Rood Ashton, Se. 319 
little about the subterranean structure of the soil, the surface of 
which afterwards became the Manor of Ashton. 
Everybody has read in their school-books about the coral-reefs in 
the ocean at the other side of the world, banks of rock extending 
hundreds of miles, whole islands by hundreds ; all built by the little 
coral insect, who lays his foundation at the bottom of the sea, and 
goes on, generation after generation, piling up, tier upon tier, storey 
upon storey, till he comes to the surface of the water, when he stops; 
and, by so stopping, makes navigation in those parts very dangerous. 
- It is perfectly marvellous what an immense addition has been made 
to the solid material of the globe, by so minute and apparently 
insignificant a creature. Strange as it may sound to those who are 
not acquainted with the geology of. this district, there is one of 
these old coral-reefs within three miles of Trowbridge. It was a 
comparatively narrow strip of land commencing near Oxford. In 
Wiltshire it passes by Highworth, Wootton Bassett, Calne, Bromham, 
and Steeple Ashton—dissappears by and by, but reappears on the 
sea-shore at Weymouth. From the ragged nature of the stone, it 
is called the “Coral Rag.” The corals or madrepores found in it, 
have, of course, lost all their original whiteness, and are now simply 
of the colour of the soil: but with that exception, the specimens 
are often perfectly beautiful, and when laid by the side of recent 
specimens from Indian seas, the old one (barring colour) is often as 
keen and fresh as the other. Steeple Ashton fossils are well-known 
in all geological museums. There are about’fifty varieties of madre- 
- pores, marine shells, wood, reptiles, &e. The structure of these 
corals, examined under a magnifying glass, is beautifully engraved 
in one of the volumes of the Palontological Society’s publications, 
and nothing can be more wonderful. 
With this slight reference to the original occupiers, or rather the 
very architects—the humble coral insects—we will take leave of 
geology, and make a very long skip indeed, to the time when the 
first animal of our own species occupied the surface of this coral 
reef. I pass over our old friends, the Ancient Britons and their 
successors the Romans, for they have not left, so far as I remember, 
any particular traces of themselves in this district. The first 
