GEOLOGY I geological structure of Hertfordshire attracted the attention of our earliest county historian long before geology became a science. 'Concerning the Soyle:' said Norden in I597, 1 'It is for the most part chalkie, though the upper cruste in the South and West parts be for the most part of redde earth mixed with gravell, which yet by reason of the white marie under it yeeldeth good wheat and oates . . .' Norden here makes a definite geological observ- ation, that the Chalk, which forms the main stratum of the county, is overlaid in the south and west by a mixed soil of red earth (or clay) and gravel. This is correct so far as it goes, but it appears to have es- caped his notice that in the east a loamy clay (boulder-clay) overlies the Chalk, and that in the south-east a stiff clay (the London Clay) com- pletely alters the character of the soil, so effectually covering up the Chalk which lies underneath it that it is more suitable for root-crops and pasture than for raising ' good wheat and oates.' Norden also quaintly says that in the north part of the shire ' the soyle is very apt to yeeld corne and dertie wayes,' and in his account of Hitchin 8 he speaks of ' a kinde of chalke ... a stonie Marie, more fit to make lime than to soyle the grounde.' Chauncy, in his account of the soil of Hertfordshire, does little more than copy and amplify Norden. 'The upper Cruste,' he says, 3 'in many Places consists of red Earth, mixt with Gravel ; most of the Meadows are dry ; the Hills wet and cold, for they are Clay, therefore barren ; and for divers Parts it contains Chalk within a Foot or a Fathom of the Surface of the Ground . . .' Salmon merely says of ' the Earth ' : 4 ' The Soil is none of the fruitfullest . . . The Arable hath generally too much Gravel or too much Clay.' In his account of Moor Park, however, in referring to alterations to ' More House,' 5 he says that ' in digging were found Veins of Sea Sand with Musscles in it.' This is the earliest mention of the finding of fossils in Hertfordshire, and must have created some astonishment in his day. Even in 1756 the finding of ' a petrified Echinus ... at Bunnan's Land in the parish of Bovingdon ' was considered worthy of record in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 1 Speculum Britannia Pars, ' The Description of Hartfordshire,' p. I (quoted from the 1723 edition). 3 Op. cit. p. 1 8. 3 Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, p. I (1700). 4 History of Hertfordshire, p. i (1728). 6 Of. cit. p. HO. I I B
