' By the Rev. W. R. Andrews, F.G.8. 261 
and its shore-line went westwards, not merely over the Jurassic 
Series, but even over the New Red Sandstone, 
These two series, viz., the Cretaceous and the Jurassic, are not 
conformable to each other—the latter were tilted before the former 
were placed on their upturned edges; and, still further, the various 
members of the upper series overlap the various members of the 
lower series, e.g., the base of the Wealden rests at Dinton on the 
Upper Purbeck—further west on the Middle Purbeck; the Lower 
Green Sand extends over the Wealden, the Purbeck and the 
Portland, while the members of the Upper Cretaceous Series, viz., 
the Gault, the Upper Green Sand, and the Chalk steal successively 
over the various beds below. 
When we attempt to explain the origin of the vale it is necessary 
that we should go back to the time when the Chalk and Eocene 
strata were being raised into and. This took place—like all these 
earth movements—very gradually. 
After this elevation had taken place the land was ridged up along 
a line running west and east, and the result of the formation of this 
anticlinal was that the various beds dipped away from the central 
ridge north and south, just as the tiles on the roof of a house slope 
away on both sides. 
The dip was much greater on the north side than on the south 
side, for we find on the north side now strata sometimes dipping as 
much as 45° to the north, while on the south side we have a more 
uniform and much lower dip of not more than 4° or 5°. 
Moreover, the ridge or “ anticlinal ” is, in the Vale of Wardour, 
as in all these valleys resulting from elevation, much nearer to the 
north side of the present vale than the south side, which is an in- 
teresting fact to notice, as it would seem to point out that the push or 
thrust which caused this ridging up of the strata came from the south. 
How much this ancient wrinkling of the Earth’s surface has had 
to do with Man’s prosperity !! Without these old earth movements 
our coal-fields would have been buried too deep for us to reach! And 
still further, may not Wiltshire men reflect, that the line of the 
great elevation commencing with the Mendip Hills runs east- 
ward through the north of the county, and that on the southern 
