THE NORTHERN STAR. No. 15.-For AUGUST, 1818. Topograhpy, Picturesque Scenery, Local History, &e. [Under this head the Editors earnestly solicit Drawings and Sketches of Ruins and other interesting places, with accompanying information.— Histories of Manufactures, new Inventions, and mechanical Improvements, as included under the same department, are also very respectfully entreated.] ABBEY OF ST. AGATHA. THESE venerable remains are seated on the banks of the river Swale, in the vicinity of Richmond. Peculiarly happy in the choice of situation, the neighbouring hills shelter it from the chilling blasts of the North, while fertility of soil and delightful scenery render it at once the abode of health and of pleasure. From its contiguity to a village of that name, it has also been generally called Edseby Abbey. It was founded about the year 1152, by Roaldus, constable of Richmond Castle, and dedicated to St. Agatha, a lady of illustrious family, and who received the crown of martyrdom during the persecution of Decius, in the year 251. She was born in Sicily, the cities of Palermo and Catana disputing the honour of her birth: Leland, in his Itinerary, ascribes its foundation to Lord Scroope; but this is justly supposed to be an error, arising no doubt from the fact of that personage having inherited the possession from Roaldus, and made considerable additions to it. Canons of the Premonstratensian order, or Monks of Premonstre, in Picardy, were its inhabitants, who had also the appellation of White Canons from the colour of their habit, and Regular Canons of St. Augustin, from their living according to the rules laid down by that saint. At the Dissolution, this abbey contained seventeen canons, and was surrendered by Robert, the last abbot. The value of the tithes and lands in its possession amounted to £188 168 2d. per annum, but this was liable to many deductions, reducing their clear annual income to no more than £111 178. 9d.-The site of this abbey was granted, in the 4th and 5th of Phil. and Mary, to Ralph Gower, on whose attaint, in the 14th of Elizabeth, it was sold to John Stanhope, and now, with great part of its possessions, belonging to Cuthbert Johnson, Esq. Many of its ornaments, at the Dissolution, were taken to decorate other places; among others, the aldermen's seats in Richmond church, also a magnificent and curiously carved one was conveyed to Wensley church. The square Gate-house is built with unusual strength, and having been generally used as a granary since the Dissolution, is the only part which has been kept in repair; it is remarkable for having Saxon arches erected under VOL. III. M pointed ones: the upper room was lighted by a window at each end, divided into two lights by a munnion, ending at the top in a quatrefoil ornament.– The other buildings of this monastery were of considerable extent and architectural magnificence, particularly the chapel, which is 102 feet long by 27 feet broad; the east window rising nearly to the ceiling, and divided by munnions branching into cinquefoils, crowned by a large one in the centre; and being lighted also by six elegant pointed windows on the south side. The walls of this chapel are almost entire, but the roof is wholly gone.-On the north side, near the altar, are two recesses coeval with the building, where Roaldus and his consort are deposited in their coffins. In the inner court is a curious door way, with clustered pillars, and ornamented capitals; surrounded by a double moulding of cat's heads, with long tongues hanging from their mouths, and curled at the ends; the outer moulding is formed of foliage, a pointed arch richly carved and embossed with four leaved knobs, the sculpture still fresh and sharp: within it are two niches, surmounted by a trefoil-shaped moulding, carved and studded like the arch; one contains a statue, supposed to represent St. Agatha, which is in a very mutilated state. The small octagon room on the west appears to have been the chapterhouse; it is surrounded with stone seats, and adorned with richly-carved stone work over them. "Easeby and Manfield churches belonged to the abbey; the former is remarkable for not standing due east and west and its rustic simplicity and neat well-ordered cemetery. If we may form an opinion, from the arms of Scroope, of Bolton, placed over the porch, those of Brian Fitz-Alan on the left, and of Conyers on the right, it was built by these noble families. In the east window of the south aisle are painted, among other fragments of stained glass, the arms of Fitz-Alan, and near it those of Percy and Lucy quartered. "An alteration in religious opinions has made a wonderful change in this stately building, and the consequence has been, that, from being the hallowed habitation of men, it is now become the abode of cattle, and the den of noxious vermin." GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISTRICT ROUND SHEFFIELD. To the Editor of the Northern Star: NO part of this island affords a finer field for geological researches than the counties of York and Derby, especially within the limits of a few miles round Sheffield. Whether we consider the irregularities of its structure, the diversity of its strata, or the variety of its mineral productions, this tract of country is equally worthy of attention. As I trust, therefore, that a short description of its principal features may prove interesting to some. part of your numerous readers, permit me in the scientific pages of your Miscellany to lay before them, a brief sketch of this interesting district, from personal investigation. The tract of country which I propose more particularly to delineate, includes a part of the counties of York, Nottingham, Derby and Chester, ex tending from Doncaster to Mansfield on the one hand, and from Buxton to Stockport and Penistone upon the other; having Sheffield nearly in its centre and the Peak of Derbyshire within its limits. Throughout the greatest part of this district, the layers of strata lie upon each other in the same manner as the leaves in a book, having in general a gradual declination to the eastward. Their edges or terminations intersect the country in nearly parallel directions from north to south, and form the principal acclivities upon its surface. The various substances of which these strata are component parts, and which constitute the internal composition of this district, overlay each other in the following succession, from the lowest stratum of limestone in Derbyshire, to the alluvial deposites which form the uppermost strata in the county of Nottingham, and on the east side of Yorkshire. 1, Mountain-limestone. 2 Basalt, amygdaloid, or toadstone. 3. Aluminous, or limestone shale, and gritstone. 5. Strata in the great coal-field. 6. Red sand-rock, or salmon-coloured grit. 7, Crystallized granular, or magnesian limestone. 