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Observations on the strata at Hastings, in Sussex, by Thomas Webster, published 1826 in Transactions of the Geological Society of London (vol. S2-2, issue 1, article, pp.31-36)   View Online

The sea-cliffs on each side of the town of Hastings exhibit a section of the beds which lie below the clay of the wealds of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, and furnish a key to understanding the structure of the high country which is surrounded by this clay and has hitherto been but imperfectly explored. In the present communication, I propose to give some account of the line of coast extending from the White Rock on the west of Hastings to Cliff End near to Winchelsea on the east.
Along this extent (Pl. V.) several valleys of denudation occur, which have separated the cliff into different portions. One of these valleys divides the White Rock from the West Cliff on which are the ruins of the ancient castle; in another, which divides the East from the West Cliff, the town of Hastings is built. In the middle of East Cliff is the romantic valley where the stream called Eaglesbourne forms the well-known fish-ponds; and to the east of East Cliff, and between it and Fairlee Cliff, is the place called the Govers. At Cliff End the cliff terminates, and gives place to the valley that goes up to Winchelsea.
When we view this coast from the sea, we may perceive that the beds of rock form a vast, but irregular, arch, dipping at each end under the Weald clay, and rising in the middle to the greatest height in the neighbourhood of Hastings, where they may be advantageously studied.

Geological Sketch of the North-western Extremity of Sussex, and the adjoining Parts of Hants and Surrey, by Roderick Impey Murchison, published 1826 in Transactions of the Geological Society of London (vol. S2-2, issue 1, article, pp.97-108)   View Online

I propose to illustrate in this memoir the order of superposition of the strata in that north-western part of Sussex which is bounded on the south by the chalk escarpment of the South-downs, and in those adjoining parts of Hampshire and Surrey which are bounded severally, on the west by the Alton chalk-hills, and on the north by the North-downs.
Having examined a portion of this country with my friend Dr. Fitton, I was encouraged by him to attempt an exact delineation of the whole, by colouring the Ordnance map according to geological formations *. This task being now accomplished, I beg to lay the result before the Geological Society, together with such illustrative specimens of the strata and their fossils as I have been able to collect in the course of last summer.
The formations of which this district is composed, begin to emerge from the superior strata at the northern extremity of the parish of Bentley in Hants, 6 miles north-east of Alton; and they range from thence to the south and east, until their escarpments are cut through by the Arun, which river I have chosen to make the limit of my present observations.
The chalk escarpments of the Alton hills and of the South-downs, converging towards Petersfield, are united at an acute angle in the parish of East Meon, 4 miles west of the former place; and within that angle the inferior strata are disposed conformably.

A tabular arrangement of the organic remains of the County of Sussex, by Gideon Mantell, published 1829 in Transactions of the Geological Society of London (vol. S2-3, issue 1, article, pp.201-216)   View Online

On the bones of birds discovered in the strata of Tilgate Forest, in Sussex., by Gideon Mantell, published 1837 in Transactions of the Geological Society of London (vol. S2-5, issue 1, article, pp.175-177)   View Online

The remains of birds are so seldom found in a fossil state, that a notice of unquestionable relics of this class of animals, however imperfect, cannot fail to be interesting to the geologist and comparative anatomist. Mr. Lyell has well remarked in his Principles of Geology, that it might readily have been anticipated, that the fossil bones of birds would be of rare occurrence, since the power of flight possessed by these animals, preserves them from many casualties by which quadrupeds are destroyed and imbedded; and that even when birds are drowned, or chance to die on the water, the tubular structure of their bones, and their feathery coverings, would generally occasion them to float on the surface, until their carcases were devoured. We find, accordingly, but very few authenticated examples of fossil birds, certainly none (with the exception of those which it is my present purpose to describe) that can be referred to strata of an earlier period than the gypsum beds of the Paris basin. It is true that the thin fragile bones which occur in the slate of Stonesfield were formerly assigned to birds ?, but all these are now known to belong to Pterodactyles.
Soon after my attention was first directed to the fossils of the Wealden of the south-east of England, I discovered in the strata of Tilgate Forest, several bones of such extreme tenuity as could have been required only by animals intended for flight, and some of these, from their close resemblance.

On the Geological Structure of the Wealden District and of the Bas Boulonnais, by William Hopkins, published 1845 in Transactions of the Geological Society of London (vol. S2-7, issue 1, article, pp.1-51)   View Online

Geologists have long recognized the fact of the approximate parallelism of lines of dislocation in those districts in which systems of such lines are found to exist; and in my memoir on Physical Geology, published in vol. vi. part 1. of the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, I have shown that such parallelism would, in many cases and under the most simple and probable con­ditions, be the necessary consequence of the simultaneous action of an elevating force acting beneath extensive portions of the crust of the globe. I also demon­strated that two systems of parallel dislocations might be produced by the same elevating force, the direction of the one system being perpendicular to that of the other. I also pointed out the circumstances under which, according to theory, there would be a necessary deviation from parallelism in these systems, and I indi­cated the relations which such deviations would bear, in certain general cases, to the boundary of the disturbed district, and to the particular configuration of its surface. On these points I proceeded farther, in theory, than geologists had gone in observation. There are still few districts, even in those countries with which we are geologically best acquainted, where observations have been made in suffi­cient detail to bring this subject, as a branch of descriptive geology, to the point to which I have carried it in theory.
Under these circumstances my attention was directed to the district of the Weald in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.