—In Christ Church, Birmingham, the males are (or were) separated from the females, which gave rise to the following lines, which I quote from Allen's Guide to Birmingham:
"The churches and chapels we generally find,
Are the places where men unto women are join'd;
But at Christ Church, it seems, they are more cruel-hearted,
For men and their wives are brought there to be parted."
ESTE.
Deep Wells (Vol. iv., p. 492.).
—Besides streams and sunk wells, there is of course another source of water arising from natural springs; and there are some on both sides of the Banstead Down, which are very considerable. The chief, probably, is the source of the River Wandle, at Carshalton, pronounced (with the same omission of the r which P. M. M. notices) as if it was spelt Case-, or Cays-horton.
But there is a very strong one at Merstham. These are both at the foot of the Chalk hills. P. M. M. does not mention the geological causes on which the relations between wells or springs depend. About thirty-five years ago the spring at Merstham, which feeds a considerable spring, failed, and there was a great dispute whether it was owing to excavations in the neighbourhood. An action was brought, which decided that it was not attributable to them; upon which I believe Mr. Webster and Mr. Phillips, eminent geological authorities, were examined, and which led, perhaps, to their respective accounts, in the Geological Transactions, of the structure of that valley. The story was, that, after having gained the cause, the proprietor of the quarries said, "I think we may let them have their water back again." Certain it is that after some time the water did return.
The Galt clay almost everywhere underlies chalk: this at Merstham is 200 feet thick, and upon the pitch and situation of it many apparently strange phenomena of wells would depend, as is noticed with regard to another clay stratum at Norton St. Philips, near Bath, in Conybeare and Phillips' Geology.