SURREY. SURREY, considered as part of a highly cultivated country, will be found, on a general survey, to present, perhaps, as large a portion of beauty and deformity as any county in the kingdom. This mixture, however, contributes to give it that variety so eminently pleasing in natural scenery. Here vast naked heaths impart an air of wildness, which is strongly contrasted with the numberless. beauties strewed by the hand of art over its surface; there its hills aspiring to the bold character, and exhibiting the picturesque situations of mountains, gradually decline into richly wooded dales, or plains covered with abundant harvests; whilst, on its downs, its spacious airy downs With grass and thyme o'erspread and clover wild, The fairest flocks rejoice Such are the downs of Bansted, edged with woods It is a common observation that this county contains a larger proportion of gentlemen's seats than any other district of England of the like extent. This circumstance is certainly owing in part to its vicinity to the metropolis; but when the acknowledged salubrity of its air and other natural advantages are taken into the account, we shall only wonder that they are not still more nu merous. VOL. XIV. B Dyer's Fleece, Book I. SITUATION SITUATION AND EXTENT.-Surrey is an inland county, situated on the south-eastern part of the kingdom. On the north it is separated by the Thames from Middlesex, and a very small point of Buckinghamshire; on the west it is bounded by Berkshire and Hampshire; on the south by Sussex; and on the east by Kent. Its form is a pretty regular oblong, excepting on the north side, where it is deeply indented by the Thames. In regard to size Surrey ranks below most of the other counties of England; its greatest length from north to south being about twenty-six miles, and its greatest breadth from east to west, about thirty-eight. In the Magna Britannia" it is said to be twenty-two miles in breadth, and one hundred and twelve in circumference, and to contain 592,000 acres: but the best modern authorities make its contents 811 square miles, or about 519,000 acres. DIVISION AND POPULATION.-The county is divided into thirteen hundreds, the names of which, with their population, are shewn in the subjoined table drawn up from the returns made to Parliament in 1801. 17647 25712 45752 54998 Copthorn& Effingham 1485 Elmbridge 3124 16979 100750 1476 Wotton, or Dorking 923 1032 464 Town of Guildford Boro. of Southwark 10933 Total 46072 63673127138141905 2274642865|269043|| 1793 4307 4396 1814 883 8703 962 1062 2711 2631 795 507 1085 1236 3027 3186 1184 713 1257 1440 3932 4092 1433 929 8024 1528 1686 4154 4329 2773 1444) 8483 2112 2603 5404 6418 1366 1580 3970 1179 1269 3602 2537 2914 7098 7494 1668 4177 4037 27541 2644 579 1242 1392 17868 35704 35744 5342 6213 834 1293 11822 3778 2462 548 7748 1603 1547) 1459. 2047 612 8214 1111 502 5398 28 495 2634 13515037 67448 • Vol V. p. 327. In In the year 1700, the population of Surrey was estimated at 154,900; in 1750, it had increased to 207,000; in 1801 it was found, as above, to be upwards of 269,000; and there is every reason to believe, that when the returns under the act of 1811 are made public, it will appear to have received farther accessions during the last ten years. No inconsiderable portion of this increase must doubtless be sought in the immediate vicinity of the metropolis, and in the establishment or extension of different manufactures there. The number of inhabitants on each square mile averages 332, and the averaged number of deaths, taken from the registered accounts for ten years, amounted to one in forty-one of the resident population. CLIMATE. In a county where the soils and elevations are so various, the climate also must of course vary considerably. It is the general opinion, that less rain falls in most parts of Surrey, than in the metropolis, or in the vale of London, so that the climate may, upon the whole, be regarded as dry, as far as respects the quantity of rain merely but the southern border must necessarily be moist and damp, from the nature of the soil, the flatness of the surface, and the immense number of trees which cover it and obstruct ventilation. From the like causes, the low parts near the Thames must be considered as rather damp. On the other haud, the atmosphere of the chalk-hills, which run across the whole county from east to west, is dry, rather keen, and bracing. Ou the wide and exposed heaths about Bagshot, Aldershot, and Hind-head, a similar climate prevails, so that the whole west side may, with a very small exception, be said to have a dry, and rather cold, atmosphere. The