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Jenyns Tour of 1824 to Sussex and Kent
Edited by Roger F.Vaughan
Page three of the Rev.Leonard Jenyns' walking tour of 1824, taken from the unpublished manuscript.
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July 22.
Spent the early part of the day in examining the coast at low water
( The time of low water, was apparently about 1.p.m.)
for fuci, confervae and other marine algae, of which there appeared to
be a pretty good variety, but many of them so delicate as scarce to
bear removal from their native situations. Amongst them were a few of
the smaller corallines. Conchology was not just now the object of my
researches, or I should have been inclined to avail myself of the good
situation in that respect which I believe Hastings to be. The few
species of shells which I noticed on the rocks which had been left
exposed by the retreat of the tide were as follows:
Balani (2
species), Mytilus edulis, Buccinum lapillus, Turbo littoreus, Nerita
lettoralis, and Patella vulgata.
If these latter be taken by
surprise, by a sudden jerk they are easily knocked off, but if first
put on their guard by being touched, they immediately exert some
additional muscular action, and adhere with such extreme tenacity to
the surface upon which they are fastened, that it becomes next to
impossible to tear them away from it without injuring the shell. The
eatable muscles (Mytili edules) hung in immense clusters, attached to
the rocks by their byssus: in some places the stones were quite black
with them.
A small Oniscus was very plentiful everywhere crawling
amongst the seaweed; I could discern no apparent difference between it
and the Asellus aquaticus so common in ditches, but is it likely that
the same species should inhabit both salt and fresh-water? After
rough weather the coast is covered with Asteriae, varying in size from
one to five inches in diameter, but apparently all of the same
species. These creatures so abject in appearance, and inert
in their motions betray evident symptoms of the low and degraded rank
which they hold in the scale of created beings, and show scarce any
signs of life itself, beyond that of gently curling up when handled.
I observed a boy who was bold enough to eat one of them, but I did not
envy him his morsel: the very smell is forbidding enough.
The most
curious animals however which I observed were what are commonly called
Sea Anemonies. These creatures are of an oval and somewhat conical
form, with a single orifice at the smaller end, whose border is beset
with innumerable beautiful tentacles, which when fully expanded have a
radiated or starlike appearance, but in a state of quiescence and
repose are not visible. At the base they are strongly affixed to the
rocks: they are chiefly found in the small splashy pools left by the
tide, and at first sight much resemble lumps of blubber of an olive
green colour.
The above imperfect scrawls just give a rude idea, of the different
appearances they put on. The fishermen have an ingenious method of
catching crabs and other crustacea: they procure a quantity of small
open baskets into each of which they put a piece of putrid fish as
bait; these are then let down into the sea where it is shallow, having
been first suspended by lines to a piece of cork which floats on the
surface. After a short interval they are drawn up one after another,
and it rarely happens that they are found empty; and frequently two or
three will be in each. For taking shrimps they make use of a large
hand net which they push before them, wading into the sea for that
purpose, as high as their middles or more.
In my way home, I fell in
with a grand depot of Carduus tenuiflorus, which I did not observe
yesterday: this plant I had found before at Piddinghoe on the Downs;
it does not seem so uncommon as authors represent it to be. Also
noticed Trifolium scabrum, and one single specimen of Glaucium luteum,
the only one I saw during my stay at Hastings, though before, I had
found it so plentiful between Rottingdean and Newhaven. Chironia
centaurium grows in great luxuriance everywhere about here.
Went out again in the afternoon for the purpose of visiting some very
uneven and wooded ground which lies to the left of Hastings about half
a mile below the town. The spot is contiguous to the sea, and is
situated just behind a small barrack erected for the accommodation of
the Officers and soldiers on the preventive service. A more tempting
looking place for the Botanist I never met with, nor did it fail in
furnishing me with two or three new species. Had I however been
disappointed in that respect, I could not have been in others, as the
scenery for so confined a spot was beautiful. Its most striking
feature is a running stream of water about four foot across, which
trickles down a gradually sloping hill for the length of perhaps half
a quarter of a mile, in some places widening considerably: on either
side is a thick hanging wood, which meet overhead, in such a manner as
entirely to exclude the sun, throwing a gloom over the whole and
giving it a very wild and romantic appearance: the bed of the stream
consists of irregularly shaped large mossy stones projecting out in
such a way as readily to allow of one's stepping from one to the
other, by which means I followed it up to its source. In one place
there was on my right hand a perpendicular wall of sandstone that rose
considerably higher than my head, whose surface was dripping with the
water that oozed out of the cracks, and covered with some large
Jungermannia which however was not in fructification. The different
species of Filices thrived here in prodigious luxuriance, particularly
the Scolopendrium vulgare. The chief acquisitions which I made in the
neighbourhood of this spot, were Veronica montana, Malva moschata, and
Cardamine hirsuta. The latter was in great plenty, but almost off,
though not quite.
In one place I also found a profusion of the
Chrysoplenium oppositifolium, but there were no symptoms of blossom,
nor even the appearance of there ever having been any that season: I
believe May is the month in which this species usually flowers; but it
is not a common plant, nor did I ever meet with it before. Digitalis
purpurea grew very fine and luxuriously. The cracks and fissures of
the large rocky stones, which lay scattered about here and there, were
tenanted by immense quantities of a gigantic species of ant, far
surpassing in size any I ever saw before: they must have been full
half an inch long: Query, if these were the Formica herculanea of
authors? They seemed very pugnacious, and of an irritable disposition,
displaying their expanded jaws when disturbed in a very hostile and
threatening manner, on which account I was unwilling to molest them,
as I did not know how strong their forces might be.
July 23.
Left Hastings at 10 A.M. per London Coach for Tonbridge, where I
arrived at 2 p.m.. The road lay through Battel, Robertsbridge, and
Lamberhurst. The country about the latter place extremely pretty, but
tedious in travelling on account of the many steep sandy hills.
Somewhere near here, I discerned from the top of the coach a wood on
the left hand full of Epilobium angustifolium, which I grieved
exceedingly at not being able to get.
Took up my quarters in
Tonbridge for a single night at the Rose and Crown: one of the most
excellent inns I ever was at. Tonbridge Town, as it is called in
order to distinguish it from Tonbridge Wells, consists of one long
paved street, which is remarkably clean and neat, of considerable
breadth (which gives it a handsome appearance), and abounding in well
build commodious houses. In the afternoon I walked, for about 3 or 4
miles, on the road leading towards Wrotham, and that part of Kent
which lies between Seven Oakes and Maidstone. Country beautiful:
thick woods on each side of the road for miles together. Noticed the
following plants : Smyrnium olusatrum, Epilobium tetragonum, Genista
tinctoria, Hypericum androsaemum, and Taxus baccata really wild.
July 24.
After breakfast I started along the Seven Oakes Road, with the
intention of reaching the 27th milestone in order to look for the Iris
foetidissima mentioned as growing there by Forster in his Flora
Tonbridgiensis, but for want of time did not get so far. Got nothing
new but Arenaria trinervis and Thlaspi campestre : the latter was
growing abundantly amongst crops of peas.
Had intended in the afternoon to have taken the coach, in its way
thro' Tonbridge from London, to the Wells, but that being full, I sent
my luggage by a carrier and walked. The distance is only six miles,
and perhaps a more beautiful six miles no where exists; the prospects
from some parts of the road where it lies high, are of the richest
kind: In my way thither found Prenanthes muralis and Trifolium medium
in abundance.
Got to Tonbridge Wells at 5 in the afternoon, almost
smothered with dust, and went to the Sussex Hotel. Accommodations of
the first rate perfection. Tonbridge Wells is a place, the greater
part of which is quite of modern date. Its house are good and rapidly
increasing in number to meet the demands for them occasioned by the
vast influx of strangers every year, that resort to its waters for
their health. Consequently, the greater part of them are let for
lodgings. Besides these there two grand hotels the Sussex and the
Kentish, and one of very inferior reputation by name of Castle Tavern.
The gay time of the year is August, and the place was beginning to
fill very fast, during my stay in it. The scenery in the
neighbourhood is beautiful, and in some respects perhaps scarcely to
be equalled by any in the Kingdom, affording a combination of hill and
valley, wood and forrest, wild and cultivated tracts, that present the
most lovely prospects in whatever direction the eye is turned. If it
has any deficiency it arises from the want of water which is so scarce
an article that you may go for miles without meeting with enough to
cover your shoes. The soil is at all times a very dry one, being a
fine white sand, which in a drought like that which prevailed during
the first part of my visit there, accumulates in the roads to such an
amount as to be in some places ankle deep. This makes walking
unpleasant: in winter time from the same cause the roads must be very
heavy.
July 25.
This was Sunday, in consequence of which I took a holyday and rested
from my Botanical labours. In the morning I attended the Chapel where
I heard a most excellent discourse, by a person whose name I could not
learn, in behalf of a charitable contribution to go towards the
erecting of another Chapel which was found necessary in order to
accommodate the large number of strangers who annually visit the
Wells, amongst whom I then being one, felt personally concerned, and
gave my mite with cheerfulness. After church strolled onto the common
which lies in front of the chief houses, whose promenades cut in
different directions are much resorted to on Sundays by the
fashionable company. Very wild and pretty, not like our commons in
the fens which are little better than miry swamps, but covered with
furze and ferns.
The neighbourhood of Tonbridge Wells is much celebrated for sundry
detached collections of sandstone rocks which are scattered about the
country, and constitute, at least some of them, the chief lions of the
place which all strangers go to see. The most considerable of these
are known by the names of Harrison's Rocks, and the High Rocks, which
being on the largest scale, and piled up in a very irregular manner,
and covered with wood, exhibit a scenery of a very beautifully wild
and romantic nature. As I dedicated afterwards a whole day to each of
these, I need not say more with respect to them at present. Forster
in his Flora Tonbridgiensis talks of Penn's Rocks, but I could find no
one who was acquainted with any of that name. Besides these, there
are some of a far more humble and inferior sort, on several parts of
Tonbridge Wells common and Rusthall common. The most curious of those
on the former, occur just at the entry onto it from the London Road:
Beneath they are hollowed out in places, into caves and halls; on the
top of them I noticed a vast abundance of the Evening primrose
(Oenothera biennis) completely naturalized; but there is no doubt that
they originally escaped from the neighbouring gardens. Forster does
not mention it in his catalogue. Arenaria rubra grows in plenty all
over Tonbridge Wells common.
July 26.
Started at 10 a.m. on my first botanical expedition in this
neighbourhood: took the road to Frant: but before I had proceeded a
mile was turned by the rain, which suddenly came on quite fast, and
continued for the rest of the day. This tried my temper, however in
the mile I managed to get four new plants, viz. Galium saxatile,
Peplis portula, Senecio sylvatica, and Hieracium sabaudum. As there
was not the slightest chance of its holding up, I returned home.
July 27.
The rain of yesterday continued all night, and did not fairly cease
till 11 this morning, at which time I again got out, and pursued my
former route along the road to Frant. Before I started I marked down
certain habitats given in Forster's book, for some of the rarer plants
which were amongst my desiderata, and noticed more particularly those
which would fall in the way of this day's expedition. Some of these
I was successful in finding: others eluded my most diligent
researches. Amongst the failures I may reckon Centunculus minimus,
Epilobium angustifolium, and Tormentilla reptans; of the first Forster
says, Sides of the roads from Wells to Frant ; this is a bog plant,
and in one or two places along this road, there was some very wet
swampy ground, but I could find nothing but Peplis portula which was
abundant: this plant when growing out of the water is very small and
stunted, and in such cases resembles the Centunculus which for the
minute I once or twice thought I had found, but presently detected my
error. Of the Epilobium angustifolium he says, In a wood on the left
hand side of the road from Wells to Frant; now I could not discover
any regular wood to the left hand side till one reaches Waterdown
Forest which is all wood for hundreds of acres, so I do not know where
he means. Tormentilla reptans he likewise mentions as growing in Hedges and margins of fields, on the side of the road from Wells to
Frant, but I could see no trace of it.
The little village of Frant is about three miles from Tonbridge Wells:
it is surrounded on all sides by extensive woods, which form a part of
the Waterdown Forest, and are the property of the Earl of Abergavenny,
whose estates in this neighbourhood extend over a prodigious tract of
country. Near here, I made several additions to my collection:
amongst other things found a single specimen of Hieracium murorum,
growing by the roadside about half a mile before you enter the village
from Tonbridge Wells. Was the more pleased at finding this, as
Forster has not given it in his catalogue. Hieracium sabaudum and
umbellatum were every where abundant, but the latter was not yet in
flower. The Elms were covered with Porina pertusa, (Greville's Flora
Edinensis p.354,) and the Beeches, some of which are large and
handsome, with a species of Usnea ? (Grev. Fl. Ed. p.349). The ivy
leaved lettuce (Prenanthes muralis) seems one of the commonest plants
about Tonbridge Wells; high chalky banks and moist woods are
everywhere covered with it: many specimens attain the height of
between four and five feet, and make a very conspicuous shew.
Leaving
Frant, I continued my way along the road, as far as the eighth
milestone, deviating occasionally to the right and left, into the
thick woods and plantations on either side; from whence I seldom
reappeared without some booty. For part of the way the road skirts
Eridge Park, the seat of the Earl of Abergavenny, in which I found
Cuscuta epithymum parasitical on Calluna vulgaris and grasses, also in
a damp shaded spot the rare Scutellaria minor in profusion: these were
two rich acquisitions, and the last which I made in this direction.
As soon as my eyes were sufficiently satisfied with gazing and
admiring the beautiful scenery which opens to the view in a very
striking manner from several parts of the road about here, I somewhat
unwillingly turned about, and began to veer homewards. As far as
Frant I retreated by the same route by which I came, but after I was
through the village, I struck off to the right, and came a circuit
across country, traversing in my way a boggy, heathy, wild sort of
common where I gathered beautiful specimens of Erica tetralix,
Veronica scutellata, Trifolium filiforme, and Blechnum boreale, with a
variety of grasses and other filices which I have not yet examined.
Solidago virgaurea was plentiful, but scarcely in flower. Got home at
6 p.m. very well satisfied with the fruits of the day's expedition.
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