8. Gravel sand, and other alluvial deposites. These constitute all the principal compound masses of strata within this district; but as there is great diversity in their structure, and various substances in their composition, I shall proceed to give a particular description of the varieties in each class according to their relative situation. 1. Mountain-limestone forms the lowest assemblage of strata which has been hitherto discovered in Derbyshire, and constitutes the surface of the county between the towns of Buxton, Castleton, Stoney-Middleton, and Bakewell, extending southward by Matlock, Wirksworth, and Ashborne, into a part of Staffordshire, from which Dovedale forms its boundary to Buxton. For a great part of this distance, from Cromford to Buxton, and thence to Hucklow, near Castleton, the tract of limestone-rock is abruptly separated from the shale and gritstone strata wbich surround it, by a fracture, commonly called a fault; which evidently indicates, that by some extraordinary convulsion, either the isolated tract of limestone has been elevated, or the surrounding strata of shale and gritstone have been depressed from the original position of their formation, which in Craven is found to be that of shale lying upon limestone, excepting where similar dislocations separate them, and bring their surfaces to the same elevation. This grand convulsion may probably have been one cause of the entire change which takes place in the declination of strata on each side of the elevated ridge of mountains which range through Derbyshire, in their course from Wales, and, extending northwards through Craven and Cumberland into Scotland, may be called the back-bone of England. On the eastern side, their declination is towards the German Ocean, but on the western, it is in a contrary direction, towards the Irish Sea. Between Derbyshire and Wales, however, their position is varied and undulating; their concavities forming a basin for the salt and gravel deposites of Cheshire and Shropshire, before they terminate on the Welsh mountains, where mountain limestone is found lying upon blue slate and other primitive rocks. Under the class of mountain limestone in Derbyshire are included four varieties, which, occurring in distinct strata, are separated by three layers of basalt or toadstone.- Of these varieties, the First, which is the uppermost, is generally of a dark colour, of a laminated structure, and emits a fetid odour when struck with a hammer; it contains a great number of petrifactions of marine animals, as entrochites, madrepores, &c. ; layers of black chert nodules, similar to the flint nodules in chalk districts, occur between its beds, and even in some instances whole strata of the stone itself are converted into chert by exposure to the air.--The Second, contains magnesia in several of its beds, and numerous marine petrifactions. Some of its lower strata are black, and therefore called black marble.-The Third, is characterised by containing between its beds layers of chert nodules, similar to the first, and numerous impressions of marine animals, and shells embedded in its substance; but it is more remarkable for containing irregular masses of toadstone and basalt.-The Fourth, is the lowest of these varieties of limestone; and as its depth has not hitherto been penetrated, it forms the lowest stratum yet discovered in this district: it is regularly stratified like the former varieties, but in layers of greater thickness, possessing the properties of a free-stone, and when burnt affording the best lime for the purposes of agriculture. Organic remains and petrifactions of marine animals are scattered through its snbstance iu small quantities, evidently proving that it is not a primitive, but a transition or secondary rock in the classification of geologists. This mass of mountain limestone is traversed through its whole extent by numerous veins of lead, zinc, calamine, and copper; of these veins there are three varieties, distinguished by the provincial appellations of rake-veins, pipe-veins, and flat-works. The rake-veins are straight and vertical cracks or fissures, of different breadths, filled with ores and minerals, extending to the lowest penetrated depth, but rarely intersecting the layers of basalt and toadstone which in tervene. They generally preserve a straight course upon the surface, running in parallel directions, and crossing each other at right angles. The pipe-veins are cavities freqnently horizontal, between layers of limesione, filled in like manner to the former, and remarkable for having a narrow rake-vein leading from them to the surface of the stratum in which they occur. The flat-works are horizontal cavities similar to the above, but distinguished from them by having no rake-vein emanating from their surface, and being very rarely found in Derbyshire. The following are the principal minerals and metals which are produced by these veins, in various proportions throughout the limestone strata: The mass of mountain limestone I have been describing, is remarkable for the numerous caverns and other natural curiosities which it contains, the principal of which are Peak's Hole, the Crystallized Cavern, and EldenHole near Castleton, Pool's Hole near Buxton, the rocky and romantic valleys of the Wye near Bakewell, the Derwent near Matlock, and the still more admired Dovedale on the western borders of the High-Peak.— These sublime wonders of nature have in all probability been caused by those violent convulsions which "shook terribly the earth," when "the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of Heaven were opened," by the hand of Omnipotence. Sheffield, August, 1818. [To be continued.] ENQUIRY RESPECTING BUXTON BATH-CHARITY. To the Editor of the Northern Star. H. IT appears to me that the pages of your Magazine would be occupied in a way not inconsistent with your plan, if your correspondents would furnish you with correct accounts of such charitable institutions as are intended for public use. Persons residing at a distance are often ignorant of the means of availing themselves of the benefit to be derived from them. Such is my situation with respect to a benevolent institution which I understand exists at Buxton for the purpose of affording medical advice and occasional pecuniary aid to poor persons whose cases require the use of the baths. Such a charity is one that might be very extensively useful, if supported with libe】 rality and conducted with prudence. As the institution is not very distant from your neighbourhood, I shall feel obliged if any of your correspondents can inform me through the medium of the Northern Star, what is the exact plan of it,-how it is supported, and by what means persons desirous of visiting Buxton, may receive the benefit it is designed to afford. I make this request from you, Mr. Editor, not merely for my own information, but think you will be conferring a favour on many of your readers by giving publicity to accounts of charities of this kind which are not sufficiently known. Durham, 18th August. FAUTURUS. |