line of the figure is incised on the stone of "Mr. Edward Cowpe he good master of this hospittall in Ledbury, who departed this life at the collage in Worcester, uppon the sixteenth day of this instant July, about nine of the clocke in the morninge and was buried in the Chauncelle at Ledbury uppon the XXVIth day of July, 1596.” On the monument is the following inscription : "Edward Cowper, grave, learned and wise Of Ledburies Hospital maister in his life : The decessed the XVI day of July An. Domini 1596 The following inscription on a monument which has long since disappeared, is remarkable. It is recorded that "at the east end of the Chancel Charles Godwin, Bishop Godwin's son, and Dorothy his wife "lie under a flat stone thus inscribed "Proibit Dorothea God-wyn the one, God-won the other. An entry in the burial register informs us tha Dorothy Godwine was buried the seventh day of May, 1638. Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club. JUNE 22ND, 1883. "Land of delight! let mem'ry strive, Thy grey limb'd orchards scattering wide Thy half-hid cottages, that show The dark green moss, the resting bough."-BLOOMFIELD. OLDBURY CAMP AND WOLDBURY OR CAPLAR CAMP. THE programme of the Club for this meeting has so important an announcement at the end of it, that like the postscript of a lady's letter, it outweighs all the rest. We give it here "prominence of place' SPECIAL NOTICE TO MEMBERS OF THE CLUB. "The Pomona Committee have the great satisfaction to inform the members that the experiments they have caused to be carried on during the last four years, for the restoration of those valuable orchard fruits, the Foxwhelp and Skyrme's Kernel apples, and the Taynton Squash pear, have completely succeeded. They have now upwards of 800 young trees in vigorous health, viz. :— "Members desiring to have these in the autumn, should apply immediately to Mr. Theo. Lane, the secretary, who will register the list for the Committee in the order of application." This is really good news. If the Pomona Committee of the Woolhope Club has thus saved for us these valuable fruits, it will indeed have rendered a great service to our celebrated orchards. Foxwhelp cider has become very scarce, and only to be met with now and then, and is only produced on special occasions. Áll honour to the Woolhope Club! "if" it restores it again to us. The Committee, who have taken so much trouble to propagate these excellent old varieties, must pardon the use of the "if." Trees are apt to canker when they have been planted a few years, and the doubt is expressed to suggest to the Committee the advisability of issuing special directions for the planting and care of the young trees, before autumn comes. Orchard trees are too apt to be "tucked in by the heels," anyhow, and left carelessly to themselves, and then people wonder that they "canker," and complacently set it down to the age of the variety, rather than to their own negligence, and the verdict, as usual with them, is "I told you so." Another peculiarity of the programme was; the places named in it to be visited -"Oldbury Camp," and "Woldbury Camp," and the common thought was, where in the world has the Woolhope Club found these camps. must be left for the day's proceedings to unfold. However, this The day was cloudy and overcast, but yet three carriages, well laden with members, left the Free Library at 10 a.m., by Lower Bullingham and Holme Lacy, for Fownhope. FOWNHOPE CAMP, situated on the hill above Fownhope Court, but on the other side of the road leading to Woolhope, was now passed and pointed out. It has a single entrenchment, is elliptical in shape, and incloses an area of three acres, and is thought to have been a Roman camp, held in temporary opposition to the camp on Caplar hill. It is planted with trees, and its embankments are gradually becoming effaced. It was not visited on the present occasion. The village and its restored church were quickly passed through, but the parish stocks and whipping-post attached to it, near the churchyard walls, excited great interest, as a relic of bygone times, not often met with now. There is not an old toper left in the parish, who, like Parolles in "All's well that ends well," has "sat in the stocks all night." The President was considerably "exercised " that he could not stop to make a drawing of it, and, by the way. if any resident would be so kind as to send a sketch of it to the "Court House, Ledbury," it would be gladly received, and no doubt would afford that gentleman some consolation for the constraint he had then to put on his