The transcription of the "Geology Notebook" of Thomas Perry (a remarkable book, now in the State Archives of South Aust.
It’s a good quality hardback notebook about
190mm by 120mm, probably originally cream or buff covers but red binding,
pseudo-embossing on the spine, coloured watermarked inside linings front and
back, and about 10mm thick, about 100 pages. It’s beat up, like it’s well
travelled, some pages adrift, and it’s been “begun” from both ends but hard to
see which one was started first, and the content of each part is similar
anyway.
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From the "Burial Ground" end
[p1]
Blank
[p2]
A clipping from a letter, presumably to him, glued into the
front, which appears to have been written in Ipswich on 24-8-1818 ...
“...as I forgot to give thee an account of the Graves at
Woodbridge which I recd of the Gravedigger when over at Jn Warpis[?] funeral, I
will give thee them here, before I lose the memorandum...”
... and a square marked
“Rd Plumleys House” and a numbered list of six graves -
Johnathon Goldsbury’s dau (1
Eliz Evans Senr (2
J.O.Perry’s=Benjamn Evens (3
Eliz Jesup.Isaac Reckitt (4
Lucy Barton=Danl Perry (5
opposite graves Elizth Perry (6
On the reverse side of this is what appears to be parts of the
letter...
“… about the middle or latter end of next…
… upon business from Bury qtly meeting…
… 18th when, if he should suit he…”
“The subject of Dear Aunt [Husbies?] [Thusbies?] legacies, or
rather…… my being so long …… by the E…… undivided as what I wished just to
mention for we think here that …… our Cr[?] Isaac[?] B. being offerred[?] – if
the accomodation …… afford that he is in …… matter to hand …… soon what …… John
Hone[?] …… requested ……”
[p3]
Headed “Plan of Friends Burying Ground as Woodbridge Suffolk”,
and a drawn-in diagram showing “Meeting House”, “R Plumley’s Cottage”
(adjoining), and then in relation to them, the six graves above as actually
laid out, and on the bottom “Jno Perry Jun from Rd Plumley”.
[p3]
Blank
[p4]
Single line across top in small writing “Illustrations of the
Geology of Sussex 42 plates Mantell”, balance blank.
[p5]
In big writing, like a header page. “Synopsis of Geological
phenomenom”
[p6]
(Written in) “The total thickness of the different rock
formations in England from the Marine Sand on Bagshot Heath & Suffolk Crag
in the east to the Granite to the West, might be ascertained along any
particular line of section ...”, and goes on in the same vein, continued on p7
–
[p7]
The bottom third of the page (but written vertically) is –
Isle Wight 9/3/26
Church of St Lawrence
About 10 feet long
5 feet wide
8 feet high inside
- - - - - - - - - -
Abury 9/24/28 [has to be “Avebury”]
One stone 16 feet high
16 feet wide
5-6 In thick
Computed to weigh 98 tons
- - - - - - - - - - - -
another 15 feet high
11 Do wide
5-6 In thick
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
...and there’s lots of
pencilled calculations visible under the writing that covers the top two thirds
that goes on from p6, “...Magnesian Limestone in the ear(ly?) to the fourth or
transition limestone in the West, the total thickness...” and goes on some more
about coal seams and chalk beds.
[p8-10]
A bit messy, with crossed out paras, but transcribed from
several parts of “Bakewells Introduction to Geology”, starting (ex p479) - “The
enquiry has frequently been made, ‘What advantage can be derived from the study
of Geology?’ ” – and then (ex p93) (after a crossed out piece) –
“The material universe appears destined to answer two important
purposes; the first to provide for the physical wants of its various
inhabitants. Now in relation to this purpose, the science which teaches us the
structure of the earth and where its mineral treasures may be found, can
scarcely be deemed devoid of utility by a nation deriving so much of its
comfort & wealth from its mines and resources.
“But beside supplying our physical wants, the external universe
is destined to answer a nobler purpose; its various objects appear intended to
exite our curiosity, and stimulate our intellectual powers to the discovery of
those laws, by which the successive events we observe in nature are governed;
without this excitement Man would for ever remain the creature of animal
sensation, scarcely advanced above the beasts of the forrest...” and more,
about the “skill of the Creator”, then -
“Geology discovers to us proofs of the awful & stupendous
revolutions which have in former periods of time have changed the surface of
the Globe & overwhelmed its inhabitants...”, and more, but then he’s
crossed out a section on the “...time when the surface of our Globe was
agitiated by conflicting elements, or to the succeeding intervals of repose,
when enormous Saurian and Crocodilian animals scoured the surface of the deep
or dashed through the air for their prey...” and more, ending “...and perished
in the last grand revolution that preceeded the Creation of Man.” But at the
very end in the corner is written “Such speculation”.
[p9-25]
This appears to be two papers presumably copied by Thomas from
some publication.
The first is headed “May 15th & June 5th
1829”, and “Read, A Paper ‘On the Hydrographical Basin of the River Thames...’
by the Revd W D Conibeare FGS FRC etc etc”, and is a long dry lecture,
apprently to the “Geological Society” as is noted at the end.
The second is headed “Geological Society June 5th
1826”, apprently a paper read to the Society by “Matthew Culley Esq FGS in a
letter to Roderick Impey Murchison Esq Sect GS FRS etc”, a short piece on
“...the power that running water exerts in removng heavt bodies.”
Then there’s an entry “From the Mirror 1/23/30” about some 1829
flood of the River Don in Scotland moving massive stones.
