Horace B. Wooclivard — A Ramble Acro8& the MencUps. 485 



that there was a constant change of conditions from a land area 

 producing vegetation, to a water area allowing the deposition of 

 sediment; such a repetition brought about the series of rocks we 

 now call the Coal-measures, and which in Somersetshire attains a 

 thickness of about 8000 feet.^ In this great thickness of shales and 

 sandstones there is only about 100 feet of coal. It has been worked 

 with more or less activity for the last four hundred years, and yet 

 at the present rate of working it is calculated that we have enough 

 to last two or three thousand years, and the total amount available 

 to the depth of 4000 feet in the Bristol and Somerset coal-fields is 

 estimated by the Coal Commissioners as equal to a supply for 4219 

 years. This refers only to the West of England. Taking the 

 whole of the British coal-fields into account, the supply is con- 

 sidered as only equal to about three centuries. There is still plenty 

 to last us, although we have to pay rather dearly for it now. 



Leaving Eadstock, we may proceed to Chewton Mendip, which is 

 pleasantly situated on the borders of the Mendip Hills. The walks 

 in the neighbourhood are pretty and varied — to the east are many 

 combes in the Mountain Limestone, while to the west we find a flat 

 of Lias, and at Emborrow a picturesque little lake bordered by wood- 

 land, which is situated in the oldest rocks of the Mendips — the Old 

 Eed Sandstone and the shales above it. In the walls near Chewton 

 Mendip we find many ferns, the Brittle bladder fern (Cystopteris 

 fragilis), the Geterach, the Black spleen wort (Aspleniiim adiantum- 

 nigrum), the Wall-rue (Asplenium Buta-muraria) , Maiden-hair 

 [Asplenium tnclwmanes) , and other common ferns. 



In taking the road which winds its way gradually up-hill to 

 Priddy by Egar Hill, we have a first peep over the wild-looking 

 country of the Mendips. Near Tar Hall we find some old lead- 

 washings, then the road is bounded on the right by a picturesque 

 wood, and above the hill on the left an open barren land stretches 

 away for some distance. At the cross roads by Egar Hill all looks 

 bleak and barren, and here we find ourselves getting into a country 

 which has been largely worked for metals. The whole surface of 

 the ground about this neighbourhood has been dug and quarried. 

 We cannot see very much now, but there are indications that here 

 and there a mineral vein was followed. 



Near Priddy are some groups of barrows, or sepulchral mounds, 

 one of nine, the other of eight, in number. They usually contain a 

 small circular hole filled with burnt bones, cinerary urns, and some- 

 times also beads. 



At Stoney Littleton, near Piadstock, a barrow was opened some 

 years ago. It was 107 feet long, 54 feet wide, and 13 feet high ; and 

 was found to contain a long gallery, with chambers on each side, 

 whose walls were built of thin layers and slabs of stone Avithout 

 cement, forming in fact regular Cromlechs. Although it had been 

 previously disturbed, one of the recesses contained an earthen 

 vessel containing burnt bones. The mound or barrow was formed, 

 not as usual of fine mould, but of small stones, probably a rubble of 

 Inferior Oolite. 



^ See Lecture on Coal by A. H. Green. 



