THE GEOLOGY OF RUTLAND, WITH PARTS OF LINCOLN, LEICESTER, NORTHAMPTON, HUNTINGDON, AND CAMBRIDGE.

Figure 5. Village of Somerby, Rutland, situated in one of the deep sinuous valleys of the great escarpment formed by the Marlstone Rock-bed.

CHAPTER I.

PHYSICAL FEATURES, &c.

Sheet 64 of the Ordnance map of England embraces an area of rather more than 800 square miles. Its eastern portion includes a part of the Fenland, while its western belongs to the great table-land of the Midland counties; the intermediate tract forms a segment of the very undulating but, on the whole, gradually rising land which lies between the former and the latter. While parts of the Fen district in this map are only a few feet above the sea level, the height of the general surface in the western part is about 500 feet, and many of the hills attain to more than 700 feet. The highest point included within the sheet appears to be the Ordnance station at Tilton-on-the-Hill which is 755 feet above the level of the sea, but a number of other points as Burrow Hill Camp, Whadborough Hill, Colborough Hill, Robin-a-Tiptoes, Ram Head, Cold Overton, and Neville Holt, attain to scarcely inferior elevations.

Owing to the greatly increased thickness of several members of the Lias and Oolite, the escarpments in this area are consi