A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 5. Nene a. or Naseby District This is bounded on the south by the Cherwell and Ouse districts, as already described, as far as to Hartwell, when the county boundary of Buckingham borders it to Laythick Copse. From this point to Northampton the water-parting separates it from Nene B. district. The parishes of Horton, Hackleton, Preston Deanery and Wootton being put into the Naseby portion, while Hardingstone is put to Nene B., or Harper's Brook. From Northampton to Harrington the two districts are separated by the water-parting which lies between Weston Favell and Boughton, between Sywell and Holcot, between Pytchiey and Faxton, and between Harrington and Kelmarsh. Near this place it touches the Avon district, which thereafter bounds it on the north-west as far south as the Cherwell district near Hellidon. The Naseby district is drained by two streams, one, the chief supply, rising at Naseby, at nearly 600 feet above sea-level, called the Northern Water, which cuts its way down to the Upper Lias clay, and flows by Cottesbrooke, Lamport, Brixworth and Kingsthorpe to Northampton. On its course it receives near Spratton a small stream, rising from the hills at West Haddon, which has drained part of the parishes of Guilsborough, Hollowell, Holdenby and East Haddon, the higher portions being capped with Northamptonshire sands, while another feeder, the Stowe brook, coming from Thornby Grange, has taken the water from the northern side of Guilsborough and Hollowell, and the western side of Creaton and Spratton parishes, which are extensively covered with chalk and flint drift, and then is received by the West Haddon brook near Teeton. Near the Kingsthorpe meadows, where Gerard noticed the autumn crocus or meadow saffron prior to 1597, another stream is added to the Naseby brook, which has come from Brington and drained the rich oasis of Harleston Firs and Althorp Park. Near Pitsford a small tributary joins the Naseby brook, which has drained the north- eastern part of the district of Old Scaldwell, Holcot and Walgrave, and this area includes a small but very rich piece of bog-land, known as Fox Hall bog, but the riches will probably ere long be lost, as willows have been planted in it which will probably destroy the marsh plants which made it so interesting a feature in our too well drained county. The second branch of the Nene main stream has three heads, one rising from the Marlstone on Arbury Hill, the highest eminence in the county, which is the water-parting of the Avon and the Nene systems, and from the summit of which a very extensive view can be obtained, which embraces such distant objects as Wendover Hill south of Aylesbury, Brill Hill, in Bucks, and Coventry spires. A second branch comes from Studborough Hill (603 feet) and the third from the western slopes of West Haddon (587 feet). All these eminences are capped with Northampton sands through which the rainfall percolates till thrown out by the impervious layer at their base. The first passes through the picturesque park of Fawsley, hence it is sometimes called the Fawsley water, and then passes by Everdon to Upper Weedon, cutting through to the Lower Lias clay, which forms its bed as far east as to Kislingbury. The second drains the eastern side of Staverton, which like Daventry is on the Marlstone, Badby and Newnham, till near Upper Weedon it is joined by the Fawsley water. The third with its numerous ramifications drains the country in which are situated Drayton (437 feet) and Daventry reservoirs, Watford, Long Buckby, and Whilton, much of the country being on the Marlstone, and joins at Weedon the brook which results from the junction of the Fawsley water with the Badby stream. Between Weedon and Northampton the Nene, as the stream is now known, receives several tributaries, including the Floore brook and some small ones from the neighbourhood of Harpole from the north, and from the south a more important feeder called the Horsestone brook, which comes from Farthingstone, passes by Bugbrooke, which is on the Marlstone, Lower Heyford and Kislingbury to the base of Hunsbury Hill, where it meets with a stream which in one of its branches drains Blisworth, Gayton and Rothersthorpe, the latter being also on the Marlstone. Another drains Plain Woods and Milton, and the third flowing in a trough of the Upper Lias clay having drained part of Salcey Forest, Horton, Piddington, Preston Deanery and Wootton, turns in a westerly direction round Hunsbury Hill to meet the main stream of the Nene near Upton Mill ; soon after which the Naseby brook joins it at Northampton, where the surface of the stream is about 198 feet above sea-level. This large area has a very considerable diversity of soil, varying from the porous sands of Borough Hill, Staverton, Harleston, and Hollowell, to stiff clay such as is seen on the liassic meadows about Kislingbury, and in the Nene valley for a considerable distance west- wards. Badby Woods, on the ferruginous layer of the Northampton sands, offer a very pleasing 68
