Once it had a reputation for growing bog-myrtle, as you may learn from Aubrey:- "In this Parish, at Light-Water-Moor, grows great store of a plant, about a foot and a half high, called by the inhabitants Gole, but the true Name is Gale; it has a very grateful smell, like a Mixture of Bays and Myrtle, and in Latin it is called myrtus Brabantica; it grows also in several places of this healthy Country, and is used to be put in their Chests among their Linnen."
"Highways and Byways in Surrey"
Eric Parker