77 
preserved through accurate measurements) it was a most 
remarkable section. 
Their next visit was to the Church at Bitton, a structure of 
considerable interest, the peculiarities of which were explained 
by the Rector, the Rev. Mr. Exracomss. It is a single-aisle 
church of considerable length and height, with remains of 
Norman work about it. It has undergone alterations at various 
periods, including a late restoration, in which objection might 
be taken to some innovations, but the general effect is good. A 
north chantry, the date of which is known (1299,) is a fine 
example of early “decorated”. work, and in the chancel the 
beautiful sedilia, figured by Lysons in his ‘“ Gloucestershire 
Antiquities,’ are well worthy of notice; but perhaps the most 
striking feature is the tower, which for elegance of form and 
beauty of proportion cannot be surpassed. It is well seen from 
the garden of the rectory, which garden is in itself worthy of a 
visit, being well known to horticulturalists for its collection of 
rare plants and shrubs, for the due observation of which very 
different weather was needed to that which prevailed on the 
occasion in question. 
The next visit was to two small but important outcrops of 
carboniferous limestone, a little north of Bush Farm, and south 
of the Wick Rocks. These patches have much significance in 
reading the physical structure of the district, as tending to 
show the precise limits of the eastern side of the coal-basin, and 
the most southerly exposed extension of the carboniferous 
limestone between Chipping Sodbury and Wells, on the eastern 
flank of the Mendip Hills. These patches are exposed both 
through the agency of denudation and the continued influence 
of the “fault” from Wick. Mr. ErneripcE here briefly 
described the conditions under which these bosses occurred, as 
part of the main and continuous belt of limestone along the 
eastern side of the northern and southern coal-fields. The 
limestone beds at these two outcrops are extremely fossiliferous, 
and dip to the south-east. This direction, if normal, or not 
reversed by any “ fault,” would tend to show the possibility of 
a still more easterly coal-tract, further east than the known 
