454 



6. — Symptoms of the lax and irreligious spirit of the times are 

 indicated by the habit of playing fives against the church tower, 

 which however seems not to have gone unnoticed, as a charge was 

 laid against the parish in the bishop's court at Wells. 



The church tower at present bears marks of the ill-treatment it 

 had received, in the damaged condition of the string course around 

 the lowest stage of the tower. That such profanation was not 

 uncommon some years ago, both in this county and in the 

 principality of Wales, appears by an inscription still legible on a 

 stile at the entrance to the churchyard at Llanvair in Monmouth- 

 shire — 



" Whoever here on Sunday 



Will practise Playing at Ball 

 It may be before Monday 

 The Devil will have you all." 



We are thankful that no such warning is now needed in the 

 parishes of our land. 



The Geographical Position of the Carboniferous Formation in Somer- 

 setshire, with Notes on Possible Coal Areas in Adjoining Districts 

 of the South of England. By J. McMurtrie, F.G.S. Read 

 Jan. 15, 1873. 



In the sessions of 1868 and 1869 I had the pleasure of submitting 

 to this Society two papers on the carboniferous strata of this 

 district. In the first I gave a typical section of the formation, in 

 the second I endeavoured to place on record the principal faults 

 and dislocations by which the coalfield has been broken up, and I 

 would this evening direct attention to another branch of the same 

 subject, viz., the probable geographical limits of the carboniferous 

 system in Somersetshire, taking in an adjoining portion of Glou- 

 cestershire which forms part of the same coalfield. 



In bringing this question so frequently before your notice I fear 

 I may be devoting too much of the time of the Society to one 

 department in geology, but the extent of our coalfields is a subject 

 80 intimately connected with oiir national prosperity that it has 

 occupied a large share of attention in most scientific societies of 



