BURTON, ANCIENT AND MODERN, 27 
he mentions in Shaw’s work, unless he refers to a rather 
casual notice of the discovery towards the end of last 
century of a number of Roman coins near Callingwood. 
Mr. Molyneux’s remarks are more to the point, but they 
consist chiefly of a quotation from a pamphlet, entitled 
“The Mineral Waters of Burton-on-Trent,” by the late 
Mr. Edwin Brown. I have been fortunate enough to get 
hold of a copy of this pamphlet, and I find what Mr. 
Brown said so interesting and so much to the point that 
I shall take the liberty of quoting from it at some length. 
I should say that the paper in question was originally read 
before the British Association, at the request of their 
Excursion Committee, in the year 1865. Mr. Brown said, 
“J must call your attention to a curious local fact, viz., the 
existence of an old river course along the middle of the 
valley, which has been filled up with various materials 
until the surface has been brought up nearly to the level 
of the surrounding land. <A few years ago I enjoyed some 
very favourable opportunities of studying this line of river 
course in section. At the lower part of its course, near 
Wetmore, it exhibited, in section, beginning with the 
surface, vegetable soil, six to eight inches; sand and gravel, 
one to two feet; water clay, three feet; and great numbers 
of the trunks of large trees, which latter, together with 
branches, leaves, hazel nuts, and other vegetable matter, 
had formed a bed of peat to the depth of about six feet. 
Against Station Street a cross section shewed—vegetable 
soil, six inches; sand and gravel, two feet; water clay, two 
feet; peat, four feet. The peat here consisted of leaves, 
branches, nuts, and a few trunks of trees. Scales of fish, 
crystals of sulphate of iron and patches of phosphate of iron 
that changed to a beautiful blue colour on exposure to the 
air, occurred in this peat; whilst numerous fresh water 
shells were found in the dark sand at the margins of the 
bed. Either this river bed had become accidentally choked 
