396 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [ Mar. 9, 
series; to exhibit fossils gathered from each; and thus to con- 
tribute somewhat. towards the establishment of the character and 
sequence of the Oolites of this Midland District. 
I purpose to divide my work into two or more Parts, and 
the present Memoir will constitute the first of these; but it is not 
improbable that the publication by the Geological Survey of their 
maps and memoir of the northern division of Northamptonshire (the 
work of that excellent geologist, Mr. Judd) may intervene, and 
render superfluous the completion of my scheme. In the meantime 
the following may not be unacceptable. 
Part I. 
Tue Ooxtres or NortHampton AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
Northamptonshire, from of old, has been said to be famous for 
‘‘ springs, spires, and squires.” The first of these characteristics 
directly, and the others more remotely, are attributable to the geo- 
logical features of the county. 
The double alternation of pervious beds overlying impervious ones 
—the limestone of the Great Oolite upon its underlying clay, and the 
Northamptonshire Sand upon the clay of the Upper Lias—produces, 
at the outcrop of those beds upon the escarpments of the numerous 
valleys which intersect the county, the springs of pure water which 
formed the subject of the ancient boast. 
Then the variety of its soils (answering to the variety of the 
underlying materials), its fertility (attributable in part to natural 
irrigation), and the broad meadows with which its valleys are 
floored led at an early date to the general cultivation of its sur- 
face, and to its partition into small holdings or lordships: hence 
the numerous villages with which the county is packed, and the 
consequent churches and spires (built almost wholly of county Oolitic 
stone) with which it is studded. 
Lastly, from the undulating character of its surface, and its fer- 
tility, eligible and beautiful sites for residences abound ;- and many 
such there are, with parks and “ pleasaunces,” (some of palatial 
importance,) constituting the ancestral homes of a numerous landed 
proprietary, and investing this Midland shire with not a litle of 
dignity and beauty. 
On the high grounds are commonly found deposits of Older Post- 
glacial, or Glacial Drift, in the form, at some places, of gravel, and 
at others of Boulder-clay ; which Drift-beds, having been cut through 
in the formation of the existing valleys, are therefore of a higher 
antiquity than they, and indicate that the causes which operated to 
produce the present surface contour originated subsequently to the 
Glacial period. 
These numerous valleys have generally cut through the whole of 
the Oolitic beds, often deep into the Upper Lias, and in some in- 
stances even through the Marlstone into the Lower Lias; and this 
circumstance, and numerous excayations—in the shape of stone, slate, 
sand, ironstone, and clay pits, road-cuttings, and railway-cuttings— 
offer many facilities for geological investigation. 
