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Wednesday 5th. We went out a hunting this Morning, but had but little sport. Thursday 6th. I din'd at Jno. Beavens with six other Gent., and stay'd 'till a late hour, as well as drank to much. Our Discourse of publick Matters was not much; what was of Councillor Layer's Tryal and Behaviour who now is under Sentence of Death for treasonable Practices against the Government, and of the Proceedings of the Parliament, &c.

Friday 7th. I met Mr. Seymour a hunting this Morn., where we tarri'd 'till about one, having had a very pretty Chace: the remainder of the Day privately at Home.

Munday 10th. I din'd at Mr. Seymour's by Invitation with Mr. Talbot, Mr. Horton and Capt. Selfe, beside their own Family, and tarri'd till near Nine but without any great Excess of Drinking. We had not much Talk of publick Matters. At my coming Home I found Mrs. Jenkens, the Sister of the Vicar of Frome, here, and Watty from School.

Friday 14th. I din'd with Mr. Methuen where my Daugtr. is, and in the Evening had Mr. Thresher and Mr. Rogers the Clergy-man with us; however I came home between ten and eleven.

Munday 17th. Peggy return'd from Bradford; her Sister went in the Morning to fetch her, and both escap'd of Danger very narrowly, the Coach-man being drunk.

Friday 21st. The poor people were with us for the small Dole we usually give on this Day, they are indeed very Numerous in this Parish and much increas'd in Numbers since my time, and much Misery I fear is among them, the Greatest part of it thrô (it is to be doubted) their own Laziness and vicious Lives, which truely in many of them seem to be not far remov'd from what is natural and unavoidable to the dumb Creatures. The Consideration of which and of the yet Gentile part of the World is what is not by me to be comprehended, and must therefore be left, with true Acknowledgement that God is Wise, just and Merciful.

Saturday 22nd. Young Scot of the Ivey came this Day for Mrs. Jenkins, wth, whom she went before Dinner, and indeed Ben Scot's Son, of Chippenham was on ye same Errand Yesterday.

Tuesday 25th. Xtmas-Day. Mr. Hunter preach'd on the 10th & 11th Verses of 2nd Chapt. of St. Luke's Gospel. Mr. Fox also was at Church, and assisted at the Communion Table: he came from Bath the Day before, I think not much better'd in his Health.

Wednesday 26th. We had according to Custom some of our Neighbours and Tenants wth us at Dinner: about 3 I went to ye Vestry to see the Acts. of the Surveyors of the high-Ways wch, appear'd to be very confused and unfair. So did not tarry long there, but return'd to my Neighbours at Home, who all left me between Nine and ten without any Disorder.

Saturday 29th. I was at Home all the Day wthout Company save Edward Lewis of Broughton that was a Coursing with my Sons.

Munday 31st. My Daught. Bet. went in the Coach to Bath and return'd in the Evening with my Mother, who seems yet to be in no good Disposition towards me, and the first Evening past but ruggedly. I wish the rest may be more smooth, or my Comfort will be but small. Deline (?) my Mother's

Tenant was here in ye Morning.

The Diary here ends abruptly, and the writer, whose decaying health has been frequently alluded to, died 21st July, 1723. His son John intermarried with the family of Harvey, of Cole Park, which accounts for the MS. being, amongst other memorials of the Smith family, in the possession of Mr. Audley Lovell at this date. It does not appear whether he had issue; one thing is certain ; Elizabeth Smith eventually the heiress of the Diarist, married Robert Neale, Esq., of Corsham, and from that match descended two co-heirs, her granddaughters, the eldest of whom Grace Elizabeth, married Sir Harry Burrard, a name well known in our naval annals. Upon his marriage he assumed the additional name of Neale, and the arms, of the family; and by purchase of the other co-heir's moiety became owner of the entire Smith Estate at Shaw. There is a pedigree of the Neales in the College of Arms, setting forth their original emigration from the county of Tyrone; their settlement at Yate in Gloucestershire; and the several alliances which connected them with the commercial and landed interests of the county of Wilts at the dates mentioned.

Geology of Wiltshire.

