Chapter 2
5. _Wind._--The prevailing direction of the wind, as recorded at Berkhampstead, St. Albans and Bennington, is from S.W. (sixty-one days in the year) to W. (sixty-two days), and the next most frequent winds are N. to N.E. and S. (each about thirty-seven days). The least frequent are S.E. (twenty-five days). About forty-four days in the year are recorded as calm.
6. _Rainfall._--Twelve years is much too short a period to give a trustworthy mean for such a variable element of climate as rainfall, and five stations are much too few to deduce an average from for Hertfordshire. The average rainfall at a varying number of stations for the sixty years 1840 to 1899 (from one station in the first decade of this period to twenty stations in the last decade) was 26.15 inches. In the driest year (1854) 17.67 inches fell, and in the wettest (1852) 37.57 inches. Spring has 5.40 inches, summer 6.97, autumn 7.87, and winter 5.91. The driest months are February and March, each with a mean of 1.65 inch; April is but very little wetter, having 1.69. The wettest month is October, with 2.96 inches, and the next is November with 2.56. The mean number of days of rain in the year, that is of days on which at least 0.01 inch fell, for the thirty years 1870-99, was 167. Autumn and winter have each about six more wet days than spring and summer. The rainfall is greatly affected by the form of the ground, the southern and western hills attracting the rain, which chiefly comes from the S.W., so greatly that with a mean annual fall of about 26 inches there is a difference of 3½ inches between that of the river-basin of the Colne on the W. and that of the river-basin of the Lea on the E., the former having 28 inches and the latter 24½. The small portion of the river-basin of the Great Ouse which is within our area has rather less rain than the average for the county.
IV. FLORA AND FAUNA
In his _Cybele Britannica_, H. C. Watson divided Britain into eighteen botanical provinces of which the Thames and the Ouse occupy the whole of the S.E. of England. The greater part of Hertfordshire is in the Thames province and a small portion in the N. is in that of the Ouse.
In Pryor's _Flora of Hertfordshire_, published by the Hertfordshire Natural History Society in 1887, which should be referred to for full information on the botany of the county, these botanical provinces are again divided into districts, the Ouse into (1) Cam, (2) Ivel; and the Thames into (3) Thame, (4) Colne, (5) Brent, (6) Lea; both the larger provinces and the smaller districts thus being founded on the natural divisions of a country, drainage areas or catchment basins.
In the following brief notes a few of the rarer or more interesting flowering plants of each district are enumerated.
1. _The Cam._--This is the most northern district. It is almost entirely on the Chalk and is very bare of trees. The few plants which are restricted to it are very rare. A meadow-rue, _Thalictrum Jacquinianum_, and the cat's foot (_Antennaria dioica_) occur only on Royston and Therfield Heaths; _Alisma ranunculoides_ and _Potamogeton coloratus_ only on Ashwell Common; and of the great burnet (_Poterium officinale_) the sole record is that of a plant gathered near Ashwell in 1840.
2. _The Ivel._--This district is S.W. of that of the Cam, and the Chalk Downs of that district are continued through it. Its rarer plants are _Melampyrum arvense_, which occurs only in one spot S. of Ashwell; _Smyrnium olusatrum_, which has been found near Baldock and Pirton; and _Silene conica_, which was found near Hitchin in 1875. The white helleborine (_Cephalanthera pallens_), the dwarf orchis (_Orchis ustulata_), and the musk orchis (_Herminium monorchis_) occur on the Chalk Downs.
3. _The Thame._--A very small tongue-like protrusion[a] of the extreme W. of the county, in which are the Tring Reservoirs. Two of the species confined to the district, _Typha angustifolia_ and _Potamogeton Friesii_, are water-plants which occur only in these reservoirs or in the canals which they supply. A rare poplar, _Populus canescens_, grows by the Wilstone reservoir, and the man-orchis (_Aceras anthropophora_) on terraces cut in the Chalk near Tring.
4. _The Colne._--A large district, comprising almost the whole of the western portion of the county. _Diplotaxis tenuefolia_, _Silene nutans_, and _Hieracium murorum_ grow only on old walls in St. Albans. Colney Heath is our only habitat for a very rare loosestrife, _Lythrum hyssopyfolium_, and also for _Teesdalia nudicaulis_, while there is but one other locality, a different one in each case, for four of its plants, _Radiola linoides_, _Centunculus minimus_, _Cuscuta epithymum_, and _Potamogeton acutifolius_. The pasque-flower (_Anemone pulsatilla_) grows abundantly on the Chalk slopes near Aldbury. The rarer orchids of the district are the bog-orchis (_Malaxis paludosa_), the narrow-leaved helleborine (_Cephalanthera ensifolia_), and the butterfly orchis (_Habenaria bifolia_).
