A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE occur under the ordinary Boulder Clay of the district, in a gravel resting on undisturbed Lincolnshire Limestone, the inference is obvious that they were derived from a Pre-glacial land surface. The probably abundant flora and fauna of the Inter-glacial period has mostly been swept away, but traces of the larger animals, and man, were preserved (see p. 29). Post-glacial Flora On the passing away of the last phase of the Glacial period, the recently ice-covered ground slowly became coated with vegetation suited to it and the climate, in an order dependent upon the facilities for seed-dispersion possessed by the various plants. Amongst the larger plants, presumably alder and birch would earliest find a footing, as suited to a cold climate, but certainly oak and hazel predominated later on ; the ash, maple, hornbeam, yew, beech and pine, etc., followed, the elm being probably a late arrival, because so seldom propagated by seed. Thus very much of the county became covered with forest, but not all. The higher ground to the west and north-west of the county was never, as far as we know, covered with forest ; the larger valleys and the fens were kept free from forest growth by recurrent floods and incursions of the sea. Even some parts not so situated probably never encouraged or even permitted the growth of large trees, but rather ling, furze, broom, wild thyme and bracken, with a thin grass ; these were the heaths now mostly under cultivation. These heaths, in the eastern part of the county. Wittering, Easton, Thornhaugh, etc., were mostly on the stony arenaceous soils of the Lincolnshire Oolite ; those in more central Northamptonshire, Harlestone, Dallington, and many others, on the sandy beds of the Northampton Sand. Further particulars as to the ancient forests will be found in another part of this history. Settlement of the County One characteristic of modern scenery is the town or village, directly due to man, but indirectly, in its situation and architecture, to local geological structure. When man had arrived at a state of civilization sufficient to appreciate a fixed abode, he had also no doubt perceived the desirability of a dry site for a dwelling, equally with the nearness of water, which led to the selection of spots on porous soils near to springs. This, and the possibility of getting water by means of shallow wells in such situations, no doubt, more than anything else, ultimately fixed the site of the little group of dwellings which afterwards grew into a village or town. The way in which successive ridges of Northampton Sand are occupied by towns and villages along the Nene from Northampton to Wellingborough, and then along the Ise from Wellingborough to Desborough (see map), is most suggestive in this connection. Below is given a tabulated list of the number of villages in North- amptonshire on the various geological formations, taken from the i-inch map of the Geological Survey. 36
