Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/297

Rh M I D M I D 279 130 blast furnaces, besides large iron and steel works; and the Thomas-Gilehrist process of making steel promises for Middlesborough importance in the future as a steel entre pot. The make of pig-iron in 1880 was 1,991,032 tons. There are also shipbuilding, potteries, chemical works, and a salt trade. Middlesborough is well laid out, nearly all the streets lying at right angles to one another. Many of the churches and the exchange are handsome buildings, while the station of the North Eastern Railway is probably the finest in the north of England. A splendid park of 72 acres, the gift of the late H. F. W. Bolckow, adds greatly to the amenity of the town. Plate III. MIDDLESEX, an inland county in the south-east of England, lying between 51 25 and 51 40 N. lat., and between and 36 W. long. On the south it is divided from Surrey and Kent by the Thames, on the east from Essex by the Lea, on the west from Buckinghamshire by the Colne, and on the north from Hertfordshire by a partly artificial and very irregular line. Although with the ex ception of Rutland it is the smallest county in England, its population is exceeded by that of Lancashire only. Its total area is 181,317 acres, of which 2592 acres are common or waste lands. The longest straight line that can be drawn in the county is one of nearly 28 miles from the north-eastern extremity near Waltham Abbey to the south western at Staines. From north to south in the broadest part the distance is about 15 miles. Surface and Geology. The greater portion of the county is flat, although there are sufficient undulations to allow of a proper drainage of the land. A range of hills runs along the Hertfordshire border by Barnet, Elstree, Stanmore, and Pinner, averaging -400 feet in height ; another range occupies the ground just north of London by Hornsey, Highgate, and Hampstead ; Harrow occupies an isolated eminence between the two ranges. The county lies entirely within the basin of the Thames, and the London Clay extends over a large portion of the surface. This formation stretches from the mouth of the estuary of the Thames to the neighbourhood of Marl- borough. It attains its greatest breadth (little short of 30 miles) in the neighbourhood of London, and extends north ward until it is lost beneath the drift of Suffolk and Norfolk. The following is a table of the various beds of rock which occur at the surface, with their greatest thick ness (in feet) in the district : Alluvium (recent river deposits) 15 Post- Pliocene Tcrtiaries. Post-glacial beds (brick-earth, gravel, &c.) 50 Glacial drift (boulder clay, gravel, &c. ) 80 Eocene Tcrtiaries. Lower Bagshot sands 100 London Clay 420 Woolwich and Reading beds 90 Cretaceous. Chalk with flints 800 Chalk comes to the surface in so very few places that it is scarcely worth mention. It is seen near Harefield and on the north-west side of South Mimms. The depth from the surface to the chalk varies greatly in different parts of the county. This has been proved by the borings for wells; thus at Isleworth the depth is 400 feet and at Hampstead 378, while at Ruislip it is 76 feet and at Pinner only 60. The Reading beds (plastic clays) are brought to the sur face at Windsor. They follow roughly the course of the river Colne from the north of Uxbridge along the flank of the hills north-eastward, but are sometimes cut back south ward along small side valleys. An outlying mass is exposed at Pinner. The Bagshot sands, consisting of gravel and sand permeable to water, once stretched over the whole extent of the London Clay, but they are now to be found only on the high grounds at Hampstead, High- gate, and Harrow. A corner of the main mass enters the south-west corner of the county near Littleton. Beds of brick-earth occur in the drift between West Drayton and Uxbridge. Several deep borings in the London basin prove the existence beneath the chalk of beds which do not crop out in Middlesex. Three of these are in the county; and the most interesting is that at Meux s Brewery, Tottenham Court Road (about 1146 feet), which passes through the following formations : gravel and clay, 21 feet; London Clay, 64 feet; Reading beds, 51 feet; Thanet sand, 21 feet; chalk, 655 feet; Upper Greensand, 28 feet; gault, 160 feet ; Lower Greensand, 64 feet ; Devonian, 80 feet. Rivers ami Canals. The Thames is very tortuous in the 44 miles of its course from Staines to Blackwall, and makes a remarkable bend at the eastern limit of the county where it forms the so-called Isle of Dogs. The width at Staines is 200 feet, at Chiswick opposite Barnes 340 feet, at Hammersmith 525 feet, at Fulham 820 feet, at Westmin ster Bridge 1100 feet, but at London Bridge it is less than 800 feet ; above the junction of the Lea at the Isle of Dogs the width is 1350 feet. The ordinary rise of the tide at London Bridge is 16 feet, and the tide- way ends at Ted- dington. The port of London begins below London Bridge, and the channel for from 2 to 3 miles is called the Pool. The Colne from Hertfordshire enters Middlesex at the north-western corner of the county. It then runs soutli, joining the Thames at Staines, and in its course divides Middlesex from Buckinghamshire for 15 miles. After the river leaves Uxbridge it divides out into several small channels. The Lea from Hertfordshire enters Middlesex at the north-eastern corner of the county near Waltham Abbey. It runs south, dividing Middlesex from Essex for 15 miles, and falls into the Thames at Bow Creek. Several branches flow off from the river during its course. The Brent from Hertfordshire enters Middlesex near Finchley. It takes a circuitous direction southward through the middle of the county by Hendon, Kingsbury, Twyford, Greenford, and Han well to the town of Brentford, where it unites with the Thames. Where the river crosses the Edge- ware Road (about 3 miles south of the town of Edgewarc) it is expanded by artificial means into an extensive reser voir. The Cran (or Yedding Brook) rises in the district between Harrow and Pinner and flows under Cranford Bridge; it crosses Hounslow Heath, and bends round to Twickenham and Isleworth, where in a divided stream it falls into the Thames. There were several other small streams in the neighbour hood of London which have left their mark in the names of places, but which are now merely sewers, such as the Wallbrook, the Westbourn, the Tyburn, the Fleet river, ifcc. The last-mentioned, which runs into the Thames near Blackfriars Bridge, was formerly navigable as far as Holborn Bridge ; but, the Fleet Ditch, as it was then called, having become in the last century a dangerous nuisance, the lord mayor and citizens were empowered by Act of Parliament to arch it over. The work was commenced in 1734, and in 1737 Fleet market, ( ccupying the site of the space from Holborn Bridge to Fleet Bridge, was opened to the public. The New River, an artificial water-course con structed by Sir Hugh Myddelton in the reign of James I. to supply London with water, runs through the county from north to south a little to the west of the river Lea. It derives its waters from the springs of Amwell and Chadwell, increased by a cut from the Lea, in the neighbourhood of Ware, and enters Middlesex from Hertfordshire about 2 miles north of Enfield. It passes Enfield, Tottenham, Hornsey, and Stoke Newington, and is received into the reservoir in Clerkenwell known as the New River Head. The Grand Junction Canal leaves the Thames at Brent-