[p26-28]
All blank
[p29-31]
Headed “Geological Society June 19th 1829”, another
transcript, of a paper read by the Revd W Buckland, “On the Occurrence of
Agates in the Dolomitic Strata of the new red sand-stone formation in the
Mendhip Hills.”
A lot of rock and stone and strata stuff, talks about same
material in strata “of the same age” near Palermo, and how at Lyme Regis there
are agates formed “in cavities of silicified wood & salicified corals and
shells” and how similar things are found near Exeter and the Blackdown Hills
“and shells entirely converted to red Jasper in sand of the same formation at
Little Haldon Hill.”
[p32-39]
Titled “Instructions for a Collection of Geological Specimens –
from a paper issued by the Geological Society”.
This is a full set of serious amateur collector DIY, complete
with finely copied hand drawings of how to present strata data and landscape
cross-sections and fault lines and Bed Dislocations and lava flows (!).
The 11th note is “Search also for bones in cracks and
fissures of rocks and in caverns...”, then notes on labelling and storage of
any specimens and the tools needed. Note 19 concludes “...it should be a
general maxim with Geological collectors, to direct their principal attention
to the procuring of fossil organic remains, both animal and vegetable...”
[p40-42]
All blank
[p43-80]
Headed “Remarks on Geological Antiquities from the British
Review – Nov 1825” (no author noted).
It begins “We have often thought there is a morbid
sensitiveness in some of our religious friends, to the boldness of
investigation which scientific men search the volumn of Nature... they seem to
fear that something injurious to the credit of scriptures will be the
result...” and goes on at length about having the courage to look at the
discoveries with an open mind, reminding “...the same objection would apply to
the planetry system of Copernicus, for if the Sun be the centre of our planets,
round which they revolve, and by which they are kept in their situations, it is
inconcievable that the Earth should have been formed three days before the
Sun...”, and “... it would not be easy to find an educated believer in the
Bible now, who does not hold the Copernican system... whether or not he can
reconcile those theories with the statements of Moses.”
The writer suggests that some evidence may in the end support
the story of The Flood, but concludes “...from an observation of nature certain
formidable objections are urged from the Records of Moses... the necessary
result of these discoveries is to induce a belief in a state of things prior to
the Mosaic history, during which first plants and afterwards animals... were
succesively produced and destroyed... (and) it is thought to be at variance
with the statement of St Paul that Death came into the world by Sin, because if
there were whole races exterminated before the formation of Man, Death must
have existed in the world before.”
It tries to say that in the end the truth is the truth, but it
doesn’t have to preclude the general idea of Creation, just not quite the
literal way that Moses wrote.
[p81-85]
These are five pages of notes that Thomas doesn’t attribute to
anyone, so have to assume they are his own thoughts, mainly on general
geological stuff, nothing philosophical. Then on Peat Deposits around nearby
Newbury, noting what’s been found in them, including parts of ancient trees,
but also “...Bones of horses, Deer, Beaver, also the Red Deer or Stag equal to
the size of the Elk, Tusks of the Wild Boar, the head and horns of an enormous
Ox.”
>>>>>>
There are then about 35 blank pages before it meets the
material “coming in” from the other end.
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From the "Synopsis of Geological Phenomena" end...
[p1]
This is a “false start” to the table that follows.
[p2-10]
The table is titled “Synopsis of Geological Phenomena”, with
“W. Smith Oxford June 22 1832” at the bottom of the ninth page, but no way of
knowing if all columns are copied from something of William Smiths, or some of
the Deductions or Results are Thomas’s.
The four column headers are – “Sources of Evidence”,
“Deductions”, “Results”, and “Remarks”.
One part suggests that it’s been the oceanic winds and sea
currents and the centrifugal forces from the rotation of the eath that have
formed the hills and valleys! And because “the remains of land animals mixed up
with water worn stones – the earth was dry and inhabited”.
And “By the boulder stones everywhere scattered over the
earth’s surface – there has been water in action – The Deluge (under
“Results”). And the next two points also indicate “The Deluge”.
Then a section titled “Illustrative effects of the Deluge”,
seeming to show that the “Sources of Evidence” all point to there having been
the Biblical great flood.
[p11]
Blank
[p12-16]
Again, a transcribed article “An account of a new species of
Tribolite (Dudley Locust) found in the Barr Limestone – by F Jukes Esq”
Notes on the discovery, near Birminghan, descriptions, how it
differs from others found, suggests it has “...been raised from a great depth
below the surface, by some volcanic action...”, much speculation on strata and
where similar strata appears elsewhere in the country, writes about other
fossil specimens found in area. Signed “Frederick Jukes – Birmingham Nov 12
1828”.
This is followed by a transcribed “Note”, by J D C Sowerby,
remarks on other varieties of Tribolite, and where the same ones have been
found, including Russia, Sweden, and North America.
[p17]
Blank
[p18-40]
A long dry piece on “The Falls of Niagara, and of the Physical
Structure of the adjacent Country – by Robert Bakewell Junr”, visited in the
“summer of 1829”
[p41]
Blank
[p42-58]
A transcription of “Extracts from Prideux’s Geology of the
country between the Rivers Plim & Tamar, Devonshire”, but no date.
Writes about Dartmoor granite tors, minerals, streams, springs,
trees, clays, quartz, strata.
[p59-66]
A sort of easier-to-read table by Thomas, summarising the
lengthy ramble above, into rock, soil, and mineral types by location.
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