A Letter of the Reverend Mr Abr. de la Pryme to the Publisher, concerning Broughton in Lincolnshire, with His Observations on the Shell-Fish Observed in the Quarries about That Place

V. Part of a Letter of Dr Jo. Wallis F. R. S. to the Publisher, concerning the use of the Numeral Figures in England, in the year 1690. Aug. 21. 1700. I Now send you, from Mr Thomas Luffkin of Colchester, a Draught fig.6. (as it is was sent to me) of the Window in Colchester, (mentioned in the Transactions Numb. 255, for the month of Aug. 1699) whereby it appears that the Numeral Figures were here in use in the year 1690. VI. A Letter of the Reverend Mr Abr. de la Pryme to the Publisher, concerning Broughton in Lincolnshire, with his observations on the Shell-fish observed in the Quarries about that place. Sir, I Heartily thank you for your kind acceptance of my last Letter, which you thought worthy to insert into the Transactions: In answer to your further enquiries be pleas'd to understand as follows. Broughton lies by that Roman Way, which I have given you so large an account of in my former Letter. The Town is small, but ancient, seeming to have been of a Roman Original, by its being situate by one of their High-ways, and to have taken its name from some antient Burrow or Barrow thereby. The Retfords were Lords of it several ages, until that Sir Henry Retford or Radford Knight (with the Earl of Rutland, the Lord Clifford, the Lord Clinton and others) about the year 1455 lost it by Attainder of High Treason. One of which Retfords, call'd Sir Henry, but whether the aforegoing or no I cannot as yet tell, laid formerly in Effigie of White Marble all in Armour, with his Lady by him, in a small Quire on the North side of the Chancel of the Church of the said Town; but was removed in Memory of Man out of the same, and laid in an Arch within the Communion Rails, and their room and place taken up to be the Burying-place of the Worthy, Family of the Andersons, now Lords of the Mannor (who are descended from Sir Edmund Anderson Knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Queen Elizabeth's days, famous for his Uprightness and Love to the Church; whose Ancestors lived at Flixburrow in this County) in which is the Effigies to the Life of Sir Edmund Anderson Baronet, most curiously cut in White Marble in a Decumbent Posture, leaning his Head on his Arm, and holding a Book in the other Hand, lying upon a great Altar Tomb, adorn'd with many Arms, and Inscriptions. Which Family of the Andersons is divided into several Branches at London, Eworth, Manby, and this Town of Broughton, and yet flourishes in great Honour and Riches. In this Parish are two Stone-pits, or Quarries, very observable. The first is at the East end of the Town, the other in the Field, on the South of the Town. The Stones of the first are not much made use of for Building, being soft and canker'd, but that which they dig them chiefly for, is to get a Clayie substance, or Earth, Earth, that lies under them, to cement and lay the Stones of the 2d Quarry in, of which they build their Walls and Fences. In which Clayie Substance, or Earth, are innumerable fragments of the Shells of Shell-fish of various sorts, of Pectinites, Echini, Conchites, and others, with some bits and pieces of Coral branch-ed like that in the Ingenious Mr Llwyd's Ichnograph. Tab. 3. No. 94. but that which is more observable, is, that here are sometimes found whole Shell-fish, with their Natural Shells on, in their Natural Colours, most miserably crack'd, bruis'd, and broken, and some totally squeez'd flat by the great weight of Earth that yet lies, and that was cast upon them in the Noachian Deluge; some Specimens of which I have here sent in the little Box. The other Quarry is in the Field on the South side of the Town: It is a hard blue Stone, which in the Antidiluvian World was most certainly a pure fine blue Clay, in the Stones of most of which are innumerable petrify'd Shell-fish of various sorts, but so united to the Stone, that it is very difficult to get them whole out, and I have always found that they lie in the superficies of the Quarry, within a foot of the top thereof, and few or none deeper therein. That which is exceeding observable is, that in many places of the Surface of the said Quarry, (which looks rugged and drifted, as Snow does after a storm, and by which one may find what Quarter the Storm or Wind was then in) there are many Shell-fish half in the Stone, half out, just as we see in Rivers and Ponds, that are dry, they will lie half within the Mud, half without. That part which is within the Quarry is entire and whole, but a hard Stone, and that part which is without, which the Petrific Effluviums did not touch, is consumed and gone, all but a little of the edges, about the thickness