Ixx 



PiELD Meeting, 19th May, 1900. 

 ALDBURY. 



A party of over twenty, the majority bem<? ladies, assembled at 

 Aldbury Church in the afternoon. I^ early all came, as usual, from 

 Watford or St. Albans, mostly cycling, but a few driving from 

 St. Albans, and two coming by train from Watford. The meeting 

 was under the direction of Dr. T. E. Lones. 



After inspecting the old tombs and monumental brasses in the 

 Church, which is dedicated to St. John the Baptist and appears to 

 date from about the middle of the fifteenth century, the old stocks 

 and whipping-post by the side of the village pond were examined 

 with much interest, for very few now remain. 



Leaving the village, which is very prettily situated in a valley 

 at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, the partj' walked up through the 

 woods to the Monument erected on Moneybury Hill to the memory 

 of the last Duke of Bridgewater in commemoration of the 

 completion of the Grand Junction Canal. Most of tlie members 

 having ascended it, the Director gave on the summit a brief 

 description of the chief physical and geological features of the 

 surrounding country, fairly well seen except for a great haziness 

 which obscured the horizon. The low-lying Gault plain beyond 

 Ivinghoe Beacon and Pitstone Hill was pointed out, and also the 

 hills of less elevation which indicate the outcrop of the Lower 

 Greensand at and near Leighton Buzzard, the hills of Ivinghoe and 

 Pitstone being at the summit of an escarpment of which the 

 Totternhoe Stone forms the principal ridge. The formation of the 

 coombes or deep dry valleys at and near Aldbury was then referred 

 to, and it was shown that they were mainly formed by the action 

 of streams which formerly cut their way through the Middle and 

 Lower Chalk, but have long since ceased to flow. 



Proceeding down the avenue towards Ashridge House, the 

 northern edge of Berkhamsted Common was reached, and a brick- 

 yard on an " outlier" of the Eocene beds, capped by a thick bed 

 of brickearth, was examined. This is one of the very small 

 outliers which lie farthest away from the main mass of the Reading 

 Beds and London Clay, and testify to the once great extent of these 

 formations. 



Descending the hill to Aldbury, tea was partaken of in the 

 village, and the party dispersed. 



Field Meeting, 29th May, 1900. 

 KEW GARDENS. 



The members assembled at the principal entrance on Kew 

 Green, and walked through the Gardens under the guidance of 

 Mr. Daniel Hill. 



The Tropical House was first visited, and here Mr. Hill pointed 

 out the Angiopteris and Marattias as living representatives of an 



