The Hog's Back is the name given to that part of the
North Downs in
Surrey between
Farnham, Surrey in the west and
Guildford in the east. Compared with the main part of the Downs to the east of it, it is a narrow elongated ridge, hence its name.Jane Austen, in a letter to her sister Cassandra written on Monday 24th May 1813, writes from her brothers house in Sloane Street, " I never saw the Country from the Hogsback so advantageously." This suggests it was known as The Hogsback well before Jane Austen's time.The medieval name for the ridge was Guildown (recorded first in 1035 where it was the site of the abduction of
Prince Alfred of
Wessex by
Earl Godwin and then in the
Pipe Rolls for 1190 and onwards) but this name is no longer in use. However, the name Guildown is evoked by Guildown Road, a residential road which climbs the southern side of the ridge on the southwestern fringes of Guildford.
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