5. _The Brent._--The smallest district, a protrusion[b] of the county in the S. entirely on the London Clay, and chiefly interesting owing to the presence of Totteridge Green and its ponds. In these ponds grow the great spearwort (_Ranunculus lingua_) and the sweet-flag (_Acorus calamus_), the former, however, not being indigenous. The star-fruit (_Damasonium stellatum_) formerly grew on Totteridge Green, and _Chenopodium glaucum_ at Totteridge, but neither has lately been seen.
6. _The Lea._--The largest district, comprising the whole of the E. of the county. The London rocket (_Sisymbrium irio_) occurs only in the old towns of Hertford and Ware; the true oxlip (_Primula elatior_) near the head of the River Stort; a very rare broom-rape, _Orobanche cærulea_, at Hoddesdon, where it is parasitic on the milfoil; and an almost equally rare bedstraw, _Galium anglicum_, on an old wall of Brocket Park. A rare trefoil, _Trifolium glomeratum_, is known only at Easneye near Ware; and Hatfield Park is our only locality for the water-soldier (_Stratiotes aloides_) except where it has evidently been planted. Two species, usually of rare occurrence, _Polygonum dumetorum_ and _Apera spica-venta_, are frequent in the district.
The indigenous flowering plants of Hertfordshire number 893 species, 679 being Dicotyledons and 214 Monocotyledons. If to these be added 199 aliens, etc., the total number of species recorded is brought up to 1,092. The flora is essentially of a southern type, the northern species being few in number. Owing to the dry soil, xerophiles largely prevail over hygrophiles.
_The Ferns_ and their allies the horsetails and clubmosses are not well represented, both the soil and the air of the county being too dry for them. Another cause for the present scarcity of ferns is the proximity of Hertfordshire to London, for they have been uprooted and taken there for sale in cart-loads. We have twenty-four species of ferns and fern-allies, but not one really rare. The principal varieties are _Scolopendrium vulgare_, var. _multifidum_; _Athyrium filixfæmina_[c], var. _convexum_; and _Polypodium vulgare_, var. _serratum_. _Equisetum silvaticum_ is our rarest horsetail; and our only clubmoss is _Lycopodium clavatum_.
_The Mosses_ are much better represented than the ferns, 175 species having been recorded. The bog-mosses are represented by six species--_Sphagnum intermedium_, _cuspidatum_, _subsecundum, acutifolium_, _squarrosum_, and _cymbifolium_. _Tetraphis pellucida_ occurs in Sherrard's Park Wood, and _Polytrichum urnigerum_ in Hitch Wood. _Seligeria pusilla_ has been found in an old chalk-pit in Brocket Park, and _S. paucifolia_ on chalk nodules in the Tunnel Woods near Watford. _Campylopus pyriforme_ occurs in Berry Grove Wood, Aldenham, and _C. flexuosus_ in Dawley's Wood, Tewin.
Of _the Liverworts_ (_Hepaticæ_) forty-four species are known to occur; and the Stoneworts (_Characeæ_) are represented by seven species--two of _Chara_, two of _Tolypella_, and three of _Nitella_.
_The Algæ_ have been pretty fully investigated, especially the _Diatomaceæ_, of the 252 species of Algæ known to occur in the county, 156 belonging to that interesting family of microscopic plants. As an illustration of their minute size it may be mentioned that a single drop of water from the saucer of a flower-pot at Hertford, mounted as a microscopic slide, was found to contain 200,000 separate frustules of _Achnanthes subsessilis_, and it was estimated that these occupied only one twenty-fifth part of the drop. Both species of _Chlamidococcus_ (the old genus _Protococcus_), _C. pluvialis_ and _C. nivalis_ occur; and the pretty _Volvox globator_ has frequently been found.
Of _the Lichens_ much less is known, only sixty-seven species having been recorded. The most noteworthy are _Calicium melanophæum_, found on fir-trees in Bricket Wood; _Peltigera polydactyla_, on moss-covered ground in Oxhey Woods, Watford; _Lecanora phlogina_, in the Tunnel Woods, Watford; and _Pertusaria globulifera_, on trees in the same woods and also in Bricket Wood. As woods in the vicinity of Hertford and of Watford only have been searched for lichens, our list ought to be largely increased by investigation in other parts of the county.
