Watford, has assumed such large and increasing proportions that it may be well to trace its development as exhibited in the town of Hitchin. These sales which were here first held occasionally in 1852, took place in 1853 twice or three times in a month, and ultimately, in 1862, every week. A yard specially fitted for the purpose was opened by Messrs. Page and Harding, 8th December, 1862. Their sales in 1861 realised 65,345l. 4s.; in 1862, 79,496l. 5s.; in 1863, 107,014l. 0s. 6d. The sale of Christmas last, December 15, realised 5,118l. 9s., and consisted of 108 oxen, 675 sheep, 2 calves, and 44 pigs. In the year 1863: 1876 oxen, 22,492 sheep, 123 calves, 2707 pigs, and 1156 lambs were sold.
Physical Geography.
The boundaries of this county are not, as is sometimes the case, determined by the physical features. On the north, the boundary is generally coincident with the escarpment of the chalk or Chiltern range of hills; on the south-east it is formed by the Lea and its affluent the Stort; to the south it lies very much along the high ridge, where the London clay is partially capped by drift of the Eocene beds; and on the west it follows the ridge overhanging the valley of the Bulborne, in which the Grand Junction Canal finds its course. Thus the agriculture of Hertfordshire in some cases takes its character from the several counties by which it is surrounded, and from which it is divided by an ill-defined and arbitrary line. The geological features of this county are comparatively simple. It comprehends within its limits a considerable portion of the north-western limb of the chalk-basin of London. Here nearly the whole substratum is chalk, the surface of which is either covered with drift gravel, or the tertiary deposits of the London and Plastic clay; a very small part consists of the Gault clay, which, with a trace of the upper green sand, crops out from beneath the chalk.
As the physical features of the surface are necessarily ruled by the geological condition, there is a considerable sameness in the outward aspect of the county, though there is a frequent and marked difference in the nature and quality of the soils.
Speaking generally, the county may be divided into the clay and chalk districts; the former forming the southern portion adjoining the county of Middlesex; the latter extending from the outcrop of the clays to the escarpment of the chalk hills, the frontier of the counties of Buckingham, Bedford, and Cambridge. The rivers Coln and Lea flowing in opposite directions in part of their course, form a sort of natural division
