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_.
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