SURREY, a south-eastern county of England, bounded north by the Thames, separating it from Buckinghamshire and Middle sex, east by Kent, south by Sussex, and west by Hampshire and Berkshire. The administrative county of London bounds that of Surrey (south of the Thames) on the north-east. The area is 758 sq. miles. The north of the county is low lying, the eastern part consisting of the London clay, the western of the Bagshot beds. Near the western boundary the land rises into the low Chob ham ridges. Across the middle of the county, from east to west, run the North downs, composed of chalk. In the east they form a wide band with an extreme height of 852 f t., but westward they narrow into the Hog's Back. The line of the Downs is broken at two points : by the river Mole between Dorking and Leatherhead, and by the Wey near Guildford. These are the two chief rivers in the county, and they join the Thames at Molesey and Weybridge respectively. The northern slopes of the Downs are flanked by a narrow strip of Lower London Tertiary beds, the southern by narrow bands of Upper Greensand and Gault. These beds, like the chalk, have a wider extent in the east than in the west. To the south of the Gault we find a wide band of Lower Greensand, which narrows eastward. On this greensand is found the highest land in the county, Leith Hill (96s ft.) near the centre, and Devil's. Punch Bowl (895 ft.) in the west. The rest of the county, except for a small triangle of Hastings beds in the extreme south-east, is composed of Weald clay.
The chief evidence of the presence of Palaeolithic man in Surrey comes from various gravels near Limpsfield (in the east of the county), near Guildford and Godalming, and near Farnham. The Weald region in early times was very thickly forested, and traces of Neolithic man, indicated by finds of implements, are therefore most numerous on the chalk and greensand, especially in the west, but finds of this age are not rare on the lower lands in the north east of the county. Bronze weapons have not been found in such great numbers as those of stone, but their distributions are, roughly, coincident except that the metal weapons have been found at several places along the Thames.
Near the chalk ridge of the North downs runs the ancient track of the Pilgrims' way. A track here was used in very early times to connect the cultural centre of Kent with Hants and Wiltshire; in the middle ages the route regained importance as the path of pilgrims from the west to the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury.
The Romans did not occupy Surrey very closely, but there are traces of their influences in the remains of one or two small settle ments and a few villas.
The county was penetrated by the English invaders at a fairly early date, and its position between the Thames and the Weald decided its northern and southern borders. The Kentish boundary probably dates from the battle of Wibbandune, between Ethel bert of Kent and Ceawlin of Wessex, while the western limit in a wild, uncultivated district was not then strictly defined. In the 7th century Surrey was under the overlordship of Wulfhere, king of Mercia, who founded Chertsey abbey, but in 823, when the Mercians were defeated by Egbert of Wessex, it was included in the kingdom of Wessex, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates.
Surrey was constantly overrun by Danish hordes in the 9th century and until peace was established by the accession of Canute. In 857 a great national victory over the Danes took place at Ock ley, near Leith Hill. The Norman army traversed and ravaged the county in their march on London. A large portion of the county having been in the hands of Edward and Harold, fell to the share of William himself ; his most important tenants in chief being Odo of Bayeux and Richard de Tonebridge, son of Count Gilbert, afterwards "de Clare." The church also had large possessions in the county, the ,abbey of Chertsey being the largest monastic house. At the time of the Domesday survey the number of hun dreds was 14 as now, but the hundred of Farnham was not so called, the lands of the bishop of Winchester being placed in no hundred, but coinciding with the present hundred of that name. The western boundary of the county was probably definitely fixed about this time. Until quite recently Surrey had never been in any diocese but Winchester, of which it was an archdeaconry in the 12th century. Croydon was a peculiar of Canterbury, in which diocese it was included in 1291. The shire court was almost cer tainly held at Guildford, the seat of the royal court at times during the reigns of John and Henry III.