136 NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



he applied to it ; still remenibi inij to draw it back at every progress of three, or 

 four tiichc'Sy which tlie ^//<,''<r makes lor the cleansing of it from the Chips, lest 

 the Anger break ; continue this work till the Tree or pi 'ce of Tiynher be b3red as 

 far as you think convenient, and when you desire to inlarge the Iwle, change your 

 Auger Bits as the Figure represents them." 



GEOLOGY. 



Old Accounts of Discoveries in the Alluvium of the 



Thames Valley. — In Pepys's Diavy {Sept. 22nd, 1665) is the 



following : — 



"At Blackwall. Here is observable what Johnson tells us, that in digging 

 the late Docke, they did 12 feet under ground find perfect trees over-covered 

 with earth. Xut trees, with the branches and the very nuts upon them ; some 

 of whose nuts he showed us. Their shells, black with age, and their kernell, 

 upon opening, decayed, but their shell perfectly hard as ever. And a yew tree 

 (upon which the very ivy was taken up whole about it) which upon cutting with 

 an addes, we found to be rather harder than the living tree usually is." 



In the Times of Dec. 7, 1902, the following paragraph is 



reprinted from the Times of Dec. 6, 1802 : — 



" The Forest that has been discovered underground in the Isle of Dogs, is 

 supposed to be the greatest natural curiosity in this Empire; perhaps in Europe. 

 All that is called antiquity seems but yesterday compared with this wonderful 

 ruin, of which there is no tradition whatsoever. Immense trees, with their bark 

 uninjured, although their trunks are rotten, glass, charcoal, filbert shells, perfect 

 human bones, etc., etc., are amongst the contents of this unsuspected sub- 

 terranean. 



While Pepys's spelling is evidently a little more ancient than 

 that of the Times of 1802, the treatment of the discovery in the 

 latter suggests less experience of dock excavation, and conse- 

 quently a greater antiquity than the account of 1665. — T.V.H. 



MISCELLANEA. 



" Anent a Forest Lodge in 1444 " (E.N. xii., 145).— 

 Since I had the pleasure of reporting on Mr. Hyetl's interesting 

 MS., I have come on an entry or two in the Patent Rolls which 

 throw a probable light on his possession of it. In 17 Edward 

 IV. (1478), on March 2nd, George Hiett had a grant for life of 

 the office of Rider ot the King's Forest of Dene, co. Gloucester, 

 void by the death of Richard Hiet, his father, with the 

 accustomed fees. This he surrendered in 1480; but in 1484 

 (2 Richard III.) he had a re-grant of the same office during 



