Burton Lazars derives its distinctive appellation from the Lazar house, or hospital for lepers, which once existed here. This institution, which was very richly endowed, was devoted to the relief of a class of disease which was extremely common in this country in mediæval times, but which has now, thanks to the -existence of better sanitary arrangements, the greater abundance and excellence of food, and the spread of habits of cleanliness among the population, entirely disappeared. In the year 1135 Roger de Mowbray, aided by a general collection throughout England, laid the foundation of an establishment for a master and eight sound brethren of the Order of Saint Augustin, as well as several poor leprous brethren, to whom he gave two carucates of land, at Burton, a house, mill, &c. "The hospital was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and St. Lazarus, and all the inferior houses in England, were in some measure subject to its master, as was also the master of the Lazars at Jerusalem hospital, belonging to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem." At its dissolution in 1535 the Burton Lazar hospital had a clear annual revenue of 2657. 10s. 2d., its possessions were granted to the Earl of Warwick and the Duke of Northumberland. The spring at Burton Lazars, beside which this important establishment sprang up, is said to have contained chloride of sodium and a large quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen among its ingredients, and it was resorted to, long after the dissolution of the monastic establishment, by great numbers of persons afflicted with scorbutic disorders; these are said to have obtained great benefit from the use of the waters. As late as the year 1760 a bathing room was built at the spring, but in recent years this has been pulled down; subsequent excavations carried on near the spot have caused this once most famous well to disappear altogether, so that even its very site will soon be known only by tradition.

The Neville-Holt Spa was discovered in 1728, and its composition and medical properties were investigated by Dr. Short (see the list of works at the end of this Memoir, Appendix II.). It appears to have been chalybeate and for a long time its waters were in great request, but they are now almost entirely neglected. The baths erected over this spring still remain.

At Blatherwycke a spring containing sulphuretted hydrogen was discovered through the sinking of a well (see p. 102). Its waters are said to have been analysed, but I have not been able to obtain any record of its composition.

The chalybeate water at Kings-Cliffe Spa at one time acquired some fame; but, as in so many other cases, it has either fallen wholly into disuse or is resorted to only by the peasantry living in the neighbourhood.

The Braceborough Spa does not appear to contain an excessive amount of any particular mineral ingredient, but is remarkable for the quantity of gas (carbonic acid) which rises through it. bath has been erected over it, and the spring was at one time much resorted to by invalids.

Mineral Resources of the District.-These we have noticed in considerable detail in connexion with each of the formations, and here it is only necessary to remark that, although, with the exception of the iron-ore of the Northampton Sand, the district cannot be regarded as rich in minerals of great economic value, nevertheless to a very large extent, not only the comfort of the population, but the nature of the architecture adopted by them both in their homes and their religious edifices, is due to the excellence of the building materials with which they are so liberally furnished.

Soils. The principal characteristics of these and their dependence upon the rocks on which they lie have also been noticed in the foregoing pages. Although almost every portion of the area described is now under cultivation, yet such was not always the case. The tracts covered by the richest soils were evidently those which were first cleared and occupied; and the wants of a continually increasing population, combined with the adoption of more settled habits, have occasioned the successive absorption of more and more unpromising areas, till at last waste lands have almost wholly disappeared within the limits of the district.

Conclusion.-No one can have followed the descriptions of the present memoir without reflecting to how large an extent the present characteristics and the past history of the district are dependent on its physical structure. A mere glance at the map, as geologically coloured, will show how the selection of the original sites for those settlements, which have since become villages and towns, must have been, in the first instance, determined by the outcrop of the various water-bearing beds. The features of its surface, the nature of its soils, and the character and abundance of the mineral productions of the district, have evidently been the conditions on which the number and distribution of the population have mainly depended, and the causes to which their industries, their sports, and even their peculiarities, have largely owed their origin.

And the production of the physical features which distinguish the district have been due, as we have seen, to the combined operation of two distinct sets of geological causes. Firstly, the succession of events by which series of rocks of very various characters were deposited within the area; and, secondly, the action upon these of subterranean forces producing upheaval, flexure, and fracture, and acting side by side and in combination with those of subaerial and marine waste; these deep-seated and surface operations working concurrently have gradually moulded and sculptured the surface of the land into the forms which it at present wears.

APPENDIX I.

PALEONTOLOGICAL TABLES

PREPARED BY

R. ETHERIDGE, F.R.S.,

PALEONTOLOGIST TO THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

APPENDIX I.

TABLES OF THE STRATIGRAPHICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
OF FOSSILS, BY R. ETHERIDGE, F.R.S.

The accompanying tables of fossils have been drawn up expressly to elucidate the distribution of the Oolitic species through the Lower Oolites of the counties of Rutland and Northampton, and also to show their geographical distribution.

Table 1 is devoted to a comparison of the fossils of the Inferior Oolite of the area above noticed with those of the same formation in the south-west of England and Yorkshire respectively. This comparison and correlation is made with the view of ascertaining the relation that exists between the two distantly separated Faunæ of the same age, or belonging to the same horizon in time, the physical aspects of which, however, greatly differing, there being nothing in common lithologically between the Oolitic series of Yorkshire, and those of the Midland district and south-west of England. Yet the species ranging through the series are identical, and hold the same stratigraphical position, and are of equal value in determining the sequence of the beds constituting the Oolitic series through the whole of England.

In the column headed "Great Oolite of West of England," are enumerated those species that occur in or are common to both the Great Oolite of the South, and the Inferior Oolite of one or other of the five horizons named, viz., the Lincolnshire Limestone, the Collyweston Slates and Northampton Sand of the Midland district; also the Inferior Oolite of the south of England and Yorkshire.

The letters R. C. r. c. denote the rarity or abundance of the species, the capital R. expressing extreme rarity, and the capital C. extreme abundance; the smaller letters their ordinary condition or occurrence. This must be regarded as only approximative, being really a question of exhaustive research.

As far as able, I have tabulated every species occurring within the area described and mapped by Mr. Judd, and embraced in Sheet 64, &c. Samuel Sharp, Esq., F.G.S., of Dallington Hall, Northampton, who possesses the finest Collection of Northamptonshire fossils known, submitted the whole series to our examination, and from his materials, with those collected by the Geological Survey, have been constructed the tables numbered 1 and 2, the latter being strictly geographical. Mr. Sharp's two able papers on the Oolites of Northamptonshire* contain every species known to him, arranged both geographically through the text of the paper, and zoologically tabulated also.

* On the Oolites of Northamptonshire, by S. Sharp, Esq., F.G.S., Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxvi. p. 354, and vol. xxix., p. 225.