acre and a quarter to the camp