The study of Geology, in the narrow acceptation of the word, is confined
to the investigation of the materials which compose this terrestrial
globe;--in its more extended signification, it relates, also, to the
examination of the different layers or strata of society, as they are to
be met with in the world.
Society is divided into three great strata, called High Life--Middle
Life--and Low Life. Each of these strata contains several classes, which
have been ranged in the following order, descending from the highest to
the lowest--that is, from the drawing-room of St. James's to the cellar in
St. Giles's.
_ _
| | ST. JAMES'S SERIES.
H | | People wearing coronets.
i | Superior__| People related to coronets.
g | Class. | People having no coronet, but who expect to get one.
h | | People who talk of their grandfathers, and keep a
-| | carriage.
L | |_
i | _
f | | SECONDARY.
e | | (_Russell-square group._)
| | People who keep a carriage, but are silent
|_ | respecting their grandfathers.
_ | People who give dinners to the superior series.
| | People who talk of the four per cents, and are
| | suspected of being mixed up in a grocery concern
M | Transition_| in the City.
i | Class. |
d | | (_Clapham group._)
d | | People who "confess the Cape," and say, that though
l | | Pa amuses himself in the dry-salter line in
e | | Fenchurch-street, he needn't do it if he didn't
-| | like.
L | | People who keep a shop "concern" and a one-horse
i | | shay, and go to Ramsgate for three weeks in the
f | |_ dog-days.
e | _
| | People who keep a "concern," but no shay, do the
| | genteel with the light porter in livery on solemn
| | occasions.
| | People, known as "shabby-genteels," who prefer
|Metamorphic | walking to riding, and study Kidd's "How to live
|_ class. __| on a hundred a-year."
_ |
L | | INFERIOR SERIES.
o | | (_Whitechapel group._)
w | | People who dine at one o'clock, and drink stout out
| |_ of the pewter, at the White Conduit Gardens.
L-| _
i | | People who think Bluchers fashionable, and ride in
f | Primitive__| pleasure "wans" to Richmond on Sundays in summer.
e | Formation. |
| | (_St. Giles's group._)
|_ |_Tag-rag and bob-tail in varieties.
It will be seen, by a glance at the above table, that the three great
divisions of society, namely, _High Life, Low Life_, and _Middle Life_,
are subdivided, or more properly, sub-classed, into the Superior,
Transition, and Metamorphic classes. Lower still than these in the social
scale is the Primitive Formation--which may be described as the basis and
support of all the other classes. The individuals comprising it may be
distinguished by their ragged surface, and shocking bad hats; they
effervesce strongly with gin or Irish whiskey. This class comprehends the
_St. Giles's Group_--(which is the lowest of all the others, and is found
only in the great London basin)--and that portion of the Whitechapel group
whose individuals wear Bluchers and ride in pleasure 'wans' to Richmond on
Sundays. In man's economy the _St. Giles's Group_ are exceedingly
important, being usually employed in the erection of buildings, where
their great durability and hod-bearing qualities are conspicuous. Next in
order is the Metamorphic class--so called, because of the singular
metamorphoses that once a week takes place amongst its individuals; their
common every-day 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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