Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/599

Rh SURLINGHAil. 587 SURREY. to St. Lawrence. The parochial charities produce about 130 per annum, of which 38 go to Lady Frazer's school, and 82 in the produce of poor's land. ' SURLINGHAM, a par. in the hund. of Henstead, co. Norfolk, 5 miles S.E. of Norwich, its post town, and 1J mile from Postwick. The village is situated at the ferry on the navigable river Yare. The living is a vie.* with the perpet. cur. of St. Saviour's annexed, in the dioc. of Norwich, val. 120, in the patron, of the bishop. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, was thoroughly restored in 1840. The register dates from Elizabeth's time. There are also the ruins of a more ancient church, dedicated to St. Saviour. The parochial charities pro- duce about 63 per annum. There is an endowed paro- chial school. SURNANT, a tnshp. in the par. of Llanwnog, co. Montgomery, 5 miles W. of Newtown. SURRENDELL, or SURRENDRAL, a tythg. in the par. of Hullavington, hund. of Chippenham, co. Wilts, 5J miles S.W. of Malmesbury, neur the ancient Ackman Street. SURREY, a metropolitan and inland county of Eng- land, but having communication with the sea by means of the river Thames, which separates 'it from Middlesex on the N. On the other sides it is bounded by Kent on the E., Sussex on the S., Hampshire on the W., and Berkshire on the N.W. It lies between 61 4' and 61 30' N. lat., and between 3' and 51' W. long. Its figure is nearly oblong, being 39 miles from E. to W. from the Kentish border, near Westerham, to the Hampshire border, near Farnham, and its breadth 2fi miles from N. to S., from the bank of the Thames, at Blackfriars-bridge, London, to the Sussex border, near Crawley. It comprises an area of 758 square miles, or 485,120 acres, of which about 400,000 are arable, mea- dow, market gardens, and orchards, and the remainder heath, moorland, and unimprovable waste. Its popula- tion in 1851 was 683,082, and in 1861, 830,685, of whom about 400,000 are in the metropolitan boroughs of South- wark and Lambeth. Its county towns are Croydon, Guildford, and Kingston. Its circuit is about 146 miles, of which the Thames traces 45, and is navigable through- out for small craft, and up to London-bridge for sea- borne vessels, where it forms the Pool or Harbour of London, the most important port in the world. This river first touches the county at Egham, near its north- western extremity, whence it flows S.E. by Chertsey, and receiving the tributary waters of the Wey, takes an irregular north-easterly direction to Kew, passing by the town of Kingston and the village of Thames Ditton, to the village of Petersham and Richmond. From Kew it pursues an easterly course, by Mortlake, Barnes, Putney, Wandsworth, and Battersea, then, forming Chelsea Reach, it pours its stream through the arches of the numerous bridges which connect London and Westminster with the boroughs of South wark and Lambeth and the southern suburbs of the metropolis. Those of its tributaries which belong to Surrey are the Bourne Brook, with its head streams from Bagshot and Virginia Water ; the Wey, from Hampshire, which be- comes navigable at Guildford for 18 miles ; the Mole, from Sussex, which, during seasons of drought, in the neighbourhood of Dorking, leaves its channel dry, and for several miles pursues a subterraneous course ; the Wandle, a trout stream, and remarkable for the number of water mills along its banks ; the Hogg's-Mill and the Putney Brook, besides several small streams not belonging to the Thames basin; these fall into the Arun and Medway. At the time of the Roman invasion Surrey was inhabited by the Belgic tribes, Sibroci and Jtemi, and subsequently was included in the Roman province of Britannia Prima, Though no station is mentioned by Antonine as being within its boundaries, there are traces of several Roman roads, including Ermine Street, which went from St. George's Fields, at London, to Croydon and Godstone ; Stane Street, which went by Streatham; and other roads leading to Caesar's camps, as they are called, at Walton- on-Thames and Farnliuin. Upon the settlement of the Saxons in England this county was peopled by the same tribes as Middlesex, and the names of many of the villages and hamlets are the same in both counties. It then became part of the Suth-Seaxna-rice, founded by Ella in 478. In the 9th century it was much ravaged by the Danes, who were eventually defeated by Alfred at Farnham in 894. After the Norman conquest this principality was granted to William de Warren, as Earl of Surrey. At this period a large part of the county, comprising the whole of the Weald and other extensive districts, was still covered with wood, which induced Henry II. to annex it as a royal demesne to the Forest of Windsor. The whole of the county, with the exception of Guildford Park, and the bailiwick of 14 parishes round Windsor, was disafforested during the reign of Henry III. Several attempts were made to extend Windsor Forest again into the county by the Edwards, and even so late as the time of Charles I. The royal palace at Shene, now Richmond, was a favourite residence of many of the early kings, and Ann of Bohemia, queen of Richard II., Edward III., Henry VII., and Queen Elizabeth, all died here. In the civil war of Charles I. the shire was devoted to the parliamentary cause, and formed one of the asso- ciated counties, though Farnham Castle, and a few other strong positions were held by the royalists till after the. battle of Edge Hill. A range of chalk hills, called the Hog's Back, runs from E. to W. across the county past Seale, Guildford, Dorking, Banstead Downs, and Botley Hill, near Croydon, where an ele- vation of 880 feet above sea-level is obtained. To the S. of this range is another line of hills, composed chiefly of upper and lower green sandstone, some of which are even more lofty than those of the chalk for- mation, attaining an elevation of 923 feet at Hind Head Common, where occurs the hollow called the Devil's Punch-lx>wl, and 993 feet at Leith Hill, the highest point in the county. S. of this range stretches the plain known as the Weald, 30 miles in length by 4 in breadth, and joining the Wealds of Sussex and Kent, which anciently formed one vast forest. The northern part of the county, from the Thames to the chalk ridge above mentioned, is entirely composed of the London and plastic clays, but along the banks of the river, these are often overlaid by rich alluvial soil, thrown down at a comparatively recent geological period by the waters of the Thames, which once formed a broad estuary with extensive marshes on either bank. The soil is various in different parts of the county, according to the character of the underlying strata, and the elevation of the land above the sea, but may be classed into plastic and alluvial clays, calcareous earth, barren sandy heaths, and rich vegetable loam. The loamy soils excel in the production of barley, peas, and root crops, and are largely appropriated for market gardens and orchards, which frequently produce five successive crops during the year. On these hinds vast quantities of carrots, parsnips, asparagus, cabbages, and all sorts of esculent vegetables are grown for the London markets ; also peppermint, lavender, roses, poppies, liquorice, camo- mile, wormwood, and other aromatic drugs, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Mitcham and Tooting. On the clay lands wheat and beans are extensively grown, and on the calcareous soils near the Downs, red and white clover and sanfoin for hay, intermixed with barley, also above 1,200 acres of hop plantations, chiefly in the vicinity of Farnham, esteemed some of the most pro- ductive in England. In the Weald geese are reared. A good deal of coppice wood and timber is planted, consist- ing of ash, chcsnut, alder, willow, and osier, and on Box Hill are some of the finest box trees in England. Along the western border of the county, and near its centre, are many tracts of barren common and moorland extending over more than 100 square miles, especially at Bagshot, Bisley, Chobham, Clandon, Epsom, Esher, Farnham, Frensham, Ockham, Pirbright, Thursley, Wimbledon, and Woking. Some of the wells are from 200 to 300 feet deep, owing to the porous nature of the soil, and mineral springs are met with at Cobham, Dorking, 4 o