appearance, which approaches nearly to that of the St. Giles’s Group, being changed, on Sundays, to a variegated-coloured surface, with bright buttons and a shining “four-and-nine”—­goss.  This class includes the upper portion of the Whitechapel Group, and the two lower strata of the Clapham Group.  The Whitechapel Group is the most elevated layer of the inferior series.  The Shabby Genteel stratum occupies a wide extent on the Surrey side of the water—­it is part of the Clapham Group, and is found in large quantities in the neighbourhood of Kennington, Vauxhall, and the Old Kent-road.  A large vein of it is also to be met with at Mile-end and Chelsea.  It is the lowest of the secondary formation.  This stratum is characterised by its fossil remains—­a great variety of miscellaneous articles—­such as watches, rings, and silk waistcoats and snuff-boxes being found firmly imbedded in what are technically termed avuncular depositories.  The deposition of these matters has been referred by the curious to various causes; the most general supposition being, a peremptory demand for rent, or the like, on some particular occasion, when they were carried either by the owner, his wife, or daughter, from their original to their present position, and left amongst an accumulation of “popped” articles from various districts.  The chief evidence on this point is not derived from the fossils themselves, but from their duplicates, which afford the most satisfactory proof of the period at which they were deposited.  Articles which appear originally to have belonged to the neighbourhood of Belgrave-square have been frequently found in the depositories of the district between Bethnal-green and Spitalfields.  By what social deluge they could have been conveyed to such a distance, is a question that has long puzzled the ablest geologists.  Immediately above the “shabby genteel” stratum are found the people who “keep a shop concern, but no shay;” it is the uppermost layer of the Metamorphic Class, and, in some instances, may be detected mingling with the supra-genteel Clapham Group.  The “shop and no shay” stratum forms a considerable portion of the London basin.  It is characterised by its coarseness of texture, and a conglomeration of the parts of speech.  Its animal remains usually consist of retired licensed victuallers and obese tallow-chandlers, who are generally found in beds of soft formation, separated from superincumbent layers of Marseilles quilts, by interposing strata of thick double Witneys.

Having proceeded thus far upwards in the social formation, we shall pause until next week, when we shall commence with the lower portion of the TRANSITION CLASS—­the “shop and shay people”—­and, as we hope, convince our readers of the immense importance of our subject, and the great advantage of studying the strata of human life

[Illustration:  UNDER A GREAT MASTER.]

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