the chalk of Guildford and Dorking. Among other sharks Scapanorhynchus rhaphiodon is represented in the national collection by teeth from the upper chalk of Shalford near Guildford, and Purley near Croydon, as well as by others from the lower chalk of Guildford. Scapanorhynchus was long regarded as an extinct type, but it appears closely allied to, if not identical with, a living Japanese form described as Mitsikurina. Of porbeagle sharks (Lamna) the British Museum con- tains teeth from Surrey belonging to two species, L. sulcata and L. appendi- culata, the latter being frequently referred to as Otodus appendiculatus. Two teeth from the lower chalk of Guildford in the same collection are assigned to the nearly related Oxyrbina angustidens, while the remains of

1 Catalo&te Fossil Reptilia British Museum, pt. iii. p. 229 (1889).

30

PALEONTOLOGY

O. mantelli have likewise been recorded from the county. But this by no means exhausts the list of Surrey Cretaceous sharks, the British Mu- seum possessing teeth of Corax falcatus and three vertebrae of Cetorhinus duponti from the chalk of Guildford.

Passing on to the chimaeroid fishes, a tooth from the chalk of Dor- king in the British Museum indicates the occurrence of Edapbodon agassizi in the county. Two other types are Plethodus oblongus and P. pentagon, the former represented by a skull and the latter by teeth from the Dorking chalk. Among the so-called ganoid fishes, the well-known Macropoma mantelli is represented in the same collection by a crushed head and dorsal fin from the chalk of Dorking as well as by vertebra? from Guildford. The well-known rhomboidal scales and button-like teeth of Lepidotus pustulatus occur in the lower greensand of Godalming; while the smaller ornamented crushing teeth of Gyrodus cretaceus have been obtained from the chalk of St. Catherine's Hill and Croydon. Another Cretaceous ganoid found in the county is Neorhombolepis punc- tatus, of which the national collection contains scales from the lower chalk of Dorking. To a family (Amiidce) now represented only by Amia calva of the freshwater of North America belongs Protosphyrcena ferox, a Cretaceous fish with large spear-like teeth long known under the name of Saurocepbalus lanciformis ; teeth of this type have been found in the chalk of Guildford. Yet another form is Tomognatbus mordax, a fish with large teeth fixed to the jaws, of which skulls have been obtained at Dorking.

Among fishes of a more essentially modern type, the extinct Cre- taceous family Ichthyodectidce, which includes some species of gigantic dimensions, is represented in the Dorking chalk by jaws of two species of the typical genus Icbtbyodectes, namely /. elegans and 7. lewesiensis. To the same family belongs the fish known as Enchodus lewesiensis, of which remains have been recorded from the chalk of Shalford and Guildford. An allied type is Prionolepis angustus, typically from the chalk of Sussex, but also represented by scutes from that of Dorking. To another family — the Elopidce — belongs Osmeroides lewesiensis, likewise a Sussex Cretaceous fish, of which remains occur both at Shalford and Guildford. Another Sussex type is Aulolepis typus, of which certain re- mains have been found in the Dorking chalk.

Neither are the so-called barracudas wanting from the Cretaceous beds of the county, scales of an extinct generic type termed Cladocyclus lewesiensis occurring in the chalk of Dorking as well as in that of Sussex. The perch-like fishes, which only date from the Cretaceous epoch, have at least three representatives in the county, one of which (Hoplopteryx lewesiensis^ belongs to an extinct, while the other two (Eeryx radians and B. microcephalus] are assigned to a still living genus. Of the first- named remains have been obtained at Guildford, of the second at Dor- king, and of the third at Reigate.

The Lower Tertiary deposits of Surrey appear to be poor in fish- Si

A HISTORY OF SURREY

remains as compared with those of the adjacent counties. But the British Museum possesses teeth of the shark Lamna macrota from the Lower Eocene of Woking and Sydenham, as also some of Carcharodon auriculatus from the same deposits at Woking. The chimasroid Edapho- don leptognathus is likewise represented in the national collection by a tooth from the Thanet Sand near Croydon. From the London Clay of Dulwich has been obtained an imperfect femur of the typical Cory- phodon eoccenus. ,

From a paper by Mr. C. Rickman, of which only an abstract was published in the Quarterly "Journal of the Geological Society? it appears that during the excavations in 1859 at Peckham in connection with the main drainage of the metropolis, a considerable number of vertebrate remains were discovered in the Woolwich and Reading beds of that district. These, which seem never to have been described, are stated to have included mammalian and chelonian bones, scutes of croco- diles, and scales of fishes.

The Pleistocene gravels and other superficial deposits along the course of the Mole as well as those of the Thames valley at Peckham, Camber- well, Kennington, Kew, Battersea and elsewhere, have yielded remains of some of the mammals usually met with in similar deposits. It will suffice to refer to certain of these remains preserved in the collection of the British Museum. Of the mammoth (Elephas primigenius) there are molar teeth from Dorking, Peckham and Lower Tooting ; while there are also molars of the straight-tusked elephant (E. antiquus) from Peck- ham, one of which was described by the late Professor Leith Adams in his monograph of the British fossil elephants. The woolly rhinoceros (Rhinoceros antiquitatis) is represented in the national collection by molars and bones from Peckham, the former being referred to by Professor W. B. Dawkins2 in a memoir on the dentition of that species ; there are likewise molars from the same locality of the species commonly known as R. leptorhinus^ one of which is figured by Professor Dawkins.3 The collection also includes several tusks of the Pleistocene hippopo- tamus (Hippopotamus amphiblus major] from Peckham, which are remark- able for their unusually large size. All the foregoing remains are mentioned by Professor Dawkins in the passage cited, where it is stated that while those of the hippopotamus and Rhinoceros leptorhinus were obtained from a bed of clay, the fine associated series of molars of the woolly rhinoceros came from a subjacent peaty layer. They were dug out during the excavation of the sewer in Rye Lane in 1862.

From the same clay-bed were likewise disinterred certain limb-bones apparently referable to the aurochs or wild ox (Bos taurus primigenius}. The British Museum also possesses an imperfect skull of the Pleistocene bison (Bos priscus) from Peckham. In addition to this the collection contains an imperfect skull of the domesticated breed of ox commonly known as the Celtic short-horn which was dug up at Lambeth, near

1 Vol. xvii. p. 6 (1860). » quart. Journ. Geol. See., vol. xxiii. p. 226 (1867).

3 Ibid. pi. x. fig. 5.

32

PALAEONTOLOGY

Vauxhall Bridge, in deposits of prehistoric age. Certain limb-bones in the collection from Peckham are likewise assigned to the same breed, and, if rightly determined, are probably newer than the remains of the bison and aurochs.

Antlers and a lower jaw from Kew preserved in the British Museum testify to the former presence of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in the county, while the existence of the red deer (Cervus elaphus] at the same epoch is indicated by a humerus (upper bone of the fore-leg) from Kew. That such animals as the hippopotamus and the reindeer should have coexisted in the same locality may seem very remarkable, but it is nevertheless attested by other evidence.

33

HISTORY OF SURREY

BOTANIC

LIST OF BOTANICAL DISTRICTS

I. Blackwater II. Bourne Brook

(a) West sub-district (6) East sub-district IV. Lower Wey V. Upper Mole VI. Lower Mole VII. Hogg's Mill VIII. Wandle IX. Medway

(a) East sub-district

(6) West sub-district

THE VICTORIA HI STORY

ISTRICTS.

E COUNTI ES OF ENGLAND

BOTANY'

T

f | ^HE county of Surrey is included within parallels 51° 5' and 51° 31' north latitude, and longitude o° 5' east and o° 31' west of Greenwich. It is bounded on the south by the county of Sussex, on the east by Kent, on the west by Hampshire and Berkshire, while on the north the bed of the river Thames is taken as the limit, although strictly speaking a small portion of Surrey extends north of that river near Chertsey, while Middlesex encroaches on its southern bank at Walton Bridge.

For botanical purposes the county has been divided into ten districts (two of which are sub-divided) founded on the river basins, this system being regarded as the most desirable in all respects, except perhaps that it is not always easy to fix the exact limits of a given drainage area. It is believed that this system of subdivision leads to the most valuable scientific results ; at the same time, in a small county like the present, in which the geological strata run in such remarkably parallel bands from east to west, while the streams run transversely to them, so that each of the principal rivers has its share of each of the formations, it is perhaps obvious that the general scenic features of the different parts, the charac- teristics that strike the eye, dependent as they must be on species or groups which are plentiful, will follow rather the soil than the particular river valley. Notwithstanding therefore that my observations have been almost entirely made from the river basin point of view, I shall en- deavour to give a sketch of the county regarded in the above aspect, dealing with the districts later on.

According to the Agricultural Returns (1900) Surrey has a total area of 461,791 acres, of which 2,907 acres are under water, leaving a land area of 458,884 acres distributed as follows : —

Acres

Corn crops 55,974

Green crops 34,877

Clovers, etc 22,208

Permanent pasture * 5 5,993

Hops and small fruit 2,6 1 1

Bare fallow 6,142

277,805

Woods and plantations 54,437

Heathland used for grazing 12,981

345,223

1 In 1 884 I undertook the compilation of a Flora of the county of Surrey, and the following account of the Botany of the county is drawn up from notes gathered together for that purpose, mainly

35

A HISTORY OF SURREY

leaving a balance of no less than 113,661 acres represented by waste lands.

With regard to the principal soils, I think that there is no doubt that the Bagshot Sands is by far the hottest and driest and most sterile in the county. The Lower Greensand comes next, and I have no hesi- tation in placing the chalk midway between the sands and the heavier clays. Porous as the chalk undoubtedly is, there is always a certain amount of moisture to be found a little way below the surface, and farmers find that in very hot and dry seasons the corn crops, which are not deep rooters, suffer less on the chalk than on even the Lower Green- sand. Last come the clays — the Gault, Wealden, and London Clay.

It will be convenient to speak first of the southern portion of the county, both because we find here the oldest geological formations, and because these correspond to the upper waters of the chief rivers. The Weald Clay stretches in an unbroken belt across the south of the county from east to west ; broadest at the eastern end and narrowing irregularly westwards until near Haslemere it disappears, so that the extreme west is devoid of this formation. It is characterized generally by its flatness and an absence of any high hills, by an alternation of cultivated land, green woods and copses of oak, willow, etc., and more or less extensive commons covered with scattered bushes of gorse (U/ex europceus), but without the heaths (Erica), although the ling (Calluna) occurs, and by a general absence of pine woods. The coral-root (Dentaria bulbifera) is confined to this formation as well as two pondweeds (Potamogeton Jluitans and P. decipiens).

The Lower Greensand which follows affords the two highest points in the county, Leith Hill (965 feet) and Hind Head (840 feet). Un- like the Wealden, the Lower Greensand is very narrow at its eastern end, expanding towards the west. The pine woods, very extensive in parts, notably in the region lying between Leith Hill and Pitch Hill and about Hind Head, together with the heaths (Erica tetralix and E. cmerea), which now become abundant, alone suffice to give a very distinctive character to this formation as compared with the last. The peculiar species also are more numerous, and there may be mentioned a bitter-cress (Cardamine impatient), a very rare waterwort (Elatine Hydro- piper), the sea stork's-bill (Erodium maritimum), brookweed (Samolus Valerandf), and the following members of the sedge family : Cyperus fuscus, Rbynchospora fusca, Carex arenaria and G. depauperata.

The chalk and gault belt again has its widest part at the eastern end of the county, narrowing towards the west, until the extremely narrow ridge of the Hog's Back is reached. This formation presents a strong

personal observations made in all parts of the county, seconded by communications with which I have been favoured by numerous correspondents. To these I desire to express my best thanks, as well as to Mr. S. W. Carruthers for his extracta of prae-Linnean records, to Mr. G. S. Boulger for his valuable advice in connection with the delimitation of the districts, and particularly to the Rev. W. Moyle Rogers, author of a Handbook of the British Rubi, Mr. Harold W. Monington, Messrs. W. and G. S. West, Mr. E. M. Holmes, and Mr. George Massee for their kindness in contributing papers on the Surrey Brambles, Mosses, Algae, Lichens and Fungi respectively.

36

BOTANY

contrast : long stretches of bare down dotted over with junipers or sweet- briar bushes, with here and there copses consisting to a considerable extent of white beam-tree (Pyrus Aria) , guelder-rose (Viburnum Lantana), dogwood (Cornus sanguinea), the abundance of various orchids and of some grasses such as the oat-grasses (Ave na pubesc ens and A. pratensis), as well as Bromus erectus, or the more sombre woods of yew (Taxus) and locally of box (Buxus), all tend to give a character to this formation very distinct from anything to be seen elsewhere in the county. Brewer (Flora of Surrey, 1863) gives sixty species as peculiar to the chalk and gault (including the Upper Greensand), some of which are now known elsewhere. Among interesting plants not mentioned above are the two milkworts (Polygala calcarea and P. amara), the horseshoe vetch (Hippo- crepis comosa), everlasting pea (Lathyrus sy/vesfris), Lathyrus birsutus, squinancywort (Asperula cynanchica) and bastard toadflax (Thesium humi- fusuni) ; among still-surviving orchids, Cephalanthera enstfo/ia, Orchis ustulata, the man orchis (Aceras anthropophora) , gnat orchis (Habenaria conopsea), musk orchis (Herminium mon-orchis), the bee and fly orchids (Ophrys apifera and O. muscifera), and the Turk's-cap lily (Lilium Mar- tagori). The flora of the Bagshot Sands formation shows much similarity to that of the Lower Greensand in its general and more striking features, except in those parts where the bog myrtle (Myrica Gale] or Agrostis setacea, two species which are peculiar to this formation, are plentiful. The hills however are not nearly so high and the pine woods are less extensive. Besides the above two species, the following are confined to the Bagshot Sands : the great burnet (Sanguisorba qfficinatis), a bur-reed (Sparganium affine], the bog-rush (Scbcenus nign'cans), slender cotton-grass (Eriophorum gracile], Scirpus pauctflorus, and a sedge (Car ex dioica). I find it difficult to characterize the London Clay by any special features : in many it resembles the Wealden, and like that formation is very poor in peculiar species. Fourteen are enumerated by Brewer, but nearly all of these have either been found on other strata or are introductions like the winter aconite (Eranthis byemalis) or blue anemone (Anemone apennina). A species of hare's-ear (Bupleurum tenuissimum) is however peculiar to the London Clay ; it is somewhat spasmodic in its appearance, but it has been gathered in one or two places in recent years. With regard to the Valley gravels which overlie the London Clay in many places ; the Reading and Woolwich beds ; and the Thanet Sands, I have no special observations, but according to Brewer the first-named possesses nineteen peculiar species, most of which may now be passed over for the reasons mentioned above ; there remain however a groundsel (Senecio viscosus), goosefoot (Chenopodium glaucum), fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris) and squill (Scilla autumnalis). For the Thanet Sands none are enumerated, while for the Reading and Woolwich beds two are named ; of these there may be mentioned Silene quinquevulnera now extinct, and there must be added the sulphur clover (Trifolium ocbroleucum) .

In the lists of rare or characteristic species appended to the accounts of the separate districts but small notice has been taken of the very

37

A HISTORY OF SURREY

numerous introduced plants which have occurred in the county. Only a few which have taken a very firm hold, such as the balsam (Impatient fufoa) or Galinsoga parvifora, are mentioned. Such plants are denoted by an asterisk (*). The hybrids also are for the most part omitted. The study of hybridity among wild plants has been almost entirely neglected in this country until a comparatively recent date ; but con- siderable advances have been made, so that a very large number of hybrid forms are now known. In some genera which are more especially prone to crossing, such as the willow herbs (Epilobium) and willows (Sa/ix), the hybrids far outnumber the true species. In various others, such as the violets (Viola), docks (Rumex) and pondweeds (Potamogefon), they are more or less frequent. The few named are included either for their rarity or for the rarity with which the phenomenon of hybridity occurs in the genus to which they belong. Some hybrids, such as the thistle (Cnicus Forsteri), are probably rare simply because of the different time of year at which the parent species flower, one of them (Cn. pratensis) being usually seeding at the time that the other (Cn. palustris) is opening its first flowers. Others, such as the small willow (Sa/ix ambigua), do not occur at all in the county, although common in other parts of the kingdom. The reason is in this case, I believe, that -although the parent species are often found growing together, one of them (S. repens) flowers later than the other (S. aurita}. As we go further north this hybrid becomes more frequent, indeed in Shetland one does not ever see the two parent species growing together without the accompaniment of hybrid forms. The explanation no doubt is that as we advance towards more boreal regions the summers become more and more shortened, so that the flowering period of some species which do not bloom at the same time in the south becomes synchronized, and the opportunity of crossing occurs.

The following summary of orders, etc., is drawn up in accordance with Hooker's Student's Flora of the British Islands, but the census of species is calculated according to the London Catalogue of British Plants (ed. 9). The result shows Surrey to possess, including both native and naturalized plants, 1,081 phanerogams out of a total of 1,861 found in Britain. Of these 830 are dicotyledons and 251 monocotyledons.

BOTANY

SUMMARY OF ORDERS

	Genera	Species		Genera	Species
PHANEROGAMIA			46. Gentianeae.	5	8
DlCOTYLEDONES POLYPETAL.S			47. Boragineas .... 48. Convolvulaceae 49. Solanaceas ....	9 3 4	!9 5 5
Thalamifloree			50. Plantagineae .	2	5
i. Ranunculaceae .	12	33	51. Scrophularineae .	'3	37
2. Berberideae ....	I	I	52. Orobanchaceae	2	5
3. Nymphasaceas . 4. Papaveraceae . . , 5. Fumariaceae	2 3 2	2 7 9	53. Lentibularineas . 54. Verbenaceae . . . 55. Labiatae ....	I I '7	3 i 47
6. Cruciferae ....	22	53	INCOMPLETE
7. Resedaceas ....	I	2
/ 8. Cistineae ....	I	I	56. Illecebraceas .	i	i
g. Violaceae ....	I	9	57. Chenopodiaceas .	2	15
10. Caryophylleae . . . 1 1 . Portulaceae ....	10 2	37 2	58. Polygonaceas . 59. Thymelaeaceae	3 I	22 2
12. Polygaleae ....		4 2	60. Euphorbiaceae 61. Urticaceae ....	3 4	9 7
14. Hypericineae 1 5. Malvaceae ....		IO 3	62. Ceratophylleae 63. Loranthaceas . . .	i i	2 I
* j j6. Tiliaceae		2	64. Santalaceae	i	I
	2	4.	65. Myricaceae	i	I
1 8. Geraniaceas ....	4	^ X7	66. Cupuliferae . . .	7	8
	I	i	67. Salicineae ....	2	12
			68. Coniferas ....	3	3
Calyciflorte
2O. Celastrineae ....	I	i	MONOCOTYLEDONES
21. Rhamneas .... 22. Sapindaceae .... 23. Leguminosae	I I 16 12	2 2 54 08	Microspermeis 69. Hydrocharideae . 70. Orchideas ....	2 II	2 28
		7
25. Saxifrageae ....	3	7	Epigyneee
26. Crassulaceae .	2	5		I	2
27. Droseraceas .... 28. Lythraceas ....	I 2	2 2	72. Amaryllideae . 77. Dioscorea; ....	2 I	2 I
29. Halorageae .... 30. Onagrarieas ....	3 3	9 J3	/ o Coronariete
31. Cucurbitaceae .	I	i	74. Liliaceae ....	12	16
32. Umbelliferae	27	45	75. Junceae ....	2	16
33. Araliaceae .... 74. Cornaceae ....	I I	i i	Nudiflorae
•j i MONOPETALS			76. Typhacez .... 77. Aroideae ....	2 2	6 2
35. Caprifoliaceae . . .	4	7	78. Lemnaceae . . .	2	5
36. Rubiaceae .... 77. Valerianeae ....	3 7	14 g	Apocarpete
•.) 1 38. Dipsaceas .... 39. Compositas ....	•J 2 43	7 5 IOI	79. Alismaceae. 80. Naiadaceas. . . .	4 3	5 24
40. Campanulaceae .	5	ii	Glumaceee
41. Ericaceae .... 42. Monotropeae . . . 43. Primulaceae ....	5 i 6	6 i ii	81. Cyperaceas. 82. Gramineae ....	7 36	60 82
44. Oleaceae	2	2
45. Apocynaceae	I	2	Total genera and species .	393	1081

39

A HISTORY OF SURREY

The ten districts into which the county is divided are : (i) Black- water; (2) Bourne Brook; (3) Upper Wey ; (4) Lower Wey ; (5) Upper Mole; (6) Lower Mole; (7) Hogg's Mill; (8) Wandle ; (9) Medway — all of which drain into the river Thames ; and (10) Arun, draining into the English Channel. These are now described, and lists of their rare or characteristic species are appended.

1 . BLACKWATER

This district is bounded on the south by a line leaving the Hants border at Lower Old Park, and extending to a point on the Hog's Back a little north-east of Scale ; thence the eastern boundary runs past Ash Green station, the Fox Hills and Chobham Ridges to the bor- ders of Berkshire. The other boundaries are formed by the counties of Hants and Berks.

This is a small district, comprising as it does only a limited portion of the river basin. For the most part it consists of more or less barren and uncultivated sandy heaths, interspersed with considerable tracts of deep and dangerous peat bog. On the former the three heaths (Calluna vulgaris, Erica cinerea, and E. tetralix), with the furze (Ulex eurepaus and U. nanus) and the broom (Cytisus scoparius), form the bulk of the vegetation, together with extensive pine woods which cover much of the higher ground. A boggy wood adjoining the railway and canal near Ash Vale is remarkable for the various species of sedges which grow together there and which are not usually associated, such as Carex elongata and C. riparia ; the latter however appears rarely to flower, so that its identity was not certainly made out for several years. In the alluvial meadows by the river Blackwater between Frimley and Blackwater there occurs a small quantity of the great burnet (Sanguhorba officinalis), not known elsewhere in Surrey ; while in a deep bog near the canal at North Camp the slender cotton-grass (Eriophorum gracile) grows in abundance, its discovery here restoring the species to the county list. The generally boggy nature of the land is indicated by the occurrence of such plants as the meadow thistle in several places on the railway banks, while the alder (Alnus glutinosa) quite replaces the more familiar hawthorn in long sections of the railway hedges. As an absentee from the greater portion of the district the common primrose (Primula vulgaris) may be mentioned ; this plant, so widely distributed over the county and often so abundant, is quite unable to exist on the hot dry sand of the Bagshot series, and is only found in the neighbourhood of the chalk with the exception of one locality near North Camp, where it occurs on alluvial soil by a small stream.

The following are among the more remarkable and interesting plants found in this district : —

Ranunculus tripartitus, DC. Potamogeton nitens, Weber.

var. intermedius, Hiern. — ruiescens, Schrad.

Cerastium tetrandrum, Curtis — trichoides, Cham.

Sanguisorba officinalis, L. Scirpus pauciflorus, Lightf.

Anthriscus vulgaris, Pers. Eriophorum gracile, Koch

Pyrola minor, L. Carex elongata, L.

Wahlenbergia hederacea, Reich. — canescens, L.

Utricularia neglecta, Lehm. — fulva, Good.

— minor, L. — Oederi, Auct.

Myrica Gale, L. Agrostis setacea, Curtis Potamogeton heterophyllus, Schreb.

2. BOURNE BROOK

The Bourne Brook district is bounded on the west by district i, on the north and north- east by the county of Berks and the river Thames, and southwards by a line starting from Chobham Ridges and passing near Bisley and through Horsell to a point on the river Thames about midway between the mouths of the Bourne Brook and river Wey. The stream from which the district takes its name rises close to the village of Bagshot, uniting a little north of Horsell with another branch which rises on Bisley Common, and flowing in a north-easterly direction to its junction with the river Thames. The general character both of the soil and vegetation is very similar to that of district I, except that the bogs are more extensive. One feature may be noted which is quite unique in the county. As one crosses the wide expanse

40

BOTANY

of moorland stretching from the Basingstoke Canal near Brookwood to Bagshot, one comes suddenly on a level tract of pure white sand, glistening with water. The sand however is found to be merely on the surface, beneath which the soil consists of black peat mud. This sand-covered bog occurs about halfway between Brookwood and Bagshot, and is sufficiently firm to be crossed on foot ; its origin is at present somewhat doubtful. It has been suggested that it may be the remains of an old peat cutting, and this seems probable. The film of sand which covers it has no doubt gradually filtered out of the hills above and been carried down by rain. Peculiar and interesting as this bog is in itself, it is no less so in its relation to the plants which it supports. The black bogrush (Schaenus nigricans), confined to this district, occurs in abundance, as well as several of the rarer sedges, etc. But it is chiefly remarkable as the home of the rare horsetail (Equisetum litorale) referred to more particularly on another page. Among other plants may be named the broad-leaved water parsnip (Stum latifolium) which occurs in some plenty in several places between Chertsey and Egham, although almost extinct elsewhere in the county. A rare hybrid between the two skullcaps (Scutellaria galericulata and 5. minor) was found near Virginia Water by Mr. George Nicholson. The common bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris), a very rare species in the county, is plentiful in ditches about Chertsey and Thorpe, growing with the frog's-bit (Hydrocharis Morsus-rana;). One peculiarity of the district is that it is the only one of those which drain into the river Thames that does not comprise within its area some portion of the chalk formation. This is however compensated for in some measure by the chalk plants which occur by the Thames side, especially in the neighbourhood of Runnymede. These are included in the following list of the more noteworthy species : —

Clematis Vitalba, L. Ranunculus Drouetii, Schultz

— hirsutus, Curtis Berberis vulgaris, L. Myriophyllum verticillatum, L. Callitriche obtusangula, Le Gall. Sium latifolium, L. Valerianella Auricula, DC. Scabiosa Columbaria, L. Campanula glomerata, L. Gentiana Pneumonanthe, L. Scutellaria galericulata x minor Utricularia vulgaris, L.

— minor, L.

Plantago media, L. Myrica Gale, L. Lemna gibba, L. Potamogeton rufescens, Schrad.

— zosterifolius, Schum. Hydrocharis Morsus-ranae, L. Allium oleraceum, L. Juncus compressus, Jacq. Schaenus nigricans, L. Scirpus pauciflorus, Lightf. Carex dioica, L.

— fulva, Good. Agrostis setacea, Curtis Festuca elatior, L.

3. UPPER WEY

This large district consists of the basin of the river Wey south of the chalk range. It is bounded on the north by the ridge of the chalk hills, on the south by the borders of the Arun districts and the county of Sussex, on the east by the Arun (Oke) district and by a line passing from the latter by Leith Hill northward to the chalk, and on the west by Hampshire. Two sub-districts have been separated, representing the basins of the west and east branches of the river ; the dividing line runs nearly due north from a point between Hambledon and Hascomb to the junction of the two branches, and thence by the river Wey itself to the chalk at Guildford.

The wide heaths which occupy so large a part of the district, on the Lower Greensand formation, differ somewhat in character from those of districts i and 2 in the absence, for the most part, of deep bogs. The general character of the vegetation is very similar except for the absence of Agrostis setacea and the bog myrtle (Myrica Gale) which occur so abundantly in many parts of the latter. Two usually maritime species occur in the western sub-district, one of the stork's-bills (Er odium maritimum) found near Farnham (W. W. Reeves) ; and the sand sedge, (Carex arenaria). The former is extremely rare as an inland plant, the latter less so. Speci- mens of this stork's-bill are preserved in Kew Herbarium, but it appears doubtful whether the plant is still to be found at Farnham. A rare species of broom-rape (Orobanche Picridis) has been found in one locality (Rev. E. S. Marshall), while the discovery of the brown beak-sedge (Rhynchoipora fuica) greatly extended the eastern range of the species. It occurs on Thursley Common (Revs. E. S. Marshall and R. P. Murray), where it may be found in profusion in a series of bogs adjoining a pond called The Moat. Another species of decidedly western

41

A HISTORY OF SURREY

tendencies, viz. the navelwort (Cotyledon Umbilicus) occurs in various localities, and is particularly abundant round the village of Churt. Other interesting plants are rare species of fumitory (Fumaria pallldlflora^ Rev. E. S. Marshall), bitter cress (Cardamine impatiens), water wort (Elatine Hydropiper, L.) found in Frensham Pond and Cut-mill Pond, Senecio campestris found on the Hog's Back, Hieracium surrejanum (Rev. E. S. Marshall), the cranberry (Vaccinium Oxycoccos) now extinct, the bog orchis (Malaxis paludosa) recently rediscovered (T. Howse), and a sedge (Carex depauperata'). The original specimens of a new species of branched bur- reed (Sparganium neglectum) were gathered at Albury Ponds in the eastern sub-district. The following are some of the more remarkable plants of the district : —

Papaver hybridum, D. Wahlenbergia hederacea, Reich.

Fumaria pallidiflora, Bor. Vaccinium Oxycoccos, L.

Cardamine impatiens, L. Pyrola minor, L.

"Isatis tinctoria, L. Verbascum Lychnitis, L.

Stellaria umbrosa, Opiz. Euphrasia curta, Fries

Lepidium Smithii, Hook. Orobanche Picridis, F. Schultz

Elatine Hydropiper, L. Teucrium Botrys, L.

Hypericum quadrangulum, Fries Lithospermum officinale, L.

Geranium lucidum, L. Utricularia minor, L.

Erodium maritimum, L. Samolus Valerandi, L.

'Impatiens fulva, Nutt. Sparganium neglectum, Beeby

Trifolium glomeratum, L. Orchis ustulata, L.

Rosa sepium, Thuill Epipactis media, Fries

— obtusifolia, Desv. Malaxis paludosa, Sw. Potentilla Comarum, Nestl. *Ornithogalum umbellatum, L. Epilobium lanceolatum, Seb. et M. Cyperus fuscus, L. Cotyledon Umbilicus, L. Rhynchospora fusca, R. et S. Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L. Carex arenaria, L.

Galium tricorne, With. — strigosa, Huds.

Valerianella carinata, Lois — depauperata, Good.

— Auricula, DC. — canescens, L. Senecio campestris, DC. Leersia oryzoides, Sol. Hieracium surrejanum, Hanbury Gastndium lendigerum, Gaud. Campanula patula, L. Glyceria declinata, Breb.

4. LOWER WHY

This district comprises the basin of the river Wey north of the ridge of the chalk hills which forms its southern limit. It is bounded on the north by the river Thames ; on the east by a line leaving the chalk above Gomshall and passing between East and West Horsley, and east of Ockham and Weybridge to a point on the Thames a little east of Walton Bridge ; and on the west and north-west by districts i and 2. After leaving the chalk a belt of the London Clay is met with, and following this a considerable area of the Bagshot Sands with heaths and boglands, similar to those of district 2, but from which some of the more noteworthy species found in the latter district are absent.

The most remarkable plants of the district are the two following : a pondweed (Potamo- geton pralongus) found in the pool above Walton Bridge and in the slow ditch which runs from it, and a bur-reed (Sparganium affine) which occurs in a large pond on Pirbright Common. Both of these have usually a more boreal range in this country. The pondweed never flowers in Surrey, and I am informed that it does not fruit in our eastern counties, though it does so freely in the north of England and in Scotland. This as well as another pondweed (P. zosteri- folius) which occurs also in district 2, occurs only close to the southern margin of the river Thames, having doubtless been brought down from some of that river's northern tributaries and left in times of flood. A species of treacle mustard (Erysimum cheirantboides) although not uncommon, may be mentioned for the great profusion in which it occurs in the sandy region around Woking. A water-parsnip (Apium inundatuni) has been known from Pirbright since 1666 (Merrett), and still grows there in abundance. On Clandon Downs grows the frog orchis (Habenaria viridis, T. Howse), one of the rarest orchids in the county, while another, the marsh helleborine, occurs in abundance in boggy ground by the canal near Woking (Rev. W. R. Linton). The slender cotton-grass (Eriophorum gracile) which formerly grew by Whitemoor Pond has long been extinct there and is confined to the more recently noted locality in district i.

42

BOTANY

The following plants may be mentioned : —

Ranunculus tripartitus, DC. var. intermcdius, Hiern. Erysimum cheiranthoides, L. Rosa sepium, Thuill.

— spinosissima, L. Alchemilla vulgaris, L. Myriophyllum verticillatum, L. Callitriche obtusangula, Le Gall. Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L. Cnicus Forsteri, Smith

Crepis biennis, L. Gentiana Pneumonanthe, L. Euphrasia stricta, Host.

— curta, Fries Galeopsis speciosa, Miller Utricularia neglecta, Lehm.

— minor, L. Myrica Gale, L. Sparganium affine, Schnizl. Wolffia arrhiza, Wimm. Potamogeton fluitans, Roth, (forma)

Potamogeton heterophyllus, Schreb.

— nitens, Weber

— praelongus, Wulfen.

— rufescens, Schrad.

— zosterifolius, Schum.

— acutifolius, Link. Habenaria viridis, Br. Epipactis palustris, Sw. Juncus diftusus, Hoppe

— compressus, Jacq. Eriophorum gracile, Koch (extinct) Carex dioica, L.

— elongata, L.

— canescens, L.

— fulva, Good.

— Oederi, Auct. Leersia oryzoides, Swartz. Alopecurus fulvus, Smith Agrostis setacea, Curt. Calamagrostis Epigejos, Roth. Deschampsia discolor, Roem. et S.

5. UPPER MOLE

This district is bounded on the north by the ridge of the chalk hills, on the south by the Sussex border, on the east by a line running north from near Copthorne past Home and Bletchingley to the chalk near White Hill, and on the west by the Upper Wey and Arun districts.

Except at the western end there is now a very considerable widening of the Wealden formation, and a corresponding narrowing of the Lower Greensand. Hence the sandy heaths give place to meadow and arable lands, the common heath plants are no longer a striking feature, and the pine woods in great measure disappear in favour of green copses, consisting mainly of deciduous trees and shrubs. Among the plants may be mentioned a rare form of bitter cress (Cardamine Hayneana) which occurs near Red Hill and near Horley ; the common lady's mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris) ; a milk vetch (Astragalus glycyphyllos) which with the everlasting pea (Lathyrus sylvestris) is abundant on the hills east of Merstham ; a starwort (Callitriche vernalis) not certainly known to occur elsewhere in the county ; the ivy- leaved campanula (Wahlenbergia hederacea) formerly found on Reigate Heath, and recently re- discovered in the neighbourhood (C. E. and E. S. Salmon). The wild tulip (Tulipa sylvestris) is, I believe, really wild in a meadow by the river Mole near Buckland, where it seldom flowers ; the wood barley (Hordeum sylvaticum), rare in the county, is abundant in several copses in the chalk above Dorking. On this formation the ragged robin (Lychnis Floscuculi), a plant usually found in wet lowland spots, occurs on the top of Box Hill, and also on a high bare chalk hill in Gatton Park. The following is a list of the more interesting species : —

Ranunculus tripartitus DC. var. intermedius, Hiern. *Meconopsis cambrica, Vig.

Fumaria confusa, Jord.

Cardamine Hayneana, Welw. 'Barbarea intermedia, Bor.

Iberis amara, L.

Dianthus Armeria, L.

Astragalus glycyphyllos, L.

Lathyrus sylvestris, L.

Alchemilla vulgaris, L.

Pyrus germanica, L.

Callitriche vernalis, Kuetz.

Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L.

Galium erectum, Huds.

— sylvestre, Poll.

Valerianella carinata, Lois

Gnaphalium uliginosum, L.

var. pilulare, Wahl. Campanula latifolia, L. Wahlenbergia hederacea, Reich. Erythraea pulchella, Fries Euphrasia Kerneri, Wettst. Buxus sempervircns, L. Epipactis palustris, Sw. Tulipa sylvestris, L. Carex teretiuscula, Good, (extinct) — Boenninghausiana, Weihe Leersia oryzoides, Sol. Alopecurus fulvus, Smith Gastridium lendigerum, Gaud. Festuca elatior, L. Hordeum sylvaticum, Huds.

43

A HISTORY OF SURREY

6. LOWER MOLE

The boundaries of this district are on the north the river Thames, on the south the chalk ridge, on the east a line starting on Walton-on-Hill Heath and passing near Headley, Epsom and Kingston to the Thames side a little north of the latter town, and on the west the Lower Wey district.

The chalk mass now widens out, and the same is the case with the London Clay formation, while the Bagshot Sands are now more limited in extent and are not found east of this district.

Of the more interesting plants the box (Buxus sempervirens) deserves the first place, occurring as it does in great quantity at the well known locality of Box Hill, with all appearance at the present day of being indigenous. Nevertheless some of our best authorities have doubted whether it be really so. Many years ago the late Professor Babington pointed out a passage in Asser's Life of King Alfred, in which it is stated that in that day, a thousand years ago, Buxus grew most abundantly in the adjacent county of Berkshire ; and if one could accept Asser's Buxus as certainly representing our box tree, the question of its nativity in this country might be regarded as settled. On the dry slope of the hill facing the river Mole, the water figworth (Scrophularia aquatica), a plant rarely seen in such places, grows abundantly. It also occurs on the railway embankment at Thames Ditton, where it has no doubt been introduced ; but elsewhere it is only found in more or less moist localities. Another plant of the Box Hill region is the Turk's cap lily (Lilium Martagon), probably introduced but thoroughly established. Seedling plants have been found on the side of the valley opposite to its main habitat, indicating that the seeds may sometimes be distributed by birds (Dr. A. R. Wallace). It is also reported from another locality in the neighbourhood.

The principal species are : —

Adonis autumnalis, L. Calamintha Nepeta, Clairv.

Ranunculus Drouetii, Schultz Teucrium Botrys, L.

Fumaria densiflora, DC. Cynoglossum montanum, Lam.

Iberis amara, L. Chenopodium glaucum, L.

Cerastium tetrandrum, Curt. Buxus sempervirens, L.

Hypericum quadrangulum, Fries Wolffia arrhiza, Wimm.

Rosa systyla, Bast. Damasonium stellatum, Pers.

Linum angustifolium, Huds. Orchis militaris, L.

Trifolium glomeratum, L. — fusca, L.

Ribes Smithianum (Syme) Epipactis purpurata, Smith

CEnanthe Lachenalii, Gmel. Cephalanthera ensifolia, Rich.

Valerianella Auricula, DC. Lilium Martagon, L.

— carinata, Lois. Scilla autumnalis, L.

*Silybum Marianum, Gaert. Juncus compressus, Jacq.

Filago spathulata, Presl. Leersia oryzoides, Sol.

Erythrsea pulchella, Fries Alopecurus fulvus, Smith

Gentiana Pneumonanthe, L. Gastridium lendigerum, Gaud.

Verbascum Lychnitis, L. Poa compressa, L. Linaria repens, Mill.

7. HOGG'S MILL RIVER

This district includes the basin of the Beverly Brook as well as that of the small stream from which it takes its name. It is bounded on the north by the river Thames, on the east by a line passing through Banstead, Sutton, Morden and Wimbledon to the Thames side near Wandsworth, and on the south and west by the Lower Mole district.

The geological features are similar to those of the last district except that the Bagshot series is wanting and that there is a larger proportion of the London Clay formation.

The tidal waters of the Thames have now been reached, and a few usually maritime species are still to be found by the river side near Putney. The sea clubrush (Scirpus maritimus) occurs in plenty, and near it two other much rarer species, Scirpus triqueter and Sc. carinatus. Whether both of these are still to be found there is doubtful, as some years ago there appeared to be but a single small mass of Sc. triqueter left. A sedge (Car ex teretiuscula) formerly grew on Wimbledon Common, and as it appears to be lost in its other locality in the Upper Mole district it cannot be claimed as an inhabitant of the county at the present day. A rare species of bitter cress (Cardamine Hayneana) was first recorded as a

44

BOTANY

British plant from this district (G. Nicholson), but is now extinct in its original station. Some interesting roses occur, such as the burnet rose (Rosa spinosissima) which is found on several of the suburban commons, as well as Rosa involuta and R. hibernica, all rare in the county ; the two latter however are now regarded as hybrids rather than distinct species. The hairy violet (Viola hirta), elsewhere confined to the chalk and gault, occurs in two localities on the London Clay : on Ham Common (G. Nicholson), and between Lower Maiden and Epsom Common.

The principal plants of the district are : —

Ranunculus trichophyllus, Chaix Papaver hybridum, L. Dianthus deltoides, L. Cerastium pumilum, Curt. Rosa spinosissima, L.

— involuta, Sm.

— hibernica, Sm.

— obtusifolia, Desv. Myriophyllum verticillatum, L.

"Centranthus ruber, DC.

Valerianella Auricula, DC.

Filago spathulata, Presl.

Antennaria dioica, Br. (extinct ?) *Galinsoga parviflora, Cav. *Inula Helenium, L.

Crepis biennis, L.

Campanula latifolia, L.

Gentiana praecox, Raf. Limnanthemum peltatum, Gmelin Euphrasia Kerneri, Wettst. Atriplex marina, L. Rumex maritimus, L.

— elongatus, Guss.

— sylvestris, Wallr. Wolffia arrhiza, Wimm. Scilla autumnalis, L. Luzula maxima, DC. Juncus diffusus, Hoppe Scirpus carinatus, Smith

— triqueter, L.

— maritimus, L. Alopecurus fulvus, Sm. Festuca elatior, L.

Bromus madritensis, L. (extinct?)

8. WANDLE

The Wandle district includes also parts of the basins of other small streams, but owing to the alterations in levels in the neighbourhood of London it has not been thought advisable to attempt to make any subdivisions. The district is bounded on the north by the river Thames, on the south by the chalk ridge, on the east by the county of Kent, and on the west by the Hogg's Mill district.

About one half of the district is on the chalk formation, the remaining half being on the London Clay. In proportion to its area, it possesses considerably less running water than any other district, the river Wandle being practically its only stream.

The blue wood anemone (A. apennina) was formerly abundant as an introduced plant in Wimbledon Park, but it is now reported extinct. A rare crowfoot (Ranunculus heterophyllus var. triphyllus) grows on Mitcham Common (H. and J. Groves), as well as the two less rare plants R. Drouetii and R. trichophyllus. The London rocket (Sisymbrium Irio) formerly occurred, but is no longer to be found. A very uncommon species of milkwort (Polygala amara) was found some years since in the Caterham Valley (W. Whitwell). This particular form of the species, called Polygala austriaca, is confined to Surrey and Kent. The hairy vetchling (Lathyrus hirsutus), another very rare plant, is found on the hills in the same valley. A yellow clover (Trifolium ochroleucum) was recorded from Duppas Hill so long ago as 1798 ; but, as far as I am aware, it had not been seen there during the nineteenth century previously to 1882, in which year Mr. Arthur Bennett informs me that Miss Bennett brought him a specimen from the hill, thus confirming its occurrence in Surrey. The cowbane (Cicuta virosa) formerly grew by the Thames side at Battersea. Gerarde also records the plant (1633) from ' Moor Parke,' and it has been suggested that Moor Park near Farnham was intended ; but the plant does not appear to grow there, and I think it more probable that Moor Park, Chelsea, is the locality meant, and that it occurred on both sides of the Thames. The plant is scarcely likely to be refound in the county, unless in the neighbourhood of the Thames between Chertsey and Runnymede. The sea aster (A. Tripolium) formerly grew by the Thames near Battersea (J. Britten), but is no longer a plant of the county. Among other extinctions are the brookweed (Samo/us Valerandi), a goose foot {Atriplex marina), and the two rare club rushes, Scirpus triqueter and Sc. carinatus.

45

A HISTORY OF SURREY

The principal plants of the district are :

Ranunculus heterophyllus var. triphyllus (Hiern.)

— Drouetii, Schultz

— trichophyllus, Chaix Papaver hybridum, L. Fumaria Boraei, Jord. (extinct f)

— densiflora, DC. Diplotaxis tenuifolia, DC. Sisymbrium Irio, L. (extinct) Lepidium Smithii, Hook. Iberis amara, L.

Polygala amara, L. Dianthus Armeria, L.

— deltoides, L.

Silene quinquevulnera, L.

— noctiflora, L. Trifolium ochroleucum, L.

— glomeratum, L. Lathyrus hirsutus, L.

— palustris, L. (extinct) Rosa spinossima, L.

— sepium, Thuill.

Epilobium lanceolatum, Seb. et M.

Myriophyllum verticillatum, L. Callitriche obtusangula, Le Gall. Cicuta virosa, L. (extinct) CEnanthe Lachenalii, Gmel. Carduus pycnocephalus, Jacq. Filago spathulata, Presl. Campanula latifolia, L. Gentiana praecox, Raf. Verbascum Lychnitis, L. Euphrasia Kerneri, Wettst. Lathraa squamaria, L. Teucrium Botrys, L. Samolus Valerandi, L. (extinct) Chenopodium ficifolium, L. Atriplex marina, L. (extinct) Rumex palustris, 8m. Allium oleraceum, L. Juncus obtusiflorus, Ehrh. Luzula maxima, DC. Scirpus carinatus, Sm. (extinct)

— triqueter, L. (extinct)

— maritimus, L.

Calamagrostis lanceolata, Roth, (extinct)

9. MEDWAY

This concludes the districts comprised within the Thames drainage system. It is bounded on the north by the chalk ridge, on the south by the county of Sussex, on the east by that of Kent, and on the west by the Upper Mole district. The greater part of its area is occupied by the Wealden formation, the Lower Greensand belt being much restricted, as in the case of the adjacent district. At the extreme south-eastern corner there occurs a small tract of Hastings Sands, on which are found several interesting species.

The general botanical features are very similar to those seen in the Upper Mole basin. A pale flowered buttercup (Ranunculus hirsutus), a very scarce plant in Surrey, occurs abun- dantly in several places near Lingfield, and a flax (Linum angustifolium) near the same place. In a swamp to the west of Hedge Pool is one of the few localities for Cnicus Forsteri. The wood forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica), found in many other parts of the county, grows here truly wild and in great profusion. Recorded many years for the county without any specific locality, it was first found about the top of Titsey Hill by Mr. Arthur Bennett. It has since been observed to occur in almost every wood and copse over an area of several square miles, extending from Oxted chalk pit up to and beyond the Kent boundary. Southwards its limit appears to be practically the edge of the Lower Greensand. The daffodil (Narcissus pseudo- narcissus) is exceptionally abundant in the neighbourhood of Hedge Court. The Hastings Sands supplies three species not met with elsewhere in the county. These are a violet (f^iola lactea) found about Copthorne and Hedge Court ; a pondweed (Potamogeton Zizii) abundant in Hedge Pool ; and a sedge (Carex turfasa) which grows in a swamp at the north-west corner of the same piece of water.

The principal plants are : —

Ranunculus hirsutus, Curt. Viola lactea, Smith Hypericum quadrangulum, Fries Rosa obtusifolia, Desv. Callitriche obtusangula, Le Gall. Chrysosplenium alternifolium, L. Cnicus Forsteri, Smith Crepis biennis, L. Wahlenbergia hederacea, Reich. Pyrola minor, L. Myosotis sylvatica, L.

Utricularia neglecta, Lehm. Potamogeton Zizii, Roth. Narcissus pseudo-narcissus, L. Luzula maxima, DC. Juncus lamprocarpus x acutiflorus Carex canescens, L.

— turfosa, Fries

— strigosa, Huds. Alopecurus fulvus, Smith Festuca ovina, L.

var. tenuifolia, Sibth.

BOTANY

10. ARUN

This district, unlike all those previously described, drains into the English Channel. It consists of two sub-districts, the river Oke or eastern and the North river or western sub- district, the two streams afterwards uniting and forming the river Arun. The two sub- districts are completely separated by a portion of the Upper Wey basin which intervenes.

Both of the sub-districts lie almost wholly on the Wealden Clay, only touching the Lower Greensand along their northern boundaries.

The eastern is bounded on the north by Leith and Holmbury hills, on the south by the county of Sussex, on the east by a line leaving the latter county near Cowick and passing east of Ockley to Coldharbour, and on the west by an almost direct line from Holmbury Hill to the county border. The western is bounded on the north by a line running from near Boundless Farm by Witley and Hambledon to a point south of Hascomb, on the south by the county of Sussex, on the east by a line running south-east to a point near Alford, and on the west by a line running almost south past Haslemere to the county border.

The Oke sub-district is chiefly remarkable as affording the only locality for the coral root (Dentaria bulblfera\ found some years since by Mr. E. Straker ; the old record of the occurrence of the plant near Croydon arising through a misconception of the meaning of the prs-Linnean name Dentaria as indicating the present plant instead of the toothwort, an error pointed out by Mr. S. W. Carruthers. In Vann woods the yellow wort (Chlora perfoliata\ very rare away from the chalk, grows in abundance in one place. The less common form of the hawthorn (Crattsgus oxyacanthoides) is frequent, and its long sweeping branches give quite a character to the woods. One of the taller sedges (Carex pendula) is exceptionally plentiful. The water speedwell (Veronica Anagallis) is absent so far as I have observed, though common enough in wet places in most of the other districts.

The few more noteworthy plants are : —

Dentaria bulbifera, L. Chlora perfoliata, L.

Hypericum quadrangulum, Fries Euphrasia stricta, Host.

Cratasgus oxyacanthoides, THuill. Carex strigosa, Huds.

Arctium nemorosum, Lej. — pendula, Huds.

The North River sub-district is chiefly noted for the plants which occur in or about the Wey and Arun canal. Here the agrimony (Agrimonia odorata) grows in great profusion ; the canal also supplies the only stations in the county for two rare pondweeds (Potamogeton tiuitans and P. decipiens). The water speedwell appears to be wanting here also, and neither the dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) nor the elder (Sambucus nigra) have been observed except where the latter has been planted. One of the sowthistles (Sonchus oleraceui) is extremely rare, its place being quite taken by the other species (S. asper). In considering these absent species it is, of course, necessary to remember that the two Arun sub-districts include a very small portion of the river basin of which they form part.

The principal species are : —

Barbarea stricta, Andrz. Pyrola minor, L.

Hypericum quadrangulum, Fries Euphrasia stricta, Host

Cerastium tetrandrum, Curt. Potamogeton fluitans, Roth.

Rosa systyla, Bast. — decipiens, Nolle

Agrimonia odorata, Mill. Epipactis media, Fries

Epilobium lanceolatum, Seb. et M. Leersia oryzoides, Sol. Wahlenbergia hederacea, Reich.

THE BRAMBLES (Ruin)

Surrey is especially rich in brambles ; so far as has been yet ascer- tained amongst the richest counties in Great Britain. Two only, Hereford and Devon, are known to surpass it in the number of their species and subordinate forms (sub-species and varieties) ; and in both of those the search for brambles has probably been much more nearly exhaustive than in Surrey. All three counties are pre-eminent both for

47

A HISTORY OF SURREY

the extent of their bramble ground and for the number of forms first discovered as British within their borders ; but as especially favourable places for the study of the genus the best localities in Britain are perhaps to be found in Surrey — in the extensive commons and heaths to the south-west of London near the Kent border, and to the south-west of Guildford towards the Hants and Sussex borders.

Fifty-three species and twenty-seven additional sub-species or varieties have already been found in the county ; and, out of these, three species and two subordinate forms had not been known as British until they were observed in Surrey. These are Rubus bolerythros, Focke ; R. Marshall!, Focke & Rogers ; and R. viridis, Kalt. ; with the sub-species or varieties rbombifolius, Weihe, and britannicus, Rogers. Of these R. Mar- shalli and JR. britanntcus were new to science and are still numbered among our endemic brambles, though both have since been found abundantly in several British counties. R. bolerytbros, R. rbombifolius and R. -viridis have also proved to be somewhat widely distributed, though chiefly or wholly in the south of England.

Among other Surrey brambles perhaps the most interesting, for their rarity elsewhere or for their special beauty, are R. Bakeri, F. A. Lees ; R. Colemanni, Blox. ; R. leucantbemus, P. J. Muell.(?); R. dnerosus, Rogers ; R. ericetorum, Lefv. ; R. mutabilis, Genev. ; R. bostilis, Muell. & Wirtg. ; and R. cognafus, N. E. Brown. Until recently these were either unknown in Britain or most imperfectly understood ; and for the most part they have become fairly familiar to us chiefly through Surrey specimens. Four of them, Bakeri, Co/emanni, dnerosus and cognatus seem to be endemic.

Of many good Surrey localities some of the best are the commons at Wimbledon, Barnes, Tooting and Wandsworth, and Putney Heath near London, and further west the commons and heathy land at Oxshott and round Godalming and Haslemere. In all or nearly all of these the most conspicuous brambles, in addition to some of those mentioned above, are R. plicatus, Wh. & N. ; R. carpinifolius, Wh. & N. ; R. Lind/eianus, Lees ; R. rbamnifolius, Wh. & N. ; R. pulcherrimus, Neum. ; R. argenfatus, P. J. Muell. ; JR. subinermis, Rogers ; R. leucostachys, Schl. ; R. Babingtonii, Bell Salt. ; R. adornatus, P. J. Muell. ; and R. cory/ifotius, Sm. Hence it will be seen that the group best represented in the county is that of the Rbamnifolii. The abundance of R. carpinifolius and (in a less degree) JR. pulcherrimus is especially remarkable, and the comparative rarity of R. rusticanusy R. c&sius, and most of the glandular species.

As instances of single localities, Wimbledon Common alone produces 24 species and 3 sub-species, and Putney Heath 16 species and 6 sub- species or varieties ; while the six chief commons to the south-west of London have between them about 50 different brambles in all, and the commons and heathy places between Guildford and the Sussex border seem at least as richly supplied.

Perhaps the most marked feature in the Haslemere district is the extraordinary abundance of R. Marshall! and R. rosaceus, Wh. & N. Between Haslemere and Godalming R. fasus, Lindl.; R. nitidus, Wh. &

48

BOTANY

N.; R. affints, Wh. & N.; with forms of R. imbricatus, Hort; R. eryf&rinus, Genev. ; and R. incurvatus, Bab., are fairly frequent and locally abundant.

CRYPTOGAMEjE VASCULARES LYCOPODIACEJE

Three species of this order are found in the county. Of these the peat-loving clubmoss (L. inundatum) is the commonest. It has been found in all of the districts except Medway, and is particularly abundant on the heaths and moors of the western part of Surrey. The common clubmoss (L. clavatum) occurs in about six of the districts, and is de- cidedly uncommon, while the fir clubmoss (L. Selago) is rare. It has been found in about half of the districts, but it occurs very sparingly where I have seen it. The following is a list of the species : —

Lycopodium clavatum, L. L. inundatum, L. L. Selago, L.

EQUISETACE^E

Eleven species of horsetail are found in Great Britain, and of these Surrey possesses seven, of which one is of special interest. Of the others Eq. arvense and Eq. limosum are very common, Eq. maximum and Eqs palustre considerably less so. The wood horsetail (Eq. sylvaticum) occurt in about half of the districts but is not common ; it may be seen in grea- beauty and profusion on the railway banks between Witley and Hasle, mere, and in some of the adjoining woods. The Dutch rush is very rare, having been found in only two districts. The remaining species, Eq. titora/e, has been briefly referred to before. It grows in plenty on the curious sand-covered bog on Bisley Common, and in one or two peaty places close at hand. This plant, by many regarded as a hybrid (Eg. arvense and limosum) , is not known to occur elsewhere in Britain. It is sparsely scattered over a considerable part of Europe and is also found in North America. The following is a list of the species : —

Equisetum maximum, Lam. Equisetum litorale, Kuhl.

— arvense, L. — limosum, L.

— sylvaticum, L. — hyemale, L.

— palustre, L.

MARSILEACE^

The pillwort (Pilularia globulifera), the only species of this order found in Britain, is a curious little creeping herb with erect, rush-like leaves 3-4 inches long, at the base of which are found the round capsules from which the plant derives its name. It is not very uncommon about margins of ponds, but is easily overlooked. It grows in a number of localities extending over five or six of the districts.

i 49 B

A HISTORY OF SURREY

FILICES

Owing to the absence of any important outcrop of rock, the ferns of Surrey are naturally restricted to such species as love either woodland shade or the open heath. A very limited extent of bare rock may be seen by that part of the Eden stream which flows from Hedge Pool to Woodcock Pool, in the extreme south-eastern corner of the county, and it may be noted that the formation here is the Hastings Sands, the same as at Tunbridge jn Kent. Towards the extreme south-western corner also, between Grayswood and Killinghurst, the streams have somewhat rocky banks, but so far these have not proved productive.

The most common of all, the bracken (Pteris aquilina) occurs abun- dantly in all the districts, and to it our woods and heaths owe much of their autumnal beauty. The other commoner species are the lady fern (Atbyrium Fi/ix-famina) , male fern (Nephrodium Filix-mas) , polypody (Poly- podium vu/gare),znd hard fern (Loma ria Sp icant) , while on the open heaths and moorland Nephrodium spinulosum is most general. Excepting the bracken, all of these have all but disappeared from the neighbourhood of London, and little is to be seen of the less common species within twenty miles of the metropolis. Among the latter may be mentioned the prickly shield ferns (Aspidium aculeatum and A. angu/are), marsh fern (Nephrodium Tbelypteris), abundant on several parts of Bisley Common but rare elsewhere, the spleenwort (Asplenium Tricbomanes), still plentiful on some parts of the Lower Greensand, wall rue (A. Ruta-muraria) and scale fern (A. Ceterach). The adder's tongue (Ophioglossum vu/gatum) is not rare, but the moonwort (Botrychium Lunaria), although not a species greatly sought by the fern-hunter, seems to be diminishing in frequency. When residing at Godalming Dr. A. R. Wallace informed me that the beech fern (Polypodium Phegopteris) formerly grew within the Surrey bor- der near Haslemere. No station is known for it at the present day although it occurs a short distance beyond the county boundary in Sussex. It remains only to notice the royal fern (Osmunda rega/is), once so plentiful in some parts of the county. It has occurred in at least nine of the ten districts, but is now on the verge of extinction. Some plants were met with by the Rev. E. S. Marshall in 1883 in the region of Hind Head, but a few years later they had gone. But from information gleaned in a still more remote part of the county, I believe I may safely say that the giant fern, as it is there called, is not quite extinct in Surrey. The following is a list of the species : —

Pteris, L. Scolopendrium, Sm.

— aquilina, L. — vulgare, Sm. Lomaria, Willd. Aspidium, Sw.

— Spicant, Desv. — aculeatum, Sw. Asplenium, L. — angulare, Willd.

— Ruta-muraria, L. Nephrodium, Rich.

— Trichomanes, L. — Filix-mas, Rich.

— Adiantum-nigrum, L. — spinulosum, Desv.

— Filix-foemina, Bernh. — dilatatum, Desv.

— Ceterach, L. _ Thelypteris, Desv.

50

BOTANY

Nephrodium Oreopteris, Desv. Osmunda regalis, L.

Polypodium, L. Ophioglossum, L.

— vulgare, L. — vulgatum, L.

— Phegopteris, L. (extinct) Botrychium, Sw. Osmunda, L. — Lunaria, Sw.

SUMMARY OF VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS

Genera Speciei

Filices 10 20

Equisetaceae I 7

Lycopodiacez I 3

Marsileaceae i i

Total genera and species. . 13 31

The total genera and species of vascular cryptogams for the whole of Britain is 25 and 70 respectively.

MOSSES (Musct)

Surrey possesses a moss flora closely resembling that of Kent and Sussex but is less favoured than either as regards conditions suitable for the growth of these plants. The climate is drier, the land better drained and the rocks softer and less durable. Geologically the three counties are identical, the same formations occurring in all and in about the same proportion, the chief distinction lying in the limited outcrop of Hastings Sand. In Sussex this bed covers a large area and composes the High Rocks at Tunbridge Wells, furnishing many species of considerable interest. In Surrey however it only occurs in the extreme south-east.

The county is intersected midway by the chalk which extends from the west as an increasingly broad belt towards the east and north-east. The highest land is formed by the ridge of Lower Greensand which lies to the south of the downs as a series of hills covered with heather and well wooded with pines and larches. In the west on the Bagshot sand are extensive undulating commons rising into low hills capped with clumps of pines, and with bogs and marshy ground of considerable extent, and in the south-west also are several large commons with numerous ponds and alder swamps.

The bryology of the county has received considerable attention from many workers of ability, but some districts still require careful investiga- tion as is shown by the recent addition to our list of several striking species. There are however few lists in existence and none of much importance with the exception of an excellent paper on the ' Mosses of Kew,' by Mr. E. S. Salmon. Among others who have contributed to our knowledge of the mosses of the county is Dr. Capron, who devoted many years of his residence at Shiere to the collection of species growing in his neighbourhood. His collection and records however are unfortu- nately not accessible. Dickson also collected, and Black, the latter working chiefly in the Dorking district, many of his specimens being in the British Museum Herbarium. More recently, Mr. E. S. Salmon, who has devoted considerable time to the mosses of the Reigate district,

A HISTORY OF SURREY

and Mr. Ferguson Shepherd of Staines have been instrumental in adding largely to the county records. The present writer has also worked for many years at the distribution of species through the eight watershed

districts.

The species recorded include several mosses of great interest, chief among them being Buxbaumia aphylla, which formally grew upon mud banks at Virginia Water on the border of the county, the almost equally rare Pbyscomitrium sphcericum, which is abundant on the muddy margin of a pond near Felbridge, and Weisia rostellata, from the mud of a drained pond at Dormansland. Campylopus subulatus is another rare species of recent discovery, of which a single tuft was gathered by the writer in 1899 at Addington on dry stony ground.

Several commoner species are of interest from their occurrence under unusual conditions. Pleurochcete squarrosa, which is most frequently found by the sea, is well established on the steep northern slopes of Box Hill, and Brachythecium megapolitanum, another maritime plant, grows close by ; two other mosses which frequent sub-alpine regions, Bartramia ithyphylla and Rbacomitrium canescens, occur, the former on a soft sandy bank near Dorking and the latter on moory commons and by the side of stony roads.

Hypnum imponens and H. giganteum are rare species which appear to be becoming better known as new records are multiplying. The former has no doubt been confounded with H. cupressiforme var. ericetorum, which it much resembles ; it grows on most of the larger commons, often in profusion.

The Sphagna are well represented. S. medium recently made known to us as a British species is abundant on Pirbright Common ; 5. molle from the same locality is perhaps our rarest bog moss, although S.fimbriatum has so far been recorded from only one locality. S. Girgensohnii has not yet been reported, but it is not unlikely to occur in one of the more elevated bogs.

Instead of a single list enumerating all the species found in the county, the most interesting or characteristic mosses recorded in each watershed division are given, with, in the case of rarities, a reference to the localities.

1 . BLACKWATER. The smallest division, forming the extreme north- west of the county. The greater part is composed of Bagshot Sand with a small area of chalk at the base. The hills forming the eastern boundary are covered with heather and pine woods, and with a few bogs at the base.

Aulacomnion androgynum, Schwgr. ; Bartramia pomiformis, Hedw. ; Philonotis fontana, Brid. ; Brachythecium albicans, B. & S. ; Hypnum cordifolium, Hedw.

2. UPPER WEY. The southern slopes of the chalk downs form the north border of this district, and a broken ridge of high hills of Lower Greensand forming the highest land in the county lies about halfway between them and the Sussex border. To the south of this ridge extends the Weald Clay characterized by oak woods and plantations. In the west are large commons with numerous ponds, bogs and alder swamps.

52

BOTANY

Sphagnum cymbifolium, Ehrh.

— papillosum, Ldb.

— rigidum, Schp. et vars. compactum, Schp.

squarrosum, Russ. and subsquarrosum, W.

— tenellum, Ehrh. ; S. subsecundum, Nees.

et var. contortum, Schp.

— laricinum, Spr. Leith Hill

— squarrosum, Pers. ; S. acutifolium, Ehrh.

S. intermedium, HofF. et vars. mucro- natum, W. et amblyphyllum, W. ; S. cuspidatum, Ehrh. et var. falcata, Russ.

Tetraphis pellucida, Hedw. Not uncommon and often fruiting

Polytrichum formosum, Hedw.

Ditrichum flexicaule, Hpe. Downs, frequent

Brachyodus trichodes, Ftirnr. Blocks of sand- stone in shady places, Leith Hill; Ewhurst

Dicranella rufescens, Schp. ; D. cerviculata, Schp.

Fissidens crassipes, Wils. Leith Hill

Grimmia apocarpa, Hedw. ; Rhacomitrium canescens, Brid. Not common but plenti- ful in a few localities

Acaulon muticum, C. M. Frequent

Pottia caespitosa, C. M. Friable chalky ground, occurring sparingly along the downs

Tortula ambigua, Angstr. Downs. T. cunei- folia, Roth. ; T. marginata, Spr. ; T. an- gustata, Wils.

Barbula rubella, Mitt. ; B. cylindrica, Schp. ; B. Hornschuchiana, Schultz

Weisia crispa, Mitt. Abundant on the downs. W. tortilis, C. M. Downs

Encalypta Streptocarpa, Hedw.

Ulota Bruchii, Hornsch. ; Orthotrichum Lyellii, H. & T. Fruiting freely

Schistostega osmundacea, Mohr.

Splachnum ampullaceum, L.

Ephemerum serratum, var. /3 angustifolium, B. & S. Clay banks and amongst grass in meadows

Aulacomnion palustre, Schwgr. c. fr.

Philonotis fontana, Brid. Frequent through- out the county but in poor condition

Neckera crispa, Hedw. ; N. pumila, Hedw. ; Homalia trichomanoides, Brid. c. fr.

Leucodon sciuroides, Schwgr. ; Porotrichum alopecurum, Mitt. ; Thuidium hystrico- sum, Mitt. Abundant along the downs

Thuidium recognitum, Ldb. Broadmoor Bot- tom amongst Sphagna ; it is much more commonly met with in drier situations, and occurs plentifully on the downs, always however barren

Cylindrothecium concinnum, Schp. Bare places on the downs

Brachythecium albicans, B. & S. ; B. rivulare, B. & S. ; B. caespitosum, Dixon. Sand- stone walls, and trees by water

Eurhynchium abbreviatum, Schp. Dry banks, Ewhurst ; Shiere

Plagiothecium Borrerianum, Schp. IVotton. P. denticulatum, var. /9 aptychus, L. Cat. ed. 2. ; P. undulatum, B. & S. c. fr.

Amblystegium varium, Ldb. ; A. irriguum, B. & S. Shiere

Hypnum stellatum, var. /3 protensum, B. & S. ; H. Sommerfeltii, Myr. c. fr.

— commutatum, Hedw. Rare ; Gomshall Marsh. H. scorpioides, L.

Hylocomium loreum, B. & S. Rather spar- ingly distributed throughout the district

3. LOWER WEY. With the exception of the narrow strip of land forming District I., this forms the north-western section of the county. About halfway along the south boundary the chalk widens out consider- ably and is covered by extensive beech woods. Further north and west are undulating commons and low hills of Bagshot Sand. The sandstone is soft and offers no support to rock loving species. On the commons occur the most considerable bogs in the county.

Sphagnum cymbifolium, Ehrh. ; S. medium, Ldb. ; S. papillosum, Ldb. ; S. rigidum, Schp. et vars. squarrosum, Russ. and sub- squarrosum, W. ; S. molle, var. /S Mttlleri, Braith.

— tenellum, Ehrh. ; S. subsecundum, Nees.

et var. /3 contortum, Schp. ; S. teres. S. squarrosum, Pers. ; S. acutifolium, Ehrh. et vars. rubellum, quinque- forium

— fimbriatum, Wils. Pools by the canal

Brookwood ; rare

Sphagnum intermedium, Hoff. et vars. ambly- phyllum, W. et mucronatum, W. ; S. cuspidatum, Ehrh. et vars. falcatum, Russ., and plumosum, Nees. & H.

Catharinea angustata, Brid.

Buxbaumia aphylla, L. Virginia Water

Dicranum undulatum, Ehrh.

— Bonjeani, De Not.

Leucobryum glaucum, Schp. Fruiting near Weybridge

Fissidens adiantoides, Hedw. Grimmia apo- carpa, Hedw. Rather rare

53

A HISTORY OF SURREY

Rhacomitrium canescens, Brid. Tortula Vahliana, Wils. Barbula lurida, Ldb.

Zygodon viridissimus, var. rupestris, Ldb. ; Z. Stirtoni, Schp. Dry walls, fairly com-

mon

Orthotrichum anomalum, var. saxatile, Milde. Splachnum ampullaceum, L. Not uncommon

on the moory ground by the Basingstoke

Canal Aulacomnion palustre,. Schwgr. ; A. androgy-

num, Schwgr. Bryum murale, Wils. ; B. roseum, Schreb.

Rare ; sandy bank, St. George's Hill Cryphaea heteromalla, Mohr. ; Neckera pu-

mila, Hedw. ; Leucodon sciuroides,

Schwgr. c. fr.

Porotrichum alopecurum, Mitt.

Leptodon Smithii, Mohr. Trees and dry walls ; rare, although frequent in Kent and Sussex. Horsley

Climacium dendroides, W. & M. Not a frequent inhabitant of the bogs of the county. Brtfktootd) plentiful

Camptothecium lutescens, B. & S. ; Brachy- thecium glareosum, B. & S. ; B. albicans, B. & S. ; B. illecebrum, De Not. c. fr.

Hypnum stellatum, Schreb. H. exannulatum, Gtimb. ; H. imponens, Hedw. Abun- dant on several moory commons

— scorpioides, L. ; H. stramineum, Dicks. ;

H. cordifolium, Hedw.

— giganteum, Schp. Pools and marshes,

rare : Brookwood

4. UPPER MOLE. This resembles District II. with however a far less extensive development of Lower Greensand which forms a much lower series of more isolated hills, well wooded and with a few bogs and alder swamps.

Sphagnum papillosum, Ldb. ; S. molle, var. /3

Mulleri, Braith. Tetraphis pellucida, Hedw. c. fr. ; Ditrichum

homomallum, Hpe. ; Seligeria paucifolia,

Carr. Dicranella varia, Schp. ; Dicranum Bonjeani,

var. calcareum, Br. Fissidens exilis, Hedw. Reigate. F. incurvus,

Starke. Abundant on the downs — decipiens, De Not. Frequent and often

fruiting freely Phascum Flosrkeanum, W. & M. Chalky

fields. Pottia bryoides, Mitt. ; P. lanceo-

lata, C. M. P. caespitosa, C. M. Bare

ground on the downs sparingly Tortula pusilla, Mitt. Barbula lurida, Ldb. ; B. fallax, var. /9 brevi-

folia, Schultz ; B. cylindrica, Schp. ; B.

vinealis, Brid. Leptodontium gemmascens, Braith. Betch-

worth Weisia crispa, Mitt. ; W. multicapsularis,

C. M. ; W. tenuis, C. M. RedhUl Trichostomum tortuosum, Dixon.

Ephemerum recurvifolium, Ldb.

Physcomitrella patens, B. & S. Buckland

Bartramia ithyphylla, Brid. Near Dorking

Leptobryum pyriforme, Wils.

Bryum inclinatum, Bland. ; B. Donianum, Grev. ; Mnium affine, Bland. ; M. ros- tratum, Schrad. ; M. stellare, Reich.

Cryphaea heteromalla, Mohr.

Neckera crispa, var. falcata, Boul. Reigate Hill

Thuidium hystricosum, Mitt. Abundant on the downs. T. recognitum, Ldb.

Climacium dendroides, W. & M. ; Cylindro- thecium concinnum, Schp.

Brachythecium illecebrum, De Not

Eurhynchium crassinervium, B. & S. ; E. pu- milum, Schp. ; E. tenellum, var. scabrel- lum, Dixon. Trees about Dorking. E. murale, Milde. ; E. prselongum, var. /9 Stokesii, Turn.

Hypnum stellatum, var. /3 protensum, B. & S. ; H. Sommerfeltii, Myr. c. fr.

— imponens, Hedw. Reigate Heath ; plenti- ful. H. stramineum, Dicks

5. LOWER MOLE. The southern half of the district is almost entirely composed of chalk and exhibits the most typical scenery of that formation. Norbury Park and Box Hill are richly wooded and yield a large number of species. Further north is a broad belt of London Clay with a small outcrop of Bagshot Sand towards Cobham.

Sphagnum rigidum, Schp. ; S. tenellum, Archidium alternifolium, Schp. ; Ditrichum

Ehrh. ; Tetraphis pellucida, Hedw. flexicaule, Hpe. ; Seligeria paucifolia,

c. fr. Carr. Very common in the woods on

Polytrichum nanum, Neck. ; P. aloides, the downs, growing on small stones. S.

Hedw. calcarea, B. & S.

54

BOTANY

Dicranum Bonjeani, var. calcareum, Braith.

Leucobryum glaucum, Schp.

Fissidens pusillus, Wils. Box Hill. F. in-

curvus, Starke ; F. adiantoides, var. 8

collinus, Mitt. ; F. decipiens, De Not Grimmia apocarpa, Hedw. Not common Acaulon muticum. Frequent Pottia minutula, Furnr. ; P. lanceolata, C.M. ;

Tortula marginata, Spr. ; T. mutica, Ldb. Barbula cylindrica, Schp. ; B. vinealis, Brid. ;

B. sinuosa, Braith. Weisia microstoma, C.M. ; W. tortilis. Box

Hill, etc. Trichostomum crispulum, Bruch. Box Hill.

T. mutabile, Bruch. Box Hill

— tortuosum, Dixon. Box Hill, where it

becomes detached and rolling over forms

a number of small completely spherical

masses Pleurochaete squarrosa, Ldb. North slopes of

Box Hill Cinclidotus Brebissoni, Husn. c. fr. ; Enca-

lypta Streptocarpa, Hedw. Zygodon Stirtoni, Schp. Walls, frequent Orthotrichum leiocarpum, B. & S. ; O. affine,

var. 8 rivale, Wils.

— Sprucei, Mont. Trees by the Mole Ephemerum serratum, var. /8 angustifolium,

B. &S.

Physcomitrium pyriforme, Brid.

Mnium undulatum, L. Common, and fruit- ing freely in Norbury Park

— stellare, Reich. ; M. punctatum, L.

Cryphaea heteromalla, Mohr. ; Neckera crispa, var. falcata, Boul. Box Hill

— pumila, Hedw. c. fr. ; N. complanata ;

Homalia trichomanoides, Brid. Leucodon sciuroides, Schwgr. ; Porotrichum

alopecurum, Mitt. ; Leskea polycarpa,

Ehrh. Anomodon viticulosus, H. & T. c. fr. ; Thui-

dium hystricosum, Mitt.

— recognitum, Ldb. Abundant on the north

slopes of the downs Cylindrothecium concinnum, Schp. ; Campto-

thecium lutescens, B. & S. Brachythecium glareosum, B. & S. ; B. rivu-

lare, B. & S.

— caespitosum, Dixon ; B. illecebrum, De Not Eurhynchium piliferum, B. & S. Fruiting

on Box Hill. E. crassinervium, B. & S. c. fr. ; E. pumilum, Schp. c. fr. ; E. tenellum, var. scabrellum, Dixon

— circinatum, B. & S. Norbury Park Plagiothecium depressum, Dixon. c. fr. ;

Amblystegium irriguum, B. & S. Hypnum riparium ; H. stellatum, var. /8 pro- tensum, B. & S. ; H. chrysophyllum, Brid. ; H. imponens, Hedw. ; H. Som- merfeltii, Myr.

— Patientiae, Ldb. Not common, sandy

places on Box Hill. H. molluscum, Hedw. c. fr. ; H. stramineum, Dicks Hylocomium loreum, B. & S. ; H. squarrosum, B. & S. (Box Hill. c. fr.)

— triquetrum, B. & S. (Norbury Park. c. fr.)

6. NORTHERN STREAMS. The north-east section of the county, drained by three small rivers, consists of chalk hills in the south-east, and more or less flat country of London clay stretching away to the Thames. Near Croydon are some elevated commons of the Oldhaven series.

6A. Sphagnum cymbifolium, Ehrh. et var. ft squarrosulum, N. & H. ; S. subse- cundum, Nees. et var. B contortum, Schp. ; S. acutifolium, Ehrh. ; S. in- termedium, Hoff. ; S.cuspidatum,Ehrh.

Pleuridium axillare, Ldb. ; P. alternifolium,

Rab. 6u.

Campylopus fragilis, B. & S. ; Fissidens exilis, Hedw. ; F. viridulus, var. Lylei, Wils. ; F. pusillus, Wils. ; F. crassipes, Wils. Kew. Acaulon muticum, C. M.

Phascum cuspidatum, var. Schreberianum, Brid. Kew. Cinclidotus fontinaloides, P. Beauv.

Funaria fascicularis, Schp. Kew

Bryum atropurpureum, W. & M. ; Mnium affine, Bland. Kew

55

Brachythecium illecebrum, De Not ; Am- blystegium varium, Ldb. Kew

Amblystegium Kochii, B. & S. Riverside, Kew

Hypnum elodes, Spr. Kew. H.'palustre, L.

Campylopus subulatus, Schp. Addington Hills ; dry stony ground

— brevipilus, B. & S. ; Phascum curvi- colle, Ehrh. ; Leptodontiumflexifolium, Hpe.

Orthotrichum Sprucei, Mont. ; Epheme- rum recurvifolium, Ldb. Near Croy- don. Thuidium hystricosum, Mitt. ; Plagiothecium undulatum, B. & S. ; H. Sommerfeltii, Myr. ; H. gigan- teum, Schp. Pool on Mitcham Common

A HISTORY OF SURREY

7. EDEN. A small but interesting division, noteworthy from possessing the only outcrop of Hastings Sand. The country is very undulating with deep hollows and many little watercourses, besides large ponds. The land northwards is flatter and of Weald Clay, with the Lower Greensand and Chalk in the north.

Polytrichum nanum, Neck. ; P. aloides, Hedw.; Physcomitrium sphaericum, Brid. Muddy edge Archidium alternifolium, Schp. of a pond near Felbridge

Pleuridium axillare, Ldb. Copthorne Common Brachythecium salebrosum, B. & S. ; B. illece-

Rhacomitrium canescens, Brid. brum, De Not

Tortula rigidula, Mitt. ; Barbula vinealis, Brid. Hypnum aduncum, var. Kneiffii, Schp. ; H.

Weisia rostellata, Ldb. Dried mud of a pond uncinatum, Hedw. Felbridge, c. fr.

near Felbridge H. imponens, Hedw.

— squarrosa, C. M. ; Orthotrichum tenellum, Bruch.

8. ARUN. Two small detached districts drained by two branches of the Arun and lying respectively one to the south of Leith Hill, and the other to the south-east of Hind Head.

Orthotrichum Lyellii, H. & T. ; Neckera Eurhynchium myosuroides, Shp. ; Plagio-

pumila, var Philippeana, Milde. thecium sylvaticum, B. & S.

Brachythecium illecebrum, Dixon

CHARACE^

This somewhat obscure group of water plants had received but little attention until the publication of Messrs. Groves' monograph led to a more general study of the order. The London Catalogue of British Plants (1895) enumerates 28 species, a number which has since been slightly increased. Eleven of these are found in Surrey. The most widely dis- tributed and, I think, the commonest Chara is C. vu/garis, which occurs in all of the districts, while C.fragilis is so far recorded from eight. C. aspera and C. hispida are each of them found in three. The rarest species, C. contraria, has been noted in two districts ; it has been gathered in the pool by the Thames below Walton bridge, and in Fetcham Mill pond (C. E. Salmon). Lycbnotbamnus stelliger was discovered in the above- mentioned pool by Walton bridge (H. & J. Groves) some years ago ; no other locality is known for it in the county. 'Tolypella intricata is con- fined to the neighbourhood of Egham, where it has occurred in several ditches. The commoner species T. glomerata, which grows on the opposite side of the Thames, near Staines, has not yet been detected. Of the genus Nitella the commonest is N. opaca, found in nine districts, but not yet noted in the Bourne Brook basin, where it doubtless occurs. N. flexilis and N. translucent are each found in six districts. There remains N. gracitis, a few fragments of which occurred mixed with a gathering of Chara fragilis collected near Kingston (G. Nicholson). Although including a few interesting species such as, more particularly, Lycb-

56

BOTANY

nothamnus stelliger, the county list can scarcely be regarded as a rich one.

SUMMARY OF GENERA AND SPECIES

CHARA TOLYPELLA

Chara fragilis, Desv. Tolypella intricata, Leonh.

— aspera, Willd. NITELLA

— contraria, Kuetz. Nitella gracilis, Agardh

— hispida, L. — translucens, Agardh

— vulgaris, L. — flexilis, Agardh LYCHNOTHAMNUS — opaca, Agardh

Lychnothamnus stelliger, Braun.

FRESHWATER ALG^E

The county of Surrey is very rich in algae. The best gatherings can be obtained from the larger commons, the one at Thursley yielding the greater number of species. Puttenham Common is also very productive, especially General's Pond. Wherever the small carnivorous bladderwort (Utricularia minor) occurs a number of interesting algae are sure to be met with, and this interesting plant occurred on both these commons accom- panied by submerged species of bog moss (Sphagnum), which latter also are good indicators of the presence of small species of algas. On Thursley Common there is also an abundance of the fine richly-coloured julaceous moss (Hypnum scorpioides) , which always indicates that algas will be prolific. A rather uncommon sedge (Rbyncospora fusca) also occurs on this common and the bog water surrounding this species never fails to be productive of algas.

Among other localities which are well worth visiting by reason of their richness in these interesting plants are : Barnes Common, Bisley Common, Bolder Mere, Brockham Green to Betchworth, Chobham Com- mon and the neighbourhood, Ditton Marsh, Frensham (Devil's Jumps, bog by river Wey, the Great Pond and the Little Pond), Esher and Esher West-end Commons, Dorking, Earlswood Common, Felbridge, Hack- bridge, Mitcham Common and Grove, Putney Heath and Roehampton Lane, pond on Ranmore Common, Richmond Park, Wandsworth Common, Wimbledon Common, the canal at Woking, Whitemoor Common, Worplesdon, Witley Common, and in the south-east Blindley Heath, Crowhurst, Frogit Heath and Mill Pond east of Chapel Wood. The bluish-green algae (Myxopbyceee) are not represented as well as they would be if the county possessed some rocky hills, nevertheless the county is one of the richest in England.

The reader must bear in mind that the use of the microscope is absolutely essential to the discovery even as well as to the determination of all but an extremely few of these algae. They are exceedingly pretty objects and will amply repay the attention of any investigator.

Those in the following list, including a new genus to science and twenty species and varieties also new to science — no less than fifty-nine in number — were recorded for the first time in the British Isles from

57

A HISTORY OF SURREY

this county in a paper by the writers which appeared in the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society for 1897.'

Hormiscia subtilis, De Toni, var. tenerrima, Kirchn. Esher Common, Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common

— subtilis, De Toni, var. variabilis, Kirchn.

DevirsJumps(Frensham),Esher and Esher West-end Commons

Microthamnion Ktitzingianum, Nag. Esher Common, Richmond Park and Puttenham Common

Gonatonema Boodlei, West and G. S. West. A species new to science of a very in- teresting and rare genus ; Mitcham Common

Spirogyra Spreeiana, Rabenh. Esher West-end Common

— decimina, Kfitz. A distinct new variety ;

Frensham Little Pond

Penium subtile, West and G. S. West. A species new to science ; abundant on Thursley Common

Closterium siliqua, West and G. S. West. New to science ; Esher West-end Com- mon

Cosmarium Subcucumis, Schmidle. Esher West-end and Wimbledon Commons

— ocellatum, B. Eichler and Gutw., var. in-

crassatum, West and G. S. West. A new variety ; Thursley Common

— bioculatum, Breb., var. hians, West and

G. S. West. A new variety ; Putten- ham and Thursley Commons

— aspherosporum, Nordst., var. strigosum,

Nordst. Puttenham Common

— geometricum, West and G. S. West.

Puttenham Common

— helcangulare, Nordst. Thursley Common

— Heimerlii, West and G. S. West. Thursley

Common and Mill Pond east of Chapel Wood

— sphagnicolum, West and G. S. West. A

species new to science ; Thursley Common

— difficile, Lutkem. Thursley Common

— Sinostegos, Schaarschm., var. obtusius,

Gutw. Puttenham Common

— Portianum, Arch., var. orthostichum,

Schmidle. Puttenham Common

— Nathorstii, Boldt. Mill Pond east of Chapel

Wood

— subbroomei, Schmidle. Mill Pond east of

Chapel Wood

Cosmarium Ungerianum, De Bary, var. sub- triplicatum, West and G. S. West. A new and very distinct variety of a very rare species not previously known from the British Isles ; Mill Pond east of Chapel Wood

— ellipsoideum, Elfv., also its var. minus,

Racib. Both on Thursley Common

— subarctoum, Racib. Esher West-end Common

— gonioides, West and G. S. West. Thurs-

ley Common

Staurastrum trachytithophorum, West and G. S. West. A species new to science ; Thursley Common

— tunguscanum, Boldt. Puttenham Common

— nodosum, West and G. S. West. A

species new to science; Thursley Com- mon

Staurastrum rostellum, Roy et Bisset, var. erostel- lum, West and G. S. West. A new and very distinct variety ; Thursley Common

— tetracerum, Ralfs, var. validum, West

and G. S. West. A new variety; in Mill Pond east of Chapel Wood

— Heimerlianum, Lutkem., var. spinulosum,

Lutkem. Thursley Common

— margaritaceum, Meneg., var. subcontortum,

West and G. S. West. A new variety ;

DeviFs Jumps (Frensham) Arthrodesmus Incus, Hass., var. subquadratus,

West and G. S. West. A new varietyi;

Chobham Common Sphaerozosma vertebratum, Ralfs, var. latius,

West and G. S. West. A new variety ;

Esher West-end Common Hyalotheca neglecta, Racib. A rare species ;

very abundant on Thursley Common Chlamydomonas Kleinii, Schmidle. Barnes,

Chobham, Esher and Wimbledon Commons Dactylococcus dispar, West and G. S. West.

A species new to science ; occurring on

old wood at Dorking Scenedesmus granulatus, West and G. S. West.

A species new to science ; Richmond

Park Rhaphidium polymorphum, Fresen., var.

mirabile. A very remarkable new

variety ; Wimbledon Common

— polymorphum, Fresen., var. tumidum. A

new variety ; Puttenham Common

1 As the British Desmids and British Freshwater Algte by Mr. C. Cooke only contain a part of the species now known for Britain, the writers have also used standard works such as Bornet and Flahault's Revision des Nostocac^es Hetencystites, Gomont's Monographic des Osc'tHar'tites, as well as standard Swedish, German, Italian and Polish works ; also published works of the writers themselves, as well as using the original figures contained in such standard works as Ralfs British Desmidiea.

58

BOTANY

Sclenastrum gracile, Reinsch. Puttenham Hapalosiphon intricatus, West. Puttenham

Common Common

Lagerheimia genevensis, Chodat. Mill Pond Lyngbya putealis, Mont. Richmond Park

east of Chapel Wood — srugineo-ccerulea, Gom. Esher to Kingston

Tetrafidron horridum, West and G. S. West. — versicolor, Gom. Dorking

A species new to science; Puttenham Phormidium molle, Gom. Growing on

Common Myriophyllum in Richmond Park

Characium Pringsheimii, A. Br. Barnes and — foveolarum, Gom. In a chalk pit at

Mitcham Commons Dorking

Ineffigiata neglecta, West and G. S. West. — tenue, Gom. Wimbledon and Bisley Com-

The genus itself is new to science ; the mans

species occurs on Thursley, Esher West- Oscillatoria prolifica, Gom. Ranmore Common

end and Puttenham Commons, also at in a pond

Mill Pond east of Chapel Wood — simplicissima, Gom. Wimbledon Common

Stichococcus dissectus, Gay. Occurs on damp — angustissima, West and G. S. West.

walls about London Wimbledon Common

Trochiscia aspera, Hansg. Wimbledon Common Polycystis flos-aquae, Wittr. Thursley Common — stagnalis, Hansg. Chobham Common

No less than thirty species of Desmids have been found with zygospores ; this proves that the conditions and places are often suitable for their production.

The total number of species which have been determined is nearly 500, in addition to which the writers have noticed several hundred species of diatoms. Batrachospermum vagum (Florideae) is a large and graceful alga which feels like frog-spawn, hence its generic name ; it can be recognized without the aid of a microscope ; it occurs at Devil's Jumps, Frensham, as well as in boggy pools at Thursley Common. Three species of Coleochcete occur — C. orbicularis at Crowhurst, C. soluta at Fren- sham and Bisley, C. scutata being more widely distributed ; the species of this genus are usually found attached to larger submerged aquatic plants. Three species of Bulbochaete occur, B. mirabilis being of the most interest, from Thursley Common. Monostroma bullosum is an uncommon species ; it occurs on Mitcham Common. So many good species of Desmids occur that it is a difficult matter to select certain of them for special mention. Penium spirostriolatum, P. curtum and P. interruptum are fine at Puttenham Common ; the last also occurs at Thursley Common, and a large form in the Mill Pond east of Chapel Wood. The charac- teristic and uncommon P. rufescens is found on Bisley Common. Other rare species of Penia are polymorphism from Chobham Common, incon- spicuum from Puttenham Common, cucurbitinum from Thursley Common, and cruciferum from Wimbledon Common. Many species of Closterium occur : Malirrvernianum at Esher West-end Common and Frensham, pseudodiance at Thursley Common, Cynthia and regulare at Puttenham Common, directum at Esher and Mill Pond east of Chapel Wood, Ralfsii var. hybridum and setaceum at Puttenham and Thursley Commons, and Ceratium on Esher and Wimbledon Commons. The genus Euastrum is well represented and the following good species are worth enumerating : affine and insigne at Chobham Common, pyramidatum, inerme, sinuosum, •ventricosum and cuneatum at Thursley Common, erosum var. notabile at Bisley Common. The rarer species of the beautiful genus Micrasterias

59

A HISTORY OF SURREY

are the following : Thomasiana and mucronatum at Chobham and Thursley Commons, Americana and radiosa at the Mill Pond east of Chapel Wood, and Jenneri and angulosa at Thursley Common. The rarer species of Xanthidium that occur are : concinnum var. Boldtianum at Thursley Common, and Smithii var. -variabile at Devil's Jumps, Frensham. The large genus Cosmarium is represented by no less than ninety-eight species ; the follow- ing are a few of the rarer ones : Ralfsii on Chobham Common, pachyder- mum at Mitcham Common and at Mill Pond east of Chapel Wood, subtumidum at Devil's Jumps, Frensham, isthmium, Gregorii, fontigenum and succisum on Puttenham Common, inconspicuum on Mitcham Common, Quasillus at Esher West-end and Wimbledon Commons, quinarium, pygmceum and Broomei at Mill Pond east of Chapel Wood, Blyttii and Regnellii at Bisley Common, truncatellum on Chobham Common, subcren- atum at Witley Common, eboracense at Richmond Park, Nymannianum, cristatum, ortbostichum, margaritatum (most abundant), amasnum, cymatonoto- pborum, sphagnicolum, pseudoprotuberans, elegantissimum, nitidulum and vario- latum at Thursley Common. The large genus Staurastrum is also well represented, the following being some of the rarer ones : glabrum on Bisley Common, O'Mearii on Thursley and Puttenham Commons, incon- spicuum and sibiricum at Devil's Jumps, Frensham, turgescens at Wimbledon Common, sexcostatum at Esher West-end Common, oxyacanthum, pseudo- sebaldi, asperum, corniculatum, pachyrbynchum, subpygmceum, lanceolatum and brevispinum at Thursley Common, iotanum, micron and tunguscanum at Puttenham Common. Tetragonium lacustre is only