of a Barley-Corn, which edges are plain Shell, and have all the the Radii and Striae on them that the common Shells of those sorts of Fishes have. All these Shell-fish have their Shells on; some of which Shells are exceeding thin, to what other some are. Sometimes the Shells of some of them are in their Petrification so thoroughly united unto and incorporated with the Stone, that they are scarce visible. Others in the same Quarry have a thick white Shell on them petrify'd, but not incorporated and turned into the substance of the Bed in which they lye. As you get that Fish out, all the Shell sticks so fast to the Rock, that most commonly it is left behind, but sometimes the Shell cleaves in two, on half of the Shell on both sides of the Fish sticks thereto, and the other half to both sides of the Bed, but others come out by lying in the Air in frosty nights, with the whole natural Shell on them, and the Radii or Striae very exact. Other Fish there are here that have a black smooth Shell on them, with several Striae but no Radii, very like, if not the same with the Concha Nigra Rondeletii, figured in Gesner de Piscib. p. 237. I have also seen and found in this Quarry some Shell-fish half open, just as they will be in the bottom of a Pond when the Water has left them, and yet filled with the matter of the Bed in which they lye, and petrify'd with it. Others being in heaps together, I have found some of them broken, others bruis'd, and the edges of one Fish thrust into the sides of another, some with the one Shell thrust half way over the other, &c. and so petrify'd in the bed together. Others in the same Bed have been so close, that the matter of the Bed (which I take to have been a fine blue Clay in the Antidiluvian World or in the Noachian Deluge) could not insinuate itself into them. These that are thus found, are some of them totally empty. empty, others are filled with Cristalin Fluors; others I have seen half full of the said bluish Clay of the Bed, and half full of the said Cristalizations, which have stuck therein, from nothing but subterraneous heats and effluviums. Amongst these Fish in this Quarry, I have seen several great Horse-muscles, such as breed in fresh Water Rivers and Ponds, which are exactly like that in Gesner de Pisc. p. 231. called Concha Longa Rondeletii, but are more thick, full and pubble, than ours commonly are at this day, which greatness and largeness proceeded from nothing but the fertility and fatness of the Bed on which they breed; and as if these Beds yet had for all that they are turned into Stone, some virtue to the enlarging of this sort of Shell-fish, so there are at this day in an old Pond beyond Broughton Hall, some of the largest sort of this Shell-fish that ever I saw, as if this Soil agreed better to the breeding of this sort of Fish than any else. Just as some sorts of Fish breed best upon some sorts of Soils, as the Cornu Ammonis, Nautili and others, upon Allum Soils, and that is the Reason that they are found so much at Whitby, Rochel, Lunenburg, Rome, and other places, where are famous Allum Mines. And if any one would find any of those sorts of Fishes, (which some Learned Men have ridiculously thought to be Species totally lost) they ought in all probability to seek for them upon Allum Soils in the Sea, and there they would undoubtedly find them. Other sorts of Shell-fish, as Muscles, and some sorts of Coclites, love a Rich Clayey Soil, and there they breed best, as we commonly see in fresh Waters, Rivers and Ponds. Here it is that they are found in such plenty in the aforesaid Stones of the Quarry of Broughton, which manifestly appears to have been a Bed of a tough bluish Clay, in some Antidiluvian Lake. Other sorts of Shell-fish love a Stony Gravelly Soil, others a Chalky Soil, others a Rocky Soil, others a Lime-stone, or Salt Soil. Others love an Oazey Soil, a sort of a confused mixture of all the foregoing, as part of the Country about Frodingham, Brumbee, Ashbee, Botsworth, &c. In this Country, and joyning in part upon this Parish of Broughton seems to be, in the Fields and Stones of which Towns is one particular sort of Fish, which I know not what Genus or Species to compare to, bending somewhat like a Ram's Horn, and exactly creas'd like one on the outside, with an Opusculum thereon, which the Fish opened and shut as it had occasion; a most elegant Specimen of which I have sent you. The Bed whereon the said Shell-fish bred in the Antidiluvian Sea, is not over a foot thick (to the best of my memory) in all which, but for the most part in the superficies thereof, are millions of the said Fish sticking half within the Stone half without, which Shell-fish having a most durable Shell, that part that sticks out of the Stone, is not consumed, as in the Shell-fish of