PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 229 



Davis,* of Harvard College, and if it was comi)aratively 

 recently tapped by a northern working back of the Glou- 

 cestershire Severn, then the resulting lowering of the 

 level would produce a narrow gorge-like valley. 



At Coalbrookdale we turned northwards, and climbing 

 the Severn valley found ourselves on somewhat high 

 ground^a wide, level plateau, the southward continuation 

 of the great Cheshire plain. It is all Trias, though con- 

 siderably overlaid with northern drift. Practically all the 

 Jurassic strata have been removed from a great area many 

 square miles in extent ; but their former extension over 

 the district is shown by the presence of one or two 

 patches of Lower Lias, according to the evidence of 

 geological maps. 



The whole of the day's journey — about 60 miles to 

 beyond Knutsford — was, after the rise out of the Severn 

 valley, practically over a level country. I do not remember 

 noticing a hill on the route ; but one thing we remarked, 

 the excellence of the Cheshire sign-posts, a point wherein 

 our county is behind hand. Our way was through 

 Welhngton, Hodnet, Market Drayton, Audlem, Nant- 

 wich, and Middlewich. 



Our stay in Cheshire continued for several days, 

 during which I took the opportunity to visit places of 

 interest. Knutsford is noteworthy as the scene of ' Cran- 

 ford ' in Mrs Gaskell's novel of that name, and several of 

 her characters are taken from members of my wife's 



* H. J. Osborne White, 'On the Origin of the High-Level Gravel with Triassic 

 Debris adjoining the Valley of the Upper Thames,' Proc. Geol. Association, vol. xv., 

 Pt. iv., August, 1897, p. 157. This is a most interesting paper. To il and to its quota- 

 tions from the writings of Prof. Davis I am indebted for what I may call a very rapid 

 enlargement of ideas that I was forming as to the westward extension of Thames 

 streams. My views will be found in 'Cheltenham as a Holiday Resort,' 1897, p. 50 

 and ' Deposits, Bajocian Age : The Cleeve Hill Plateau,' Q.uart. Journ, Geol. Soc, vol. liii. 

 (1897). p. 607. 



P 