HE Ordnance Geological Survey of the county of Wilts, has been for some time completed; and as the Memoir which the Government has published of sheet 34 embraces a considerable portion of the northern part of the county, it has been thought desirable to re-print an abstract of it in the Wiltshire Magazine. The Local Director, Mr. Ramsay, F.R.S., Pres. Geol. Soc., has kindly permitted casts to be taken of the woodcuts which illustrate the volume, for use in the Magazine.

An account of the Mammalian Drift of Wiltshire, by Mr. Cunnington, was printed in vol. iv., p. 129, and a brief compendium of Wiltshire Geology by Mr. Poulett Scrope, Vice-President, (at that time President) appeared in the fifth volume of the Magazine.

This was accompanied by a map reduced from the Ordnance Map, and coloured geologically, which Mr. Scrope very liberally presented to the Society. This very satisfactory introduction to the geology of the county, was followed by an account of the Bradford Clay, in vol. vi., also by Mr. Cunnington. A valuable paper on the Geology of the country traversed by the Berks and Hants, and Marlborough Railways, was contributed to vol. ix., by Thomas Codrington, Esq., F.G.S. And an admirable paper, by Dr. Blackmore, containing a lucid account of the "Drift" in the neighbourhood of Salisbury, was published in the tenth volume. This paper contains the results of many original observations on a branch of the subject, which is at once the most important and the most popular in modern geology.

We now propose to begin with the lowest rock developed in the county, viz. :

THE LIAS.

As remarked by Mr. Scrope, vol. v., p. 98, the Lias only occurs and barely within the limits of this county, in the bottom of the deep valley of Box, where it joins that of the Avon. The upper beds only of the stratum are found there, and we are not aware that any examination of them has ever been made.

A full list of Liassic fossils is printed in the Memoir, pp. 6, 7, 8, 9, but it has not been thought necessary to reproduce it here.

INFERIOR OOLITE.

This formation, marked in the map g5, introduces the Oolitic series, named from the oolitic or egg-like form of the grains of some of its lime-stones. The thickness of the Inferior Oolite at Stroud is about 150 feet, or 110 feet less than at Leckhampton Hill, near Cheltenham. The principal sections occur at Nailsworth in quarries, and natural cliffs at Brimscomb, and in the deep cuttings of the Great Western Railway in the Golden Valley. The Inferior Oolite frequently forms tabulated spurs bounded by abrupt banks which are planted with beech trees and pines; of such there are good examples in Slaughterford Valley.

The following subdivisions may be observed in this district, and can be distinguished both by lithological and fossil characters:

Inferior Oolite. Rodborough Common.

Feet.

Upper ragstone. (Clypeus grit.) Coarse rubbly white oolite, with
Terebratula globata, Clypeus, Serpula

Lower ragstone. Shelly limestone, rather sandy, and irregularly bedded, with casts of Trigonia costata, Gryphæa Buckmani Upper freestone. Compact oolitic freestone, quarried for building

purposes Oolite marl. Cream-coloured marl and chalky limestone, characterized by Terebratula fimbria

15

25

15

5

Lower freestone. Massive, fine grained oolite, false bedded; becoming coarser and somewhat sandy towards the base; quarried for building 30

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No. 1.

Section at Wall's Quarry, North of Minchinhampton.

a Upper Ragstone. Not shown in section,

similar to that of Rodborough Common

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The Beds marked (e) in the woodcut are Upper Lias Sand.

From a comparison of these sections it will be observed that the formation has lost some of its thickness in the distance from Rodborough Common to Wall's Quarry. This fact is in harmony with the observed attenuation of the Inferior Oolite, both towards the east and south from Leckhampton Hill, the typical section of this formation.1

The fossils of this formation are so numerous that it is only necessary to mention here a few of the more typical.

1 Compare the Maps of the Geological Survey 44 and 35. Also Memoir on the Geology of Cheltenham, pp. 31-47.

VOL. XI.-NO. XXXIII.

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This is a stratum of clay with occasional bands of limestone, altogether about 60 feet thick, marked go. It forms the base of the Great Oolite. Sections are very rare, as at the outcrop it is generally covered by detritus of Great Oolite, and it is not now sought after for fulling purposes. Its position is indicated by springs, marshes, and moist ground. In a lane east of the village of Slaughterford we get the following sections :

1. White marls with occasional stony bands

2. White and grey limestone and marlstone (Fuller's earth rock)
3. White and blue calcareous clays with Terebratula perovalis and
T. Maxillata

Feet.

25

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