All ramblers and motorists in south-western Surrey are familiar with the Devil’s Jumps. If they have never actually passed or set foot on them, they have seen these three strangely rounded, conical hills from one point or another in the rolling heather-clad commons and uplands—in the triangle between Guildford, Farnham, and Haslemere—that culminate in the mighty bulk of Hindhead.
These same Devil’s Jumps have recently been causing much local heartburning. They belong to Lord Ashcombe, who has granted to the Forestry Commission a lease of land which includes the Jumps, long enough to enable that body to undertake afforestation there. The Commission have already planted numerous small larches, and the residents of the delightful district, who have awakened to the fact too late to prevent much of the planting, are determined, if possible, to undo what has already been done, and to save these quite characteristic and unusual natural features from the monotony which will overtake them when the symmetrical larches, symmetrically planted, have grown in a few years to maturity. Afforestation is one thing when applied, as in the Black Country, with the result of beautifying mine refuse and slag heaps, and quite another when it detracts, as in this case, from the distinctive features of the landscape.
The Devil’s Jumps are three rounded sandstone protuberances, which lie close together, two miles west of Thursley, and adjoining the road or lane running south from Tilford, alongside one of the lovely little tributaries of the Wey, which widens into any number of picturesque pools and hammer-ponds, on its way from its source just south of the Jumps. One of the hillocks is crowned by a tuft of trees; and one has a smooth flattened top with an immense hump of rock, and from its summit—though the knolls do not rise much above the 300 feet contour line—there is the most delightful view in all directions.
Source info: Checked online.
Watkins included “Devil’s Jumps” among the Devil names in The Old Straight Track, page 171. (The second and third headlines refer to another story.)