Broughton, but remains whole and entire. And yet for all that, this sort of Shell-fish has an exceeding strong Shell, as hard as Stone itself. Yet I have seen and found whole Lumps of them, that by some huge Weight cast or fallen upon them in the Noachian Deluge, have been miserably broken and shattered in pieces, and so Petrify'd in the Bed as they lay; a specimen of which I have sent you. In the Parish of Broughton aforesaid in the loose Earth above the aforesaid blue Quarry, and elsewhere, I have found in a whitish Stone the Echini Galeati Puncticulati Lluydii, the Turbinites Major Lluydii Tab. 7. N. 341. the Coclitus Lewis Vulgation Lluidii T.7. N.322. in blue Stone, the Concha altera Longa Rondeletii, exactly agreeing to the Picture and bigness thereof in Geffner. Gesner de Piscibus p. 231. only the Neb is much longer. I have found also multitudes of Belemnites, great and little, perforated and flat at the Root, by which they grew in the Antidiluvian Sea, unto some of which I have found little Shell-fish sticking. From all this, and from the like petrify'd Shell-fish, of all sorts of Creatures found lodged in Rocks and Stones, and the Bowels of the Earth over the whole World, it does most fully and sufficiently appear, that there was a time when that the Water overflowed all our Earth, which could be none but the Noachian Deluge. It appears also that in that Deluge the Earth suffered wonderful great violence and force, that Seas were raised into Mountains, and Mountains sunk into Seas, that Beds of Shells had sometimes such Weights of Earth, and pieces of Mountains, and Rocks flung upon them, that they were crushed in pieces, and others squeeze'd flat, &c. Now the difficult thing is how this Deluge happened, and how these Shells come thus to be found over the face of the whole Earth, and even deep in its bowels. I know very well the great disputes and contests that are amongst the Learned, concerning these two particulars, and what wondrous Systems and Theories they have formed to solve the same, all which have a great deal more of Art than Nature in them. My notion of the Antidiluvian World is, that it had an external Sea as well as Land, and Mountains, Hills, Rivers, and Fruitful Fields and Plains, that it was about the bigness that our Earth is at present of; and that when God had a mind, for the wickedness of the Inhabitants that dwelt theron, to destroy the same by Water, he broke the Foundations and Subterraneous Caverns and Pillars thereof, with most dreadful Earthquakes, and caused the same to be for the most part, if not not wholly absorb'd and swallow'd up, and covered by the Seas that we now have, and that this Earth of ours rise then out of the bottom of the Antidiluvian Sea in its room; just as many Islands are swallow'd up, and others thrust up in their stead. Neither is this at all contrary to the Scriptures, but the most concordant to it of all others. Moses says, that the same day that Noah and his family, and all the Creatures that should be saved, entered the Ark, that then the Rains began to fall, and presently after the Fountains of the great Abyss were broken up. That is, it rained very hard, and the Foundations of the Earth being dissolved, the Earth begun to subside, sink down, and yield, and to press upon the great subterraneous Caverns of water, which thereupon all broke out, and sprung up, and so overflowed, and by degrees drowned their whole World. And the Waters prevailed continually, says Moses, v. 18, that is, by reason of the Earth's further sinking; for the more and the deeper it sunk in, the higher did the Waters rise above it: so that at the last they covered the tops of the highest Mountains that were in the Antidiluvian world fifteen Cubits upwards, and every thing that moved upon the face of the whole Earth dyed. And then, as this old Earth sunk in, so our new one was lifted up to balance the sinking of the other, and as it ascended, the Waters rolled from off it continually, and in 150 days it became free of them, and the Ark rested itself upon, or rather against the Hills, which were afterwards called Ararat. Thus in most probability was the old World drowned and destroyed, and thus had we that whereon we now dwell in its place, and that which Plato tells some 6 or 700 years before Christ's time, That in old times there was a huge Island much bigger than Asia and Africa put together, abounding with all the delights. delights of Nature, swallow'd up in the Atlantick Ocean by dreadful Storms, and a huge Earthquake and Flood, I question not at all, but that this was the Antidiluvian World that they meant, a very great part of which was absorb'd and drowned there, which account thereof they might have both by Books and Tradition from their Fore-fathers, seeing that one of them