By the Rev. W. R. Andrews, F.G.S. 269 
seem to us to have commenced, yet it is, after all, but a thing of 
yesterday when contrasted with the ages that preceded. 
How many ages have passed, and what progress has been made 
in civilization, and how many kingdoms have risen and fallen since 
those high-level Gravels, containing Flint implements, were 
deposited at Bemerton and Milford Hill geologists can only vaguely 
surmise ; and how long it has taken to erode the river valley 80ft. is 
a question I would rather leave to be answered by the archzologists 
than attempt to measure the centuries by any assumed scale of the 
rate of erosion. 
All that the geologist can say is, that such erosion began after 
the last time the sea flowed over our area, and that since then the 
various strata have been continuously sculptured and carved into 
our present scenery. 
The results of the earth movements, and the rain, and the frosts, 
and the chemical action, and the rivers, we now have in the 
picturesque scenery of our vale, and it appeals to us as worthy of 
admiration—it not only gratifies our sense of beauty in the harmony 
it displays, but, when we come to look into its cause, raises up in us 
some nobler thoughts, as we recognise the orderly quiet working of 
Nature. 
VOL XXVI.—NO. LXXVII, et 
