In his most valuable and stimulating work on The Personality of Britain, Dr Cyril Fox has assembled a large body of archaeological data and has presented an interpretation of the several successive distributions based upon essentially geographical considerations. This theme covers a wide range of topics which interest workers in other fields, none more than geographers. One of the geographer’s main interests lies in the study of Regions, and he may well claim to have been afforded by Dr Fox a most valuable addition to his data, which enables him to push back his study of regional distinctness into earlier periods than those with which history deals. In return, he may hope to contribute something to the interpretation from his own field which embraces analysis of regional physique in all its aspects.
The superficial deposits of the London Basin fall broadly into three groups on a basis of elevation and age. The highest and oldest deposits include marine sand and shingle of Pliocene age, and also the Pebble Gravel, which is younger than these marine deposits, though most workers have agreed that it is pre-glacial, in the local sense. At somewhat lower elevations are hill and plateau gravels, associated north of London with undoubted glacial deposits. Finally, at the lowest levels we have the terrace and valley gravels of the Thames and its tributaries. It is apparent that these superficial deposits constitute a record which should enable us to trace the stages of development of the existing surface features of the area. The oldest group of deposits (Pliocene beds and Pebble Gravel) were accumulated before any of the existing valleys were excavated, forming thus, in an essential sense, constituents of the “solid geology” of the area. The valley and terrace drifts reveal a drainage system agreeing in all essential features of plan with that of the present day. The long period of time representing the important “middle term” of our three-fold series proves to be critical for two main reasons. It witnessed the appearance of ice-sheets on at least one and probably two occasions. During the same period the course of the lower Thames shifted from far north of the centre of the basin to the neighbourhood of its present course. The following communication is an attempt to elucidate these important events
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