Relief, Hills
Saxton's Hampshire 1575
The hill symbol could show any of the following:-
- important or isolated hills
- steep scarp
- uneven ground, hilliness
- high ground, ie altitude
- watersheds
The first category of hills is clearly represented. An important or isolated hill might be the site of a fort, beacon, castle, or town. The hill might be named, for example Old Windsor hill.
A steep scarp might be shown as a line of hills; example Portes downe. Some scarps are missed.
The line of hills drawn north of Winchester is not a scarp, but is high rolling downland, and is a watershed.
The other categories of hills seem to have a lower priority, and it is less clear what was intended. There seem to be more hillocks drawn where ground is high, say above 100m. In Hampshire high ground tends to be hilly ground. Low lying hilly ground seems to lack hillock symbols; but the space on the map is often taken up by trees in woods and forests.
