23 
The Agriculture of the Cotswolds. 
Geologically the Cotswolds consist of eight divisions of 
the Jurassic series ranging from the Lias to the Limestone. 
The pervious rocks are chiefly the Great and Inferior Oolites, 
and the impervious strata consist of the Lias clay and Fuller’s 
earth. 
The porous beds of the Inferior Oolite are drained by 
springs thrown out into the valleys by the underlying Lias 
clay, as at Ullen Wood, Seven Springs, Charlton Abbots, and 
Sierford, and those of the Great Oolite by others similarly 
thrown out by the clay of the Fuller’s earth, as at Hawling, 
Compton Abdale, Chedworth, Bibury, Perrotts Brook, Duntis- 
bourne, and at Thames Head. But for the Fuller’s earth the 
wide extent of country occupied by the Great Oolite would be 
an arid waterless tract, and it is therefore socially and agricul- 
turally the most important geological feature of the Cotswolds, 
the villages and homesteads being invariably situated in the 
green and fertile but narrow valleys that break up the hills at 
frequent intervals, and add so greatly to the charm of the 
landscape. The chief rivers are the Churn, the Coin, the 
Windrush and their tributaries, the Leach, and the Ampney 
Brook. These and others, fed by prolific springs, are tribu- 
taries of the Thames, and the quantity of water poured into 
that river from the Cotswold Hills is computed to be about 
100 million gallons per day, or about one-third of the quantity 
that flows over the weir at Teddington every summer day. 
The Severn receives the waters of the Chelt and Frome, and 
also of the Avon rivers rising in the South Cotswolds. 
The surface soil of by far the greater part of the Cotswolds 
is called “ Stonebrash,” and is derived from the Great Oolite 
with traces of the marls of the Forest marble that was once 
superimposed, or from the Inferior Oolite similarly mixed 
with those of the Fuller’s earth. While these in moderation 
add to its fertility they sometimes impart an amount of tenacity 
that makes cultivation difficult. The soil is seldom more than 
a few inches thick, and at the higher altitudes such as Cleeve 
Hill, near Cheltenham, the turf rests directly upon the rock. 
The valleys, formed in the far distant past by the numerous 
rivers then existing, are coated with transported material, of 
which sand and gravel are the chief constituent parts, mixed 
with the marls and clays of the waterbearing strata of Fuller’s 
earth or Upper Lias. Few districts, however, exhibit the soil 
of the rock in so pure a state, or so free from the debris of 
other formations, as the Cotswolds. 
The prevailing winds are from the west and south, and 
bring the rainclouds from the Atlantic that are broken up 
when they meet the colder air of the hills, and although this 
district suffered terribly from the disastrous droughts of 1911 
