It is fortunate for me that, as compared with some other districts, little has been written upon that of which I treat.
The earliest geological notice of the locality is, I believe, to be found in Conybeare and Phillips, 1822 ; but it must not be forgotten that Morton, in his quaint and, for his time, learned, ' Natural History of Northamptonshire,' published as early as 1712, described and figured, generally with accuracy, numerous fossils now as then obtainable from the geological formations of the county, including a Trigonia of a species not yet recorded as occurring in equivalent beds in other districts, and which Dr. Lycett has done me the honour of distinguishing by the name of T. Sharpiana.
A " Notice of the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Stamford and Peterborough," by the late Capt. Ibbetson, F.G.S., and Mr. (now Professor) Morris, F.G.S., was published in the ' Transactions ' of the British Association for 1847.
The Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S., in 1850, published, in the ' Transactions ' of the ' Cotswold Naturalists' Club,' " A Sketch of the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Grantham, Lincolnshire, and a Comparison of the Stonesfield Slate at Collyweston, in Northamptonshire, with that in the Cotswold Hills."
An important paper " On some Sections in the Oolitic District of Lincolnshire" (touching also upon some points in the geology of Northamptonshire), by Professor Morris, F.G.S., was published in the Journal of the Geological Society for November 1853.
In his ' Handbook of the Cotswold Hills,' 1857, Dr. Lycett makes a passing allusion to the ironstones of Wellingborough.
In 1860 & 1861 appeared the Memoirs accompanying the Maps of the Geological Survey of the Southern Division of the County (sheet 53, quarters N.E. and S.E.), written respectively by Mr. Aveline and Messrs. Aveline and Trench.
Papers by Mr. Maw, F.G.S. (read April 1868, and published in the Journal), and by Mr. Judd, F.G.S. (read March 1869), treated of the mineralogical characteristics of the Northampton Sand ; and the latter embodied considerations tending to show that the materials of these beds had been deposited under estuarine conditions.
Lastly, in the ' Geological Magazine ' for March, 1869, is an interesting article by Professor Morris, F.G.S., entitled " Geological Notes on Parts of Northampton- and Lincolnshires."
Since the publication of the majority of these dissertations, many additional sections have been exposed, large collections of the palaeontological contents of the several beds have been accumulated, and the geological sequence of those beds has been systematically traced over a considerable area.
The knowledge thus made accessible necessitates the revision of former conclusions ; old fallacies must succumb to new facts, and all things subserve to the development and establishment of truth.
The task which I have proposed to myself ultimately to accomplish is : — to describe severally the Oolitic beds occurring in the Northampton district, in the more northerly parts of the county, and in the neighbourhood of Stamford ; to correlate the several
