By tie Rev. T. Perkins, M.A. 



179 



and as the subsidence still continued this calcareous ooze extended 

 further and further west. This is what we call chalk marl and 

 chalk ; inter-stratified with the chalk we find layers of flint. This 

 chalk formation is a very extensive one, for not only the south and 

 south-east of England, but much of the Continent of Europe, lay 

 buried beneath the silent sea in cretaceous times. But this state of 

 things was not to continue for ever. Upheaval took place once 

 more, and for a long period the chalk districts of England remained 

 dry land ; then rain began its work, and the soft chalk was removed 

 from the flanks of the Devon and Somerset hills, leaving in places 

 thick beds of flints behind, as on the Blackdown Hills, near Taunton, 

 which have been formed from the coming together of many thin 

 layers of flint, as the intervening chalk was washed away. How 

 long this continental period lasted I do not know. At length 

 subsidence began again, and the south-eastern part of England 

 became the delta of another great river, and in it the tertiary beds, 

 partly fresh water, partly estuarine, and partly indicating the 

 existence of shallow seas, were laid down. These tertiary beds 

 are now found in two areas known as the London and Hampshire 

 basins with chalk between them, but there is every reason to believe 

 that these beds were once continuous, but that owing to the rising 

 of a central line stretching from the Vale of W ardour to the east of 

 England a range of low hills was formed, from which, by the process 

 known as denudation, all the tertiary beds were removed from the 

 chalk between the London and Hampshire basins, and in the west 

 still further changes were wrought. Of the eocene formation the 

 lower beds are to be met with about fifteen miles south-east of 

 Shaftesbury across the downs, where the north-west edge of the 

 Hampshire basin overlies the chalk. 



Now 1 must call your attention for a short time to the existing 

 state of things in this neighbourhood. To the south you must have 

 noticed the long range of hills, distinguished by their rounded 

 outline, their smooth surface, the absence of trees, and the presence 

 of soft fine turf, for centuries the pasture land of countless flocks of 

 sheep. These are the chalk downs. 



Our town stands at the north-western corner of a somewhat level 



