HERTFORDSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
XX1U 
Field Meeting, 2nd June, 1888. 
ALDBURY AND ASHRIDGE PARK. 
A numerous party assembled at Tring Station under the direction 
of Mr. J. E. Littleboy. Some rode direct from the station to 
Aldbury, and others walked across Aldbury Meads and through 
Owers Wood. All leaving Aldbury together, ascended the hill on 
which the Bridgewater Monument stands, and then dispersed in 
small parties to investigate the natural history of the neighbour¬ 
hood, meeting again at the foot of the monument, where tea was 
kindly provided by Mr. Littleboy. 
After tea had been partaken of, the party assembled on the edge 
of the Chalk ridge, where an extensive view was obtained over the 
Chalk hills and dales and the Gault plain beyond; and here Dr. 
John Evans, E.B.S., gave a short address on the geology and 
archaeology of the neighbourhood. They were, he said, assembled 
on an escarpment of the Chalk. At the foot of the hills was a 
plain, which consisted of Gault Clay, and towards Leighton of the 
Lower Greensand. Although named Greensand, it need not he sand 
generally speaking, and it was red, and not green. In cutting the 
canal through Tring Summit, the Upper Greensand was found. 
Before them they had as it were a double escarpment, the Chalk 
escarpment and the Totternhoe escarpment, the latter being due 
to the existence of a hard bed at the bottom of the Chalk. The 
question occurred, to what was the deep valley in front of them 
due ? He thought, though he could not speak with certainty, 
that it was due to subaerial action. At one time this country was 
covered with ice, and in many parts they found stones with glacial 
markings upon them. The valleys were partly excavated at the 
time of the last submergence, and glaciers had travelled over them. 
There were in these valleys at certain levels gravels which con¬ 
sisted of sandstone pebbles, which could have been brought from 
no nearer spot than Warwickshire. If they examined the escarp¬ 
ment between Aldbury and Dunstable, they would find running 
into it at certain places deep valleys as regular as railway-cuttings. 
In many of these coombes they still found running water, which 
contained much chalk in solution, and by this means these deep 
coombes were excavated. He could not help thinking that the 
valley immediately at their feet was really one of these coombes 
one side of which was at a different angle from the other. He 
thought they might consider that a great deal of that valley had 
been excavated by the agency of spring water cutting a channel. 
Dr. Evans then proceeded to speak of the archaeological features of 
the district. The Chalk escarpment appeared, he said, to have been 
inhabited by early tribes, for a number of camps and burial mounds 
were found, and also worked flint implements of the neolithic 
period. These might be found anywhere at the foot of the downs. 
It was claimed that the village of Kimble was the burial-place of 
Cunobeline, better known to readers of Shakespeare as Cymbeline. 
There was a curious old charter in the British Museum, which 
