A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



occur under the ordinary Boulder Clay of the district, in a gravel resting 

 on undisturbed Lincolnshire Limestone, the inference is obvious that they 

 were derived from a Pre-glacial land surface. 



The probably abundant flora and fauna of the Inter-glacial period 

 has mostly been swept away, but traces of the larger animals, and man, 

 were preserved (see p. 29). 



Post-glacial Flora 



On the passing away of the last phase of the Glacial period, the recently 

 ice-covered ground slowly became coated with vegetation suited to it and 

 the climate, in an order dependent upon the facilities for seed-dispersion 

 possessed by the various plants. Amongst the larger plants, presumably 

 alder and birch would earliest find a footing, as suited to a cold climate, 

 but certainly oak and hazel predominated later on ; the ash, maple, 

 hornbeam, yew, beech and pine, etc., followed, the elm being probably a 

 late arrival, because so seldom propagated by seed. Thus very much of 

 the county became covered with forest, but not all. The higher ground 

 to the west and north-west of the county was never, as far as we 

 know, covered with forest ; the larger valleys and the fens were kept 

 free from forest growth by recurrent floods and incursions of the sea. 

 Even some parts not so situated probably never encouraged or even 

 permitted the growth of large trees, but rather ling, furze, broom, wild 

 thyme and bracken, with a thin grass ; these were the heaths now mostly 

 under cultivation. These heaths, in the eastern part of the county. 

 Wittering, Easton, Thornhaugh, etc., were mostly on the stony 

 arenaceous soils of the Lincolnshire Oolite ; those in more central 

 Northamptonshire, Harlestone, Dallington, and many others, on the 

 sandy beds of the Northampton Sand. Further particulars as to the 

 ancient forests will be found in another part of this history. 



Settlement of the County 



One characteristic of modern scenery is the town or village, directly 

 due to man, but indirectly, in its situation and architecture, to local 

 geological structure. When man had arrived at a state of civilization 

 sufficient to appreciate a fixed abode, he had also no doubt perceived 

 the desirability of a dry site for a dwelling, equally with the nearness of 

 water, which led to the selection of spots on porous soils near to springs. 

 This, and the possibility of getting water by means of shallow wells in 

 such situations, no doubt, more than anything else, ultimately fixed the 

 site of the little group of dwellings which afterwards grew into a village 

 or town. The way in which successive ridges of Northampton Sand 

 are occupied by towns and villages along the Nene from Northampton 

 to Wellingborough, and then along the Ise from Wellingborough to 

 Desborough (see map), is most suggestive in this connection. 



Below is given a tabulated list of the number of villages in North- 

 amptonshire on the various geological formations, taken from the i-inch 

 map of the Geological Survey. 



36 