spring is in general early, and here vegetation is not so often checked by frosty mornings, and cold, raw, easterly winds, as in some of the more southern counties. The summers are commonly dry and warm; and the harvest early, generally commencing in the first ten days of August, and from the steadiness of the weather at that important time, there is seldom any corn out in the fields after the first week of September. The wind blows most steadily from the west and south-west, seldom keeping long in any point between the north-west and north-east. In the spring, and frequently towards the end of autumn, the easterly winds prevail; and the weather is then cold and raw, with a drizzling moisture: but the greatest quantity of rain falls when the wind blows from the south-south-west, or south. The climate is deemed very healthy in most parts of the county, between the southern district, called the Weald, and the Thames, particularly near the northern foot of the chalk-hills. The dryness of the soil and atmosphere, and the entire freedom from the smoke of the metropolis by the prevalence of the westerly winds, have deservedly conferred the character of salubrity on this division of the county. Even in the Weald, where the surface is low, and the soil moist, diseases are by no means frequent, neither is the ordinary duration of human life abridged. SOIL. The soil of Surrey is extremely various, and by no means so clearly discriminated as in some other districts of the kingdom, the different kinds lying a good deal intermixed in small patches, especially in the northern part of the county. They may be reduced to the four general heads of clay, loam, chalk, and heath. The most extensive tract of uniform soil is that which extends along the whole southern border of the county, and forms what is denominated the Weald of Surrey; a district about thirty miles in length, and varying from three to five in breadth. This consists of a pale, cold, retentive clay, upon a sub-soil of the same nature: its surface is flat, covered with wood, and its elevation is said to be less than that of any other vale district in the island. The agricultural management of this soil not only requires a large capital, but also superior skill, attention, and activity, in order to make the most of the proper seasons for the different operations. Proceeding northward we come to a district of sandy loam, likewise stretching across the whole county, county, but on the east side seldom exceeding half a mile in breadth, till at Albury and Shalford it expands as far as Hascomb and Hambledon on the south. The richest part of this tract lies round Godalming; the soil is every where of great depth, and rests on a base of sand-stone, veined with iron ore. The most striking and remarkable district consists of the chalky downs, contiguous to the former. They lie nearly in the middle of the county, entering from Kent into Surrey by Croydon and Limpsfield where their width is about seven miles, and gradually narrowing as they proceed westward, till their termination near the border of Hampshire, where there is merely a narrow ridge, but little broader than the turnpike road. Along the elevated summit of the downs, particularly about Walton and Hedley, and between the Mole and the Wey, is a large extent of heath, which, for a considerable depth, divides the chalk of the northern from that of the southern compartment of the downs, though it is probable that they join at their base. Setting out from the eastern extremity of the downs, and proceeding northward, we find a variety of soils, but chiefly strong clay, streaked with sandy loam; and these, with patches of gravel, continue till near Dulwich, from which place, to the extremity of the county near Rotherhithe, is a strong unmixed clay. If we set out farther to the west, from Bansted downs, we find the chalk bounded by a long stretch of clay, by Sutton, Morden, and the east side of Merton, till we reach the loams of Putney heath, Wimbledon, and Mortlake. A similar line of soils, but with less extent of clay, before we reach the sandy loams, prevails, if we set out from any point of the downs between Bansted and Clandon; and the farther westward we proceed, the breadth of the clay soil that divides the chalk from the sandy loam decreases in proportion. From the northern borders of the clay to the Thames, the soil in general is sandy, intermixed, however, especially on the banks of the Mole and the Wey, with loam of different qualities and clay. It is difficult to conceive a worse kind of soil than that of the heaths of Surrey; and these unfortunately occupy a very large B 3 |