Of _the Fungi_ our chief knowledge is derived from lists of species collected at Fungus Forays of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society and from records of the Mycetozoa by Mr. James Saunders. The number of species recorded for the county is 735, of which fifty-eight are "myxies". Of the Hymenomycetes, or mushroom-like fungi, some very noteworthy finds have been made, nearly all at Forays of the county society. They include two species new to Britain, _viz._, _Agaricus (Nolania) nigripes_, found in Aldenham Woods, Watford, and _Ag. (Hypholoma) violacea-ater_, in Gorhambury Park, St. Albans (by the present writer). Hertfordshire has also furnished the second British records for _Ag. (Lepiota) gliodermus_ (Broxbourne Woods), _Ag. (Leptonia) euochrous_ (Ashridge Woods), _Ag. (Psathyrella) aratus_ (Sherrard's Park, Welwyn), and _Paxillus Alexandri_ (Hatfield Park), this species having first been recorded from Hatfield Park, Essex; and the second and third British record for _Agaricus (Clytocybe) Sadleri_ (Ashridge Park and Cassiobury Park). The very rare _Strombilomyces strombilaceus_ has been found in Grove Park, Watford, and the still rarer _Peziza luteo-nitens_ on the Chalk slopes between Aldbury and Ashridge Park. Lastly it may be mentioned that Mr. Saunders added the "myxie" _Physarum citrinum_ to the British fungus-flora from specimens found by him at Caddington and Welwyn.
_The Birds_ of Hertfordshire have been carefully observed, and the appearance of rare visitors has been duly recorded. At a lecture delivered at St. Albans in 1902, Mr. Alan F. Crossman, F.L.S., F.Z.S., stated that 212 species had been known to visit the county, and mentioned, _inter alia_, that the kingfisher is more numerous in Hertfordshire than formerly, that the heron nested in the county for the first time in 1901, and that the appearance of the bearded titmouse had been noticed on but three occasions. During the last forty years the following birds, among others, have been noticed as occasional visitants: the storm-petrel (_Procellaria pelagica_), golden oriole (_Oriolus galbula_), whooper-swan (_Cygnus musicus_), snow-bunting (_Plectrophanes nivalis_), greater spotted woodpecker (_Picus major_), black tern (_Hydrochelidon nigra_), great northern diver (_Colymbus glacialis_), herring-gull (_Larus argentatus_), cormorant (_Phalacrocorax carbo_), tufted duck (_Fuligula cristata_), hoopoe (_Upopa epops_), crossbill (_Loxia curvirostra_), sheldrake (_Tadorna cornuta_), Guillemot[d] (_Lornvia troile_), Pallas' sandgrouse (_Syrrhaptes paradoxus_), rock thrush (_Monticola saxatilis_), black redstart (_Ruticilla titys_), Dartford warbler (_Silvia undata_), grasshopper warbler (_Locustella nævia_)[d], waxwing (_Ampelis garrulus_), twite (_Linota flavirostris_), hen harrier (_Circus cyaneus_), buzzard (_Buteo vulgaris_), redshank (_Totanus calidris_), greenshank (_Totanus cunescens_) and the little auk (_Mergulus alle_).
The lapwing is thought to be increasing in numbers; the writer frequently observed considerable flocks during his recent rambles in the county. Finches are perhaps as numerous in Hertfordshire as in any other county of equal size; the large flocks of hen chaffinches that haunt the farmyards in winter being quite a notable feature. The goldfinch, it is to be feared, is rapidly becoming scarcer; as are also the jay, the woodcock and other birds much more numerous a few years back. Fieldfares and redwings visit the county in great numbers from the N. during the winter; one morning in the winter of 1886 the writer saw many thousands of fieldfares pass over St. Albans from the direction of Luton. The redwing, being largely insectivorous, is often picked up dead in the fields when the frost is unusually severe and food proportionally difficult to obtain.
The presence of many woods and small streams attracts a good proportion of the smaller English migrants; the nightingale and the cuckoo are heard almost throughout the county. Moorhens, coots and dabchicks are abundant; the reed-sparrow is heard only in a few districts. Titmice, great, blue and long-tailed, are well distributed.
V. POPULATION
Comparatively little peculiar to the county is known of the early inhabitants of Hertfordshire. They seem from the earliest times to have been scattered over the county in many small groups, rather than to have concentrated at a few centres. Singularly enough, this almost uniform dispersion of population is still largely maintained, for, unlike so many other counties, Hertfordshire has not within its borders a single large town. The larger among them, _i.e._, Watford, St. Albans, Hitchin, Hertford and Bishop's Stortford, are not collectively equal in population to even such towns as Bolton, Halifax or Croydon. Another feature to be noted is that, owing to the county's proximity to London, it is now the home of persons of many nations and tongues, and only in the smaller villages between the railroads are there left any traits of local character or peculiarities of idiom. It is hardly necessary to say that this conglomeration of peoples is common to all the home counties, though mostly so, as I venture to think, in Hertfordshire and Surrey. The Essex peasant is still strongly differentiated from his neighbours.
Grose, writing towards the end of the eighteenth century, stated that the population of Hertfordshire was 95,000. They must have been well dispersed, for he tells us that the county contained at that period 949 villages; by the word "village," however, he seems to mean any separate community, including small hamlets. Some interesting figures are to be found in Tymms's _Compendium of the History of the Home Circuit_. He states that in 1821 the county contained 129,714 inhabitants, comprising 26,170 families and living in 23,687 houses. Of these families no fewer than 13,485 were engaged in agriculture. From the same source I quote the following figures relating to the year 1821:--
Houses. Inhabitants. Hemel Hempstead 1,012 5,193 Watford 940 4,713 Hitchin 915 4,486 St. Albans 735 4,472 Cheshunt 847 4,376 Hertford 656 4,265
In 1881 the population of the county was 203,069; in 1891 it had increased by about one-eleventh to 220,162; in 1921 it was 333,236.
In the days of William I. the whole of the possessions and estates of Hertfordshire belonged to the King and forty-four persons who shared his favour, amongst whom may be mentioned the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London, Winchester, Chester, Bayeux and Liseux, and the Abbots of Westminster, Ely, St. Albans, Charteris and Ramsey.
To go as far back as the Heptarchy, we find the land mostly owned by Mercians, East Saxons and by the Kings of Kent, and thus there gradually sprang up that "Middle English" population which for so long formed a large proportion of the inhabitants of Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Essex. How thoroughly such persons separated into small communities and settled down in every part of the county may be ascertained by the many "buries" found at a little distance from the town or village--Redbourn-bury, Ardeley-bury, Bayford-bury, Langley-bury, Harpenden-bury, etc.
VI. COMMUNICATIONS
1. _Roads._--Hertfordshire, as one of the home-counties, is crossed by many fine roads from the N.E., E. and N.W., as they gradually converge towards their common goal--London. Among them may be mentioned the Old North Road, from Royston through Buntingford and Ware to Waltham Cross; the Great North Road from Baldock through Stevenage, Welwyn and Hatfield to Barnet; and the Dunstable Road through Market Street, Redbourn and St. Albans, which meets the last-mentioned road at Barnet.[1] We may contrast these roads at the present day with the rough paths infested with robbers existing in the days when the country between Barnet and St. Albans was little better than a continuous, tangled forest; or even with the same roads in the days when Evelyn and Pepys frequently rode along them--and found them exceedingly bad. The cyclist wishing to ride northwards through Hertfordshire has comparatively stiff hills to mount at Elstree, High Barnet, Ridge, near South Mimms, and at St. Albans. He should also beware of the descent into Wheathampstead, of the dip between Bushey and Watford, and of the gritty roadways in the neighbourhood of Baldock. Most of the roads are well kept, particularly since they have been cared for by the County Council, and the traveller's book at the inn usually contains fewer anathemas touching the state of the highways than in some other counties which might be named.
[Footnote 1: There has been much dispute as to the exact trend of the "Great North Road". After careful inquiry I believe that the above paragraph states the case correctly. Much misunderstanding has doubtless arisen by confounding the "Old" with the "Great" North Road.]
_Railways._--Few counties in England are so well served with railroad communications; the London and North Western, Midland, Great Northern and Great Eastern running well across its face.
_The London and North Western_ enters the county ½ mile N.W. of Pinner, and has stations on its main route at Bushey, Watford, King's Langley, Boxmoor, Berkhampstead and Tring. It crosses the Bedfordshire border near Ivinghoe. From Watford it has a branch to Rickmansworth; and to Bricket Wood, Park Street and St. Albans; it has also a station at Marston Gate, on its branch line to Aylesbury.
_The Midland_ enters the county during its passage through the Elstree tunnel and runs nearly due N., having stations at Elstree, Radlett, St. Albans and Harpenden. It has also a branch with stations at Hemel Hempstead and Redbourn.
