The Origin and Mode of Formation of the Vale of Wardour. 259 
-E. Bennett even earlier collected the fossils and published a list in 
Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s History of Wiltshire. Since that time 
the vale has been surveyed by Mr. Bristow, and Mr. A. J. Jukes- 
Browne, and several amateur geologists have ably written on its 
various strata, amongst whom I may name Messrs. Brodie, Blake, 
Huddleston, and Cunnington. 
A few words as to the geography of the vale are necessary in 
order that we may clearly understand its geology. 
The Vale of Wardour is one of several valleys penetrating the 
Chalk escarpment which stands out boldly overlooking the Jurassic 
strata on the west. It has the general form of a triangle, the base 
of which extends from Kingsettle Hill, between Shaftesbury and 
Semley railway station, to the opposite hill at East Knoyle, a distance 
of about three miles across an expanse of Kimeridge Clay. A line 
drawn between these two points would correspond with a low water- 
shed, about 400ft. high, which limits the basin of the Nadder on 
the west. 
On the north and south the vale is bounded by the Chalk downs, 
sending down their tributary streams to the river, which, running 
eastward, joins the Wylye at Wilton, 180ft. above the sea-level. 
We have a double range of hills on either side. There is, on the 
‘south side, that fine range of smooth Chalk downs, beginning at 
White Sheet Hill, and continuing by Buxbury and Chiselbury, while 
on the north the Chalk hills are continued through Grovely and 
Great Ridge Woods. 
But the most richly sculptured range of hills lies inside these, for 
the Greensand hills are not smooth and continuous like the Chalk 
downs, but have been cut up into blocks by transverse valleys, and 
are clothed with fir and pine. 
Commencing at Kingsettle we have the fine hills as far as Donhead 
Valley ; then the picturesque heights near the old Castle of Wardour; 
then the prominent spur of Castle Ditches; and so continuing by 
Sutton, Fovant, and Compton, we see at length the Greensand 
plunge beneath the chalk in the railway cutting between Dinton 
and Wilton. 
The Greensand hills are even more striking as we follow them on 
