TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 197 



by to receiA'e tlieiu while tliey take a short run and jump into their arms ; for it 

 seems the spirit cannot leave them while their feet are on the ground. 



The author has known one of these devotees writhe and roll himself along the 

 ground to imitate the motion of a snake, that being the divinity in whose honour 

 he was performing. 



On Hubbings from St. Patrick's Chair, Co. Mayo, Ireland. 

 By R. S. SyjiEs, F.G.S. 



On the delation of the Parish Boundaries in the South-east of Enyland to 

 yreat Physical Features, particidarly to the ChcdJc JEscarpment. By W. 

 ToPLET, F.6.S., Geological Survey of England and Wales. 



The author first drew attention to the fact that the outcroppings of various 

 strata are marked by the occurrence thereon of numerous villages, whilst some 

 neighbouring formations have none. Good water, a soil fit for arable culture, and 

 a dry site were usually found in these situations. The chalk area of England waa 

 described, and it was shown that every where along the foot of the "chalk escarp- 

 ment " a line of villages occurred. The parishes belonging to these villages in 

 nearly everj' case ascend the escarpment, taking in more or less of the plateau 

 above ; it is very rare, indeed, to find a village on the chalk plateau sending its 

 parish down the escarpment. 



The author then described in greater detail the physical geography of the Wealden 

 area, and the arrangement of the villages and their parishes along its border. Every- 

 where below the chalk escarpment there is a line of villages, the parishes of which 

 ascend the escarpnient, whilst the villages above or on the chalk rarely send their 

 parishes down the escarpment. Of the parishes around the Wealden border, 119 

 conform to the nde laid down, whilst the exceptions number only six. 



The Lower Greensand forms a second and iimer plateau and escarpment around the 

 Weald. Along this formation there are numerous villages ; but it is remarkable 

 that the behaviour of their parishes to the Lower-Greensand escarpment is just the 

 reverse of that observed with the chalk; for here the parishes of villages upon the 

 plateaxi go down the escarpment, and comparatively few of the villages on the flat 

 below (or the Weald Clay) send their parishes up the escarpment. These and 

 other points discussed were illustrated by sections and large maps, in which each 

 parish was separately coloured. 



The author contended that in the facts here described we have evidence of the 

 order in which the country was settled. Much of the chalk area must always 

 have been, as now, open land ; over this area we find numerous Celtic remains. 

 The first settlement would take place along the foot of the chalk escarpment; and 

 in the division of land resulting from these, some area of down- land would be 

 taken in in one direction, and wood-land or pasture in the other direction. There 

 would thus be a line of settlements with their appropriated lauds all along the foot 

 of the chalk escarpments. Later settlements took place along the Lower-Green- 

 sand area ; these would find the land all occupied in one direction, towards the 

 challc, but in the other direction, or towards the great Wealden forest, the laud 

 was all unappropriated. In this direction, doicn the escarpment, they therefore ex- 

 tended. The evidences of these later settlements may be foimd in local names. 



The date of our parishes is for the most part unknown. The boundaries of those 

 wholly within the Weald were not settled till the century after the Conquest ; 

 these were the latest formed. The earliest, or those along the chalk escarpment, 

 would appear from their names to be chiefly English. 



The author concluded his paper as follows : — " In speaking as I have done of the 

 probable relative date of the various settlements and their parishes, I of course do 

 not mean that our parishes date so far back. The date at which most of our 

 parishes were formed, and even whether they were originall}' civil or ecclesiastical 

 divisions, is all involved in doubt ; and I do not pretend that this investigation 

 throws much light directly upon the subject. Still, I think, it does give a little. 

 If parishes were ever formally planned out, it seems in the highest degree unlikely 



