CONCERNING MARL PITS. 
149 
statute passed in 1225 (loth Henry III.) which gives every man 
leave to sink a marl pit. There are leases on record, granted 
in the reigns of Edward 1 . and III., which compel the tenants to 
make use of marl. The white chalk marl of Norfolk appears 
to have been in use for centuries, judging from the size of oak 
trees growing in old (of course, dry) marl pits. The use of clay 
marl is supposed to have been of much later date."'" 
Now, although clay marl may not have been used for so long 
a period as the Norfolk chalk marl has been used, I am disposed 
to think that our pits are of considerable antiquity. They are 
to be found not only in Wirrall, but in every part of Cheshire 
where clay forms the subsoil. In some localities the number of 
these pits is astonishing, and the quantity of marl obtained 
must have been enormous, and its use must have extended over 
a long period. Many fields contain not one pit only, but three 
or four. In my younger days I knew a field that was so com- 
pletely excavated with pits that they covered several acres, and 
very little land was left. They have been since drained and 
levelled into good land. Although it has, strictly, nothing to 
do with the subject of this paper, it may interest some of the 
readers of Nature Notes to hear that one of the pits I speak of 
was full of white water-lilies, and that the first year after it was 
drained (not quite dry, for a quantity of wet mud remained at 
the bottom) the lilies, instead of being killed, as one would have 
expected, actually seemed to revel in having the water taken 
from them, for a complete jungle of luxuriant leaves and flowers 
grew up which were quite self-supporting, and which stood 
erect to the height of at least three feet. It is strange that any 
plant should be benefited, even temporarily, by being taken so 
completely out of its natural element ; but I have seen the same 
thing happen with the yellow iris, which being transplanted 
from the water’s edge into a garden, flourished amazingly, and 
grew nearl}’ five feet high, producing a profusion of flowers. 
I have known these marl pits for more than half a century, 
and not one new one has been opened during my recollection, 
nor have the existing ones altered in the slightest degree. They 
were old pits fifty years since, and were probably old pits a 
hundred years before that. Many of them are delineated on old 
maps; they have given names to fields, such as Pit Field, 
Pitsteads, Starpits, Marl Field, Marled Keys, &c., and the use 
of marl on the land has even given rise to one or two quaint old 
sayings, and to some interesting rural customs which obtained 
when marling was at its zenith, but which are even now quite 
obsolete, and, indeed, are nearly forgotten since marling went 
out of fashion. It went out of fashion at least fifty or sixty 
years since, partly because it had been carried to such an extent 
that much land was marled that did not require marling, and, 
therefore, but little benefit was derived from it, and partly 
Abridged from “ Morton’s Cyclopedia of Agriculture,” vol. ii., p. 371. 
