Some Account of the Parish of Monhton Farleigh. 67 



curious. From the south [east?] the whole country slopes gradually 

 upwards from the level of the Avon at Melksham, forming one side 

 of the basin, along the bottom of which that river flows through 

 North Wilts. Here the rising ground stops, checked by two deep 

 valleys, one on the north, the other on the west. Beyond are other 

 deep valleys, all radiating from one centre — the city of Bath. 



" When the steep sides of the different hills, through which these 

 valleys have been excavated, are examined, their construction and 

 the succession of their strata are found to be the same in all. Just 

 as if you were to scoop out several grooves in a sage cheese, each 

 would shew the same alternations of green and white and the same 

 rind at the top. 



" From this conformity there is but one conclusion to be drawn, 

 namely that time was when these valleys did not exist ; when the 

 hills, now detached and known by the several names of Farleigh 

 Down, Bathampton Down, Lansdown, Little Solsbury, and Banner- 

 down, 1 presented one continuous surface. By what process, or at 

 what period of the earth's history, these enormous cavities were 

 made upon its face, the earth's own record can best explain, for 

 these were changes that took place before quills and fingers were 

 invented. Some vast subterranean furnace, still continuing to 

 supply Bath with its hot springs, probably raised and cracked the 

 whole of this district, and the waters of the sea, under which it lay, 2 

 widened the cracks and formed the valleys. 



" The result, so far as Monk ton Farleigh is concerned, is that it 

 stands upon the extreme edge of the upper side of the basin of the 

 Avon, on a ridge of high ground, from one side of which springs 

 flow into the Box stream, from the other backwards towards the 

 Avon at Melksham. That ridge or ledge of the basin may be traced 

 for many miles, and between the feeders of the Box stream and the 



1 The scene of the battle of Badon Hill, where Alfred defeated the Saxons. 

 Camden, v. i., p. 62. 



2 I have found many fine specimens of fossilized sea-shells and other fossils of 

 a flinty substance and circular form, such as Britton (p. 61, Wiltshire) describes 

 as found at Swindon and Grittleton, and Mr. Moore, of Bath, has, I understand, 

 made a rich geological harvest out of our soil. 



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