258 
The Origin and AWlode of Formation of the 
Gale of Glardonr. 
By the Rev. W. R. AnpreEws, F.G.S. 
[Read at the Wilton Meeting, 1891.] 
BA q/iq GREAT deal of the pleasure we obtain from visiting any new 
AU\ country arises from our having some previous knowledge 
about it. To pass through without being able to appreciate its 
history is to lose most of the opportunities of travel, whether that 
history be of the people who have in former days lived there, and 
left traces of their occupation, or whether it be the history of the 
origin of the scenery we admire, 
It is to put before you some particulars about the geology of the 
Vale of Wardour that is the object of my paper. 
If we admire the beautiful scenery of this valley without any 
enquiry into its geological history we shall surely admire it still 
more when we understand somewhat of its geological structure and 
origin, for it has been remarked that while “ there is a poetic glow 
of wonder and emotion before science begins its work, there is a 
larger, deeper, more instructed wonder when it ends.” 
It has been said by Sir Andrew Ramsay that “ England is the 
very Paradise of Geologists, for it is an epitome of the geology of 
almost the whole of Europe, and much of Asia and America, since 
it contains so many formations, and in consequence its features are 
varied in the extreme.” 
The same remark may in a minor degree be applied to the Vale 
of Wardour, for it would be difficult to find a district which presents 
such a variety of geological interests in so comparatively small an 
area. 
In consequence of this variety of formations, and of their fossil 
contents, the Vale of Wardour has attracted the attention of 
geologists. Fitton sixty years ago wrote his valuable paper, Miss 
