Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/18

2 This ridge, generallv unbroken, is traversed by two wellknown gorges about twelve miles apart, of which the eastern is occupied by the Mole at Dorking and Mickleham, and the western by

The Wey, the tributaries of which rise widely over much of Surrey and the eastern part of Hampshire, is, where it cleaves the chalk, a considerable stream, much less milky than in the days, or rather in the verse, of Pope; and twelve miles below the pass it falls into the Thames at Weybridge.

The town of Guildford is placed Upon the right or eastern batik of the river, well within, that is, north-east of the gorge, and within and a little above the town is the castle. As the ridge is here steep and lofty, and the gorge deep and moderately narrow, it might be supposed that this pass would at all times have been important to whoever wished to defend London and the Thames from invaders from the south. In position it is to the south of London what Berkhampstead Castle is on the north; both are placed in gorges of the chalk, both upon tributaries of the Thames; both are late Norman castles, founded upon earlier Saxon earthworks, and both were for centuries held direct by the Crown. Guildford, however, unlike Berkhampstead, though the nucleus of a large town, has no military history. Although Surrey and Sussex are by no means deficient in traces of early occupation, the immediate neighbourhood of Guildford is in this respect almost a blank. An early trackway has been talked of as taking the ridge of the Downs, and traces of an irregular and therefore British camp are said to have been formerly observed on St. Martha's hill; but the long chalk crest and slopes of the Downs, so tenacious of the slightest works ever executed on their surface, are not known to exhibit any traces of the encampments or pits, or other works usually attributed to the British, which, considering the dense forest that certainly extended to the foot of the high ground on the south side, and probably on the north, is very singular. Antiquaries, indeed, have placed the capital of the British Regni at Guildford. and the city of Vindomis at Farnham, but nothing beyond general probabilities have been brought forward in favour of either supposition. It is curious, also,