archæological proclivities. The high road was left at the Knap, and the way taken for Soler's Hope, through most picturesque lands. This parish was the birthplace of the renowned "Dick Whittington." The Whyttingtons came from Whyttington, in the county of Warwick; and the great-grandfather of our hero, William de Whittington, married Maud, the daughter and heiress of John de Solers, of Soler's Hope, at the end of the 13th century, and then became lord of the manor of Soler's Hope, and of Pauntley, in Gloucestershire, both of which belonged to the de Solers. The family made the Manor House of each of these places their occasional residence, but Pauntley was the more important of the two, and more in the civilized world. Pauntley is the burial place of the family, and it disputes with Soler's Hope the honour of being his birthplace. Richard Whittington was the youngest son of Sir William de Whittington, who had succeeded to the Manors in 1284, and served in the Lincoln Parliament as M.P. for Gloucestershire. His father was outlawed for some unknown offence, and his mother, with her young family, is supposed to have taken refuge in the extreme seclusion of Soler's Hope. Here Richard was born, after his father had been obliged to fly, as the tradition of four centuries fully confirms. His father died, and his mother re-married, and thus, though of knightly descent, Richard had to become an apprentice in the household of a London merchant, and adventurer. One can fancy the disgust of the office drudgery of those days driving the highspirited boy to run away, and it may also be readily imagined how his better thoughts had begun to prevail by the time he sat to rest on Highgate Hill, and heard the bells ring out in fancy "Turn again, Whittington, A stone marks his resting-place, and alms houses for thirteen poor men on Highgate Hill remain to bear out the tradition. He was thrice Lord Mayor of London, and his last mayoralty was in the year 1419. These particulars have been chiefly derived from Mr. Cooke's account of the parish of Soler's Hope, in the History of Herefordshire (Vol. iii., pp. 139–142), a book which demands its place in every county library that deserves the name. A full description will be found there, with the pedigree of the family, and the arguments for the probability of his having supplied cats, so lucratively to himself, to destroy the rats of Madeira, the Canaries, and islands off the coast of Africa. The church of Soler's Hope was not visited. Nothing remains there referring to the Whittingtons, but a portion of a very ancient shield bearing their coat of arms. 66 The extreme seclusion and rurality of the district was well experienced to-day, in its narrow lanes and distant cottages; the weedy so-called summer fallows," and the solitary hugh chimney-stacks of cottages ruined and gone. The trees so shaded the roads, and the hedges were so wild that the travellers had ever to watch against losing their hats from the overhanging boughs of an oak, or getting their faces scratched by the thorns on a long spray of wild roses. Well Inight the few inhabitants that were to be seen at the scattered cottages gaze at the unwonted sight of so many visitors winding along the lanes, and give but doubtful answers as to where Oldbury Camp was to be found. The Ridge Hill-the scene, up to twenty years since, of the annual saturnalia of the district, the "Wake "-was in full sight. "It's the Aymestry Limestone," said the President, with such geological emphasis that none dare dispute it; and on reference to his map the way to the camp was clear. Down another pitch and up another hill brought the travellers to a narrow lane-end, where orders were given to descend from the carriages and mount the hill. OLDBURY CAMP and Oldbury hill on which it is situated, form the southern extremity of Marcle hill, or the Ridge hill, as this end of it is called. The camp is elliptical in shape, and contains an area of about thirty acres, now divided into two fields. The entrance was on the northern side, and it is still well marked by embankments on either side covering the approach. The ditch, or fall in the ground, on the western and part of the southern sides, varies from about six to fourteen feet; but, on the eastern and northern sides, the fields extend beyond the ditch, and the entrenchments are now regularly ploughed over, and are almost obliterated by cultivation. The camp is not lofty, nor is the hill difficult of approach. The barometers carried today, as compared at fixed times with that at the Free Library in Hereford, made |