i64 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 191 1 



width, has been scarped all round and the edge surmounted by a low bank. 

 These earthworks are well seen in a ploughed field on the north side of the 

 road at the western end, and in a grass field on the southern. From a quarry 

 in the Great Oolite situated on the north side of the road between the camp 

 and the Foss Way, a large number of crinoid remains were obtained. 



Geology and Water Supply 



The up-and-down road to Turkdean was then followed. The adapted 

 and beautified Leygore Farm was much admired, and the Hon. Secretary 

 pointed out that whilst the lower part of the road and the ornamental sheet 

 of water are in the Inferior Oolite, the Fullers'-Earth Clay crops out in the 

 bank and may be easily located by means of boggy ground, springs and 

 artificial openings for obtaining clay for puddling purposes. It is also to be 

 seen in the road-side, and the reservoir at the head of the little valley derives 

 its supply from where Great Oolite and Fullers'-Earth Clay meet. Having 

 topped the next rise, the deep Turkdean valley came into view. From the 

 road near the little freestone quarry, the Hon Secretary pointed out the 

 main physiographic features. 



The general geology of this part of the Cotteswolds is extremely simple. 

 The Great Oolite caps the high ground and the prevalent and almost hori- 

 zontal arrangement of its beds accounts for the levelness of the high ground. 

 Below comes the Fullers' Earth. It throws out the water that has soaked 

 through the great Oolite limestone as springs, and springs from this source, 

 or the small depth from which the water held up by the clay can be reached, 

 accounts for the location of most of the Cotteswold villages and farms in 

 this neighbourhood. Corapton .Midale, Hampnett, Farmington, Turkdean, 

 Hazleton, Salperton and Notgrove all obtain their main water-supply from 

 this level. When water from the Fullers' Earth runs over the outcrop of 

 the clay it sinks into the porous Inferior Oolite, and continues to percolate 

 downwards until stopped by a clay-bed. The ne.xt clay deposit is the Upper 

 Lias, and when the water comes to it, it runs along the top of the clay in the 

 direction of the prevalent dip. Earth movements have modified what may 

 be called the original prevalent dip. The water becomes carbonated and 

 therefore dissolves the limestone, the subterranean dissolution of which tends 

 to cause " sagging " at the surface and a " solution valley " results. Mr 

 Richardson holds that many of the Cotteswold valleys have been mainly 

 formed in this way. In Carboniferous Limestone districts, such as Derby- 

 shire and the Mendip Hills, long caverns are the rule, because Carboniferous 

 Limestone is much harder and therefore would not give rise to " sagging." 



Ascending a beautiful avenue, the party arrived in Turkdean, and 

 spent too short a time in the village, seeing the spring, the outside of the 

 Church — in which some Norman work is embedded — and Mr Rixon's house. 



Botany 



While looking for crinoid fossils in the Great Oolite Quarry, a rubbish 

 heap was found by Mr Charles Bailey to be decorated with a luxuriant 

 growth of an alien plant, made conspicuous by its numerous white flowers 

 — the whitlow-pepperwort {Lepidium Draba, Linn.). Mr Bailey states that 

 although included in the genus Lepidium in the British lists, it has quite as 

 much affinity with Senebiera, or swine's cresses, and some good systematists 

 have founded a new genus upon it, viz., Cai'daria. A certain historic interest 

 attaches to this plant, as it has completed the one-hundredth anniversary 

 of its introduction into this country, for it was one of the legacies left by the 

 unsuccessful attempt made by the British against the French in 1809, in 

 connection with the unfortunate Walcheren expedition. .\ land force of 

 forty thousand British troops under Lord Chatham, supported by a naval 

 force under Strachan, landed on the island of Walcheren at the mouth of 

 the Schelde, and bombarded and captured Flushing ; they failed to take 



