GEOLOGY 



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geological structure of Hertfordshire attracted the attention 

 of our earliest county historian long before geology became a 

 science. 'Concerning the Soyle:' said Norden in I597, 1 'It is 

 for the most part chalkie, though the upper cruste in the South 

 and West parts be for the most part of redde earth mixed with gravell, 

 which yet by reason of the white marie under it yeeldeth good wheat 

 and oates . . .' Norden here makes a definite geological observ- 

 ation, that the Chalk, which forms the main stratum of the county, is 

 overlaid in the south and west by a mixed soil of red earth (or clay) 

 and gravel. This is correct so far as it goes, but it appears to have es- 

 caped his notice that in the east a loamy clay (boulder-clay) overlies the 

 Chalk, and that in the south-east a stiff clay (the London Clay) com- 

 pletely alters the character of the soil, so effectually covering up the 

 Chalk which lies underneath it that it is more suitable for root-crops 

 and pasture than for raising ' good wheat and oates.' Norden also 

 quaintly says that in the north part of the shire ' the soyle is very apt 

 to yeeld corne and dertie wayes,' and in his account of Hitchin 8 he 

 speaks of ' a kinde of chalke ... a stonie Marie, more fit to make 

 lime than to soyle the grounde.' 



Chauncy, in his account of the soil of Hertfordshire, does little 

 more than copy and amplify Norden. 'The upper Cruste,' he says, 3 'in 

 many Places consists of red Earth, mixt with Gravel ; most of the 

 Meadows are dry ; the Hills wet and cold, for they are Clay, therefore 

 barren ; and for divers Parts it contains Chalk within a Foot or a 

 Fathom of the Surface of the Ground . . .' Salmon merely says of 

 ' the Earth ' : 4 ' The Soil is none of the fruitfullest . . . The 

 Arable hath generally too much Gravel or too much Clay.' In his 

 account of Moor Park, however, in referring to alterations to ' More 

 House,' 5 he says that ' in digging were found Veins of Sea Sand with 

 Musscles in it.' This is the earliest mention of the finding of fossils in 

 Hertfordshire, and must have created some astonishment in his day. 

 Even in 1756 the finding of ' a petrified Echinus ... at Bunnan's 

 Land in the parish of Bovingdon ' was considered worthy of record in 

 the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 



1 Speculum Britannia Pars, ' The Description of Hartfordshire,' p. I (quoted from the 

 1723 edition). 



3 Op. cit. p. 1 8. 3 Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, p. I (1700). 



4 History of Hertfordshire, p. i (1728). 6 Of. cit. p. HO. 



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