574 
thick diluvial gravel occurred. With one exception (West Dere- 
ham) all were built of flint boulders, and he stated his conviction, 
that they owed their form, not to any peculiar style, but had been 
built from necessity, in consequence of the absence of freestone 
from the soil. 
At the request of Daniel Gurney, he directed his attention, in 
1825, to the collecting and publishing of Merchant Marks, and 
two years afterwards announced his first attempt, comprising six 
specimens, of dates from 1409 to 1008, which ho had drawn on 
stone. With Miss Etheldred Eenett he corresponded much on the 
subject, and thus writes to her on the 14th February, 1829 : 
“ Merchant Marks having existed in Norwich until within the last 
thirty years, the antiquity of them has been lost sight of, and their 
history thought beneath the attention of the professed antiquary. 
In Norwich I have been able to go no further back in existing 
marks than that of Daniel Mayor, 1407. I have copies of some 
much earlier.” He mentions that they were nearly contemporary 
with the introduction of armorial bearings, and were used by a 
largo majority of the wealthy of England. They are found in 
stone on the buildings erected by the merchants, sometimes over 
the door as a show-board, but more frequently on the spandrills of 
the oak door-jambs, on the wainscotting, the stone chimney-pieces, 
and in the stained glass. Numbers also are found on funeral 
monuments. He observed that they were composed of certain 
mathematical figures, which might have had some allusion to the 
kind of merchandise imported, but which were afterwards used as 
export marks. 
Occasional short visits to friends in various parts of Norfolk 
enabled him to take notes of the geological and architectural 
features over a large area. Thus, he sojourns with Mr. Rose at 
Swaffham, with the Dev. J. Layton at Catfield, with the Lev. 
Richard Johnson at Stalham, and with the Rev. G. R. Leatlies* at 
Shropham Hall. It appears as if the clergy of Norfolk were in 
those days more devoted to science than they now arc. Mr. Loathes 
drove him in July, 1829, from Shropham Hall to Swaffham, and 
he notes that on the way, “ Wo passed Wailing or Way land Wood, 
and the farm-house (on the right), which about thirty years ago, 
* Mr. Leathes died in 183G. 
