issures in the chalk bed of the stream, which
runs as it were over the top of a long chalk sponge. In rainless summers
there is only enough water to fill the bottom of the sponge, and the top
channel runs dry. Brayley has some amusing calculations as to the amount
of water which the sponge drinks:--

"From calculations made on different days, after measuring the
height and velocity of the current received into these pools, it was
ascertained, when both were in activity, that the swallows of the
outer pool engulphed 72 imperial gallons per second, 4,320 per
minute, and 259,200 per hour; and those of the inner pool, 23
imperial gallons per second, 1,380 per minute, and 82,800 per hour."

Seventy-two gallons--a good-sized tankful--of water in a second is very
pretty swallowing; an early instance of thinking imperially. To Camden,
in the _Britannia_, the disappearing water suggests another image. The
inhabitants can boast, like the Spaniards, of having a bridge that
feeds several flocks of sheep.

Mickleham is almost the centre of the Fanny Burney country. At Mickleham
church she was married to General d'Arblay; Juniper Hall is half-a-mile
from the church; Norbury Park lies west of the Mole; Camilla Lacey south
of Norbury Park at West Humble.

Fanny Burney, retired from her post of Maid of Honour and receiving a
pension of L100 a year, met M. d'Arblay in January, 1793, when she was
staying with her friends the Locks at Norbury Park. He was living at
Juniper Hall with other French _emigres_--a brilliant little colony;
Madame de Stael was there, and de Narbonne, and de Lally Tollendal, and
Talleyrand. The General began as tutor, and the course of Fanny Burney's
acquaintance with Juniperians, as her sister Mrs. Phillips used to call
them, and particularly with her French master, perhaps may be given in a
few extracts from her correspondence:--

MADAME DE STAEL HOLSTEIN TO MISS BURNEY,

_Written from_ JUNIPER HALL, DORKING, SURREY, 1793.

"When J learned to read english J begun by milton, to know all or
renounce all in once. J follow the same system in writing my first
english letter to Miss burney; after such an enterprize nothing can
affright me. J feel for her so tender a friendship that it melts my
admiration, inspires my heart with hope of her indulgence, and
impresses me with the idea that in a tongue even unknown J could
express sentiments so deeply felt.