_The Great Northern_ main line crosses a small tongue of the county upon which it has stations at Oakleigh Park and New Barnet. It then traverses the Hadley Wood district of Middlesex, entering Hertfordshire again at Warren Gate, and has stations at Hatfield, Welwyn, Knebworth, Stevenage and Hitchin. From Hatfield it has three branches: (1) to Smallford and St. Albans; (2) to Ayot, Wheathampstead and Harpenden; (3) to Cole Green, Hertingfordbury and Hertford. At Hitchin it has a branch to Baldock, Ashwell and Royston.
_The Great Eastern_ enters the county at Waltham Cross and skirts the whole of the S.E. quarter, running on Essex soil from near the Rye House almost to Sawbridgeworth. It has stations in Hertfordshire at Waltham Cross, Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Sawbridgeworth and Bishop's Stortford. It enters Essex again near the last-named station. It has also important branches, (1) from Broxbourne to Rye House, St. Margaret's, Ware, and Hertford; (2) from St. Margaret's to Mardock, Widford, Hadham, Standon, Braughing, West Mill and Buntingford.
In addition, the Metropolitan Railway has an extension which crosses the S.W. extremity of the county, having stations at Rickmansworth and Chorley Wood. The Great Northern Railway has a branch from Finsbury Park to High Barnet, with a station at Totteridge.
VII. INDUSTRIES
1. _Agriculture._--Charles Lamb used no mere haphazard expression when he wrote of Hertfordshire as "that fine corn county". Forty years ago the county contained 339,187 acres under arable cultivation, of which considerably more than half were utilised for corn; and the proportion thus used is still much larger than might be supposed. (In 1897 it amounted to about 125,000 acres.) At the same period there were about 60,000 acres under wheat alone; for this grain, of which a large white variety is much cultivated, the county has long been famous. To this circumstance the village of Wheathampstead is indebted for its name. Barley and oats are also staple crops. The first Swede turnips ever produced in England were grown on a farm near Berkhampstead. Watercress is extensively cultivated, enormous quantities being sent into London from St. Albans, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhampstead, Welwyn and many other districts. Much manure is brought to the farms from the London stables, and by its aid large second crops of vegetables are frequently obtained. Clover, turnips and tares may be mentioned among other crops prominently cultivated. Fruit is also sent to London, particularly from the district lying between Tring, Watford and St. Albans, but none of the orchards are large.
The number of pigs reared in the county is--or was quite recently--rather above the average (per 100 acres under cultivation) for all England; the number of cattle rather below, and of sheep much below, this average.
2. _Manufactures_ are fairly numerous.
(_a_) _Straw Plait_ has for over 200 years been extensively made by hand for the Luton dealers. The wages earned by peasant girls and women in this employment were formerly high; 100 years ago a woman, if dexterous, might earn as much as £1 a week, but the increase in machinery and the competition from foreign plait has almost destroyed this cottage industry in some districts. During the last four decades several large straw hat manufactories have been erected in St. Albans, and the trade enlarged, although the conditions of production are altered.
(_b_) _Malting_ is still extensively carried on at Ware, which has been the centre of the industry for many years; it is said, indeed, to be the largest malting town in England. There are nearly 100 malting houses, many of them being beside the River Lea, navigable from this town for barges W. to Hertford and S. to London. There are extensive _Breweries_ at St. Albans, Watford, Hertford, High Barnet, Baldock, Hitchin, Hatfield, Tring, Berkhampstead, and other places.
(_c_) _Brick Fields_ are worked at Watford, St. Albans, Hemel Hempstead, Broxbourne, Bishop's Stortford, Hitchin and elsewhere.
(_d_) _Brushes_ of many kinds are manufactured at St. Albans and Berkhampstead.
(_e_) _Hurdles_ are made at Barkway, Croxley Green, Breachwood Green, Chorley Wood, Albury, and at one or two other places.
(_f_) _Iron Foundries_ are at Hertford, Ippollitts, Royston, Colne Valley (Watford), Hitchin and Puckeridge.
(_g_) _Paper_ is made at Croxley Mills, King's Langley, and Nash Mills.
(_h_) _Silk_ is made at the large mill on the River Ver, St. Albans, and at Redbourn.
(_i_) _Photographic plates_, _paper_, etc., are made at Watford, Boreham Wood and Barnet.
(_j_) _Lavender Water_ is made at Hitchin, from lavender grown in fields close by.
_Gravel_ abounds in many districts, and pits are extensively worked at Rickmansworth, Hertford and at Heath, Wheathampstead, Watford and Harpenden.