CLIMATE SOME of the principal elements of the climate of Hertfordshire may be ascertained by examining maps in a meteorological atlas, such as the Meteorological Atlas of the British Islands issued by the Meteorological Council, or the splendid Atlas of Meteorology recently published which forms volume iii. of Bartholomew's Physical Atlas. 1 Here for instance may be ascertained approximately the monthly as well as the annual temperature and rainfall of the county, with the advantage of easy comparison with the same elements of the climate of other parts of the British Isles, of Europe, or of the world. But climate is such a complex phenomenon that any views thus formed must be wanting in definiteness. Not only have we to consider the rainfall, temperature, humidity, amount of cloud, and direction of the wind, but also the nature of the soil, the extent of water, of woods, of barren heaths and cultivated land, and the presence or absence of manu- facturing districts. More than three centuries ago Norden said of Hertfordshire : ' The ayre for the most part is very salutarie, and in regard thereof many sweete and pleasant dwellinges, healthfull by nature and profitable by arte and Industrie, are planted there.' 2 Sixty-five years later Fuller remarked : ' It is the garden of England for delight, and men commonly say that such who buy a house in Hertfordshire pay two years' purchase for the aire thereof.' 3 Thus the salubrity of Hertfordshire had by then become proverbial, and the county is certainly favoured from a hygienic point of view, having a dry soil, being hilly though not mountainous, with a great extent of surface considerably elevated above sea-level, being well watered with numerous rivers deriving their supply chiefly from springs in the Chalk, and therefore pure, being well wooded, having many parks and country seats, a fair proportion of uncultivated land forming gorse-covered commons, and wide stretches of grass on each side of many of its roads (roadside wastes), and also by the absence of manufacturing towns. There is no industry which interferes with the purity of the air, and the only manufacturing process by which the rivers are contaminated is that of paper-making. There are several 1 The Physical Atlas, byj. G. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S. (London: Archibald Constable & Co., Ltd.). In progress. ! The Description of Hartfordshire, p. 2 (1597). 3 The Worthies of England, part 2, p. 17 (1662). 1 33 D
