Soberton Down
Soberton Down, Sobertonparish:
county:
coords:
Soberton
Hampshire
SU6116, SU6117
The place is described in text Cobbett 1830
From ALLINGTON, we, fearing that it would rain before we could get round by Titchfield, came across the country over WALTHAM CHASE and SOBERTON DOWN. The chase was very green and fine; but the down was the very greenest thing that I have seen in the whole country. It is not a large down; perhaps not more than five of six hundred acres; but the land is good, the chalk is at a foot from the surface, or more; the mould is a hazel mould; and when I was upon the opposite hill, I could, though I knew the spot very well, hardly believe that it was a down. The green was darker than that of any pasture or even any sainfoin or clover that I had seen throughout the whole of my ride; and I should suppose that there could not have been many less than a thousand sheep in three flocks that were feeding upon the down when I came across it. I do not speak with any thing like positiveness as to the measurement of this down; but I do not believe that it exceeds six hundred and fifty acres. They must have had more rain in this part of the country than in most other parts of it. Indeed, no part of Hampshire seems to have suffered very much from the drought. ...