that was in the very Ark, was the first that peopled Egypt. From this happy system of the Flood, all those things are easily solved that were hard and difficult before, there needs not that great and immense Quantity of Waters to work the Effect that was absolutely necessary in all former solutions of the Deluge, &c. And thus it comes to pass that we find Shells and Shell-fish, and the Bones of other Fishes and four-footed Creatures, and Fruits, &c. petrify'd and lodged in Stone, Rocks, Mountains, Quarries and Pits over our whole Earth; for it was then the proper Place for them to breed in, and upon; and to be found in and upon at this present. So that it is no wonder that the aforesaid things are found, as they commonly are in Beds and Quarries in Hills, and Mountains, and in the Bowels of the Earth; for here they bred in the Antidiluvian Sea, thither they were elevated with the Hills and Mountains in the time of the Deluge, there they fell into, were absorb'd, and bury'd in Chasms, and Holes, and Clefts that would necessarily happen in the thrusting up of the Earth, and be found in the Soil that was flung and carried with wonderful Violence and Confusion from one place to another, by the working of the Waters, and the ferment and hurry that they were put into. And as all Countries were thus raised out of the bottom of the Antidiluvian Sea and Lakes, so that part of the Country about Broughton aforesaid, appears mani- feltly in the Antidiluvian World, to have been the bottom of some fresh Water Lake, because that those are fresh Water Shell-fish that are found there, and the bed upon which they breed, was a fine blue Clay, which is the colour of the Stone to this day, which Bed being elevated and lifted up, (and dash'd over with other Earth in the workings of the Waters, and the great hurry and confusion that then happen'd) the said Bed by the power of the subterraneous Elevating heats, steams, and Effluviums were turned by Degrees into Stone with all the Fishes therein. I have before told you, that some of the Shell-fish in the same Bed, are not full of the matter of the Bed, but of fluors, tho such are not very common: Some might wonder, seeing that the Shells are closed, that the Matter of the Bed could insinuate itself into them; but that is nothing but what is common in like cases, for I have frequently seen in the bottoms of Ponds and Rivers, where such Shell-fish in plenty are, that when the Fish is dead and consumed, and the Shell in the Mud, with the Edges as close as if the Fish was alive, that nevertheless the Mud or Clay will by degrees insinuate and fill the same, and now if the bottom of any one of the said Rivers or Ponds was raised by Earthquakes, and turned into Stone by petrific Effluviums, they would exactly be found as these are. That many Shell-fish suffered such wonderful great violence and force in the said great Flood; insomuch, as to be crush'd, and bruised, and squeez'd flat, as some of those manifestly are, that I have sent you, is likewise nothing strange or wonderful, if we do but consider the great pieces of rising Rocks, and Hills, and Mountains, that must needs roll down and fall in such a general hurry and confusion as that must needs have been in the Quarry, at the East end of this Town of Broughton, where fragments of Innumerable Shells are found. found, and some Shell-fish squeez'd flat, all which are natural, and not petrify'd. There was in the Deluge flung upon the same a huge Bed of a mix'd confus'd substance, now turn'd into a whitish soft canker'd Stone, and upon that was cast vast quantities of Earth, all which weighed and pressed the tender Shells so much, that they squeez'd some flat, and broke others to pieces, as we find them to be at this day. I have a hard Stone part of the aforesaid blue Quarry, with little bits of Wood-coals therein, and whole Leaves of Vaccinia, or Whortle-berries, such as grows upon Heath very exact, and Mr Llwyd and the Miscel. Cur. in Germany for the last years gives us several large accounts of whole Leaves and Plants found in Stones and Rocks, and deep in the Bowels of the Earth, some folded, some plain, some Imperfect, all which is very easily solvable, having in that general confusion and hurry been seiz'd upon, and embody'd in Lumps of Clayie and other Matters, and others catcht and intercepted in Rolling Beds of Earth, as they tumbled down from rising Hills and Mountains, and so lodged deep in Chasms of the Ground and petrified, and so preserv'd unto this day. Many other solutions of Antidiluvian Phænomena might be here given, but that I fear I have trespass'd upon your Patience by being so exceeding tedious already, therefore willl (tho somewhat abruptly) conclude, and subscribe my self in all sincerity, Hull, Sept. Yours, &c. the 14th. 1700.