4 Messrs. W. Phillips and Kent on [Jan. 



of the Forest may possibly serve to convey a notion that they 

 have been thrust up by some subterranean force — a notion 

 which we conceive would be erroneous, arguing from the 

 remarkable regularity with which the sandstone beds repose on 

 the rocks, dipping wherever they are visible at an angle not less 

 than six nor greater than eight degrees. 



The regularity of the sandstone beds seems also to come in 

 proof of another fact ; namely, that the rocks of the Forest have 

 not suffered by convulsion — a conclusion strengthened by the 

 observation that the direction of the slaty cleavage of these 

 rocks, which is mostly apparent, or becomes so by the assist- 

 ance of the hammer, is everywhere either NW by W, and SE by 

 E, or differs but very slightly from it towards the W and E. 



For the reasons which have already been given, we shall treat 

 separately of the rocks of the three parts into which this district 

 is divided, as the Mount Sorrel, the Charnwood, and the Grooby 

 tracts ; and first of the former. 



Of the Rocks of Mount Sorrel. 



The rocks of Mount Sorrel are admirably laid open to view by 

 means of a line of quarries overhanging the town, and giving to 

 these rocks the appearance of cliffs, perhaps one-third of a mile 

 in length, and of the average height of nearly 100 feet, but not 

 absolutely continuous. Other small and detached quarries are 

 wrought on the eastern side, the whole being chiefly for the 

 purposes of road-making. The rock when sound is broken into 

 the proper form for paving stones, which are shipped on the Soar 

 for various parts of the kingdom, when less so, for mending 

 roads in lieu of the gravel employed in the neighbourhood of 

 London, for which purpose the Mount Sorrel rock is far supe- 

 rior.* Immediately on quitting the town on the W, the rocks 

 sink beneath a comparatively low and verdant covering, for 

 some little distance, and then again swell into trifling elevations 

 a little south of the road passing from Mount Sorrel to Quorn- 

 den, or Quorn, as it is commonly termed by the inhabitants of 

 both places. In Buddon's Wood, which occupies the greater 

 part of these little eminences, and within half a mile of Quorn- 

 den, are situated two or three inconsiderable quarries, one of 

 which, however, is remarkable, as will presently be noted, for 

 the veins or dykes traversing the rock. 



The openings abovementioned, together with a small one situ- 

 ated about a mile nearly SVV of Mount Sorrel, and called Simp- 

 son's Pit, remarkable also for its exhibiting the appearance of a 

 vary determinate dyke, form the whole catalogue of the 

 quarries observable in this rock, and which offer the principal 



* We request thus to express our obligations to Jackson, Esq. residing at 



Mount Sorrel, and the present proprietor of the quarries, for his polite attention in 

 directing our observation to every point which he considered the most likely to inte- 

 rest us. 



