THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
L.—THE EXTRA-METROPOLITAN DISTRICTS OF THE SUBURBAN COUNTIES AND HERTFORDSHIRE. THE special and paramount interest of the Metropolis has necessarily somewhat disturbed the plan which we had followed in treating of the Provincial History of England. We have been compelled to refer specially to those parts of the counties of Middlesex, Essex, and Surrey which lie within the limits of " London " in the widest acceptation of the term, and (except in the case of Kent) thus to separate them from the remaining districts which are extra-metropolitan ; and it is not easy to treat of the latter in their turn without repetition or omission. These districts, however, with the neighbouring county of Hertford, have some claim to be treated in connection with one another, from a certain suburban character which their proximity to the Metropolis gives to them all, even in the aspects .of country life.
Of the southern portion of Surrey and of the general surface of that county we have already spoken. We now confine ourselves to North Surrey, under which term we include those districts of the county to the north of the chalk range called the North Downs. Immediately to the north of these Downs is the district of the plastic clay, which on the Kentish frontier is four or five miles in breadth, but becomes narrower towards the west, measuring on the Hampshire frontier not more than half a mile. It is bounded on the south by a line drawn near Addington, Banstead, Horsley, and Guildford, to the Hampshire frontier, the chalk quarrying beneath it on Banstead Downs, which are 576 feet in height. The London clay formation extends northward of this district to the Thames—in the high waste grounds in the north- west, with an upper marine formation of siliceous sand and sand- stone, and to the north of the hills which extend from New Cross to Battersea, and on the banks of the Thames between Putney and Richmond, with an alluvial covering. The space covered by this alluvial deposit may be regarded as belonging to the bed of the old estuary of the Thames, of which the range of hills extending from New Cross, near Deptford, by Nunhead, Denmark Hill, Herne Hill, Brixton Hill, Clapham Rise, Battersea Rise, Wim- bledon Common, and Richmond Hill may be regarded as the original coast line. The surface of the district between the North Downs and this cpast range is very diversified, but high downs and commons predominate. Still the additional attractions of fine timber are not wanting in many parts in near neighbourhood to the wilder beauties of nature. The portions covered by the alluvial deposit form the rich market lands of the metropolis. We need scarcely allude to the "capital family mansions" and villa resi- dences, or to the larger private parks " within an easy distance (by rail) of the metropolis," which are so closely bound up by business ties with the counting-houses of the City of London.
The surface of Middlesex is gently undulated. There is a range of hills along the Hertfordshire border, by Barnet, Eletree, Stanmore, and Pinner, which average 400 feet in height ; while another range skirts the northern side of the Metropolis by Hornsey, Highgate, and Hampstead, Harrow Hill lying alone between the two ranges. To the south-west of a line from Brentford to Uxbridge there is an almost unbroken flat, scarcely rising more than twenty feet above the Thames. The soil of the county is chiefly London clay, but the plastic clay appears in Enfield Chase, and by Uxbridge and Harefield, while the Hampstead, Highgate, and Hornsey range con- sists of Bagshot sand. The Lea river forma the eastern and the Colne the western boundary of this county. The other rivers are the Brent, which rises just within the northern border, and flows by Finchley and Brentford into the Thames, the latter part of its course having been appropriated for the Grand Junction Canal ; and the Cran, which rises between Harrow and Pinner, and flows by Cranford and the powder-mills of Hounslow into the Thames at Isleworth. The blue or London clay, which forms the basis of nearly the whole of the soil of this county, is not favourable for purposes of agriculture, except where modified by an admixture of chalk, lime, and ashes. The plough, therefore, is not here in the ascendant, the arable parts lying chiefly towards Buckinghamshire and between the Great Western Railway and the Thames. Most of the commons have been enclosed and yield hay crops, and the alluvial deposits of the Thames, as in the case of the Surrey side of the river, afford rich market-garden grounds. The landscape beauty of the county is of a gentler and less diversified character than that of Surrey, and the park timber, on the whole, not so salient a feature, though scarcely inferior in growth. But there is much diversity in this respect between different parts of the county. In shape it may be described as an oblong, extending from east to west, with two projecting blocks at the north-east and south-west extremities, the latter being the larger in size, and the whole resembling somewhat a recumbent letter Z. The river Thames on the south separates it from Surrey, the river Lea on the east from Essex, and the river Colne and the Grand Junction Canal on the west from Buckinghamshire, the more northerly hill range forming a partial barrier between it and Hertfordshire on its north side, with two natural gateways on the east and west at the several extremities of this range.
The outline of Hertfordshire is so very irregular that it is im- possible to give any other general description of it than as a strip of territory slanting in direction from south-west to north-east in two masses—the north-eastern block being considerably the larger—with a wide connecting waistband. Middlesex and Essex form its southern and south-eastern frontiers. — Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire its northern and north-western, and Bucking- hamshire its western—the last-named county forming a sort of base to the whole block. There are no very high hills in Hertford- shire, the highest elevations being the chalk downs which form the continuation of the Chiltern Hills north-eastward into Essex and Cambridgeshire. Keusworth Hill, on the frontier near Dunstable, is 908 feet high. The general surface of the county is undulating, and it is very well timbered. The Lea river enters the county from Bedfordshire on the north-west side, and flows south-east and east-north-east to Ware, and thence to the border of Hert- fordshire at Waltham Cross, receiving in its course the waters of four smaller streams, all on its left bank. The Colne, rising near Hatfield in this county, after traversing a projecting part of Mid- dlesex, re-enters Hertfordshire, and being joined near St. Alban's by the Verlam or Muse on its right bank, flows by Watford and Rickmansworth and quits the county to become, as we have said, the border line of Middlesex and Buckinghamshire. Some small streams, tributaries of the Ouse, rise on the northern slope of the chalk downs. The important water conduit called the New River has its springs near Ware, and traverses part of the county, running nearly parallel to the Lea, from a feeder of which it is partly supplied. The south-eastern corner, near Cheshunt, and
the south-western part of the county are occupied by the London clay, the north-western by the chalk. These are supplemented by the plastic clay, but nearly the whole county is upon chalk at a greater or less depth. Some gravel also occasionally intervenes, and on the Essex frontier there is a rich loam. The climate is, on the whole, moderately mild, except on the higher chalk ranges. The soil is highly cultivated, and there are many orchards, chiefly of apples and cherries.
Essex seems, geographically, to divide itself into three portions. The southern block, forming an oblong base to the county, and ex- tending from Middlesex and South Hertfordshire to the German Ocean, rests upon the Thames, which separates it from the county of Kent. To the north-east of this block, and separated from it by the estuary of the Blackwater river, and projecting into the German Ocean to a much more easterly degree of longitude, is another oblong block, not unlike in shape to the county of Kent, of which the estuary of the river Stour and the county of Suffolk are the northern limits ; while a line drawn nearly directly northward from Maldon to the south- western corner of Suffolk would represent the western frontier. These two divisions we will call respectively South Essex and East Essex, leaving to the remaining nearly square block of territory—of which Hertfordshire is the western and Cambridge- shire and Suffolk the northern and north-eastern boundaries—the name of North Essex. Essex is generally known and described as a low, marshy county ; but Essexians and Philo-Essexians indignantly repudiate this account, and assert that it con- sists principally of high and hilly ground. The fact, as far as we dare state it, seems to be that the bank of the Thames and the sea coast of Essex are an almost continuous marsh land, not usually accounted healthy, and known as the Hundreds of Essex. The general slope of the ground of this county is towards the south and east, and though the surface is generally undulating, there are few hills of any considerable elevation. The strictly marsh districts extend inland in some parts for nearly five miles, in others to a very much less distance, and there are occasional breaks of high ground on the coast line,—as at Leigh and Southend, on the Thames, and St. Peter's Chapel (between the mouths of the Crouch and Blackwater rivers), and the coast to the south of the Naze, the most easterly point of that county, on the German Ocean. The highest parts are High Beach, on the north-west side of Epping Forest, 390 feet high, Langdou Hill, south of Billericay, 620 feet, Danebury Hill, between Chelms- ford and Malden (nearly the same height), and Tiptree Heath, near Witham. The chalk downs also, which we have spoken of in our description of Hertfordshire, just cross the north-western part of the county. Essex is well watered. Besides the Thames and the Lea, we have the Crouch, the Blackwater, the Colne, the Stour, and several other streams, most of which have more than one tributary, and which form in their course several islands, which, as well as the coast, are carefully embanked. The sea has greatly encroached in the neighbourhood of the Naze. The coast of Essex presents a succession of estuaries resembling in their course on a smaller scale the estuary of the Thames, and forming a suc- cession of promontories more or less like that of Kent. These estuaries and the frequent creeks and gullies with which this irregular headland county is intersected, and the various aspects which it presents to the German Ocean, seem to provoke inroad and invasion at every point, and to proffer shelter to any number of plundering bands; and it was probably the uninviting character of the marshy districts immediately contiguous to these water- openings which secured the county from a much greater amount of suffering in this respect than it actually experienced.
A considerable tract in the northern part of the county is occupied by diluvial beds of loam, with fragments of chalk, the coast of the north-east being covered with the sand or gravel of the upper marine formation. "The greater part of the county is occupied by the London clay. The surface of the vegetable mould commonly rests on rich marl and loam. The London clay is skirted by the soils of the plastic clay. The north-western extremity of the county, about Saffron Weldon, consists of chalk, which appears also at Purfleet and Gray's Thurrock, on the Thames." A subterranean forest underlies the marshes on the banks of the Thames.
The large forests which occupied so much of the county have been gradually cleared off, or thinned and disforested—and this, joined to the reclaiming of the marshes which has been going on for a considerable time, has redeemed the climate from much of the unhealthiness which, in consequence of the cold exhalations and fogs, formerly attached to it, while the proximity of the sea much softens the coolness of the air. The rich loams of the soil
have been improved to a great extent, and Essex is entitled to be called a fertile as well as a quietly pleasant county, possessing also some striking features of picturesque woodland beauty. It does not produce any peculiar breed of sheep—but " Chelmsford Calves " are a well known staple—and the salt marshes afford excellent feeding-grounds for horses.
Pleasantly picturesque scenery may be said to be the general characteristic of these suburban counties, and in this respect they are very suitable accessories to a great and bustling city. Wilder and grander beauty would be here misplaced, and would jar upon the mind through the abruptness of the transition. But the charm of the suburban scenery, while sufficient in itself to afford a grateful relief from the smoke and turmoil of the Metropolis, is just enough also to present an easy stepping-stone to the districts, not far distant at any point, where nature is less touched and subdued by the softening influences of human neighbourhood. The chalk downs to the north and south, with the broad estuary of the Thames and the wide expanse of the German Ocean piercing and girdling this " Province;"—the great and spreading City nestling in the midst, within its well watered valley—on one side the heaths and park lands of Surrey, on the other the quietly rural scenes of Middlesex and Hertford:and the woods and meadows of Essex,— surely entitle the suburban counties to be called one of the pleasantest and most attractive, though not the most beautiful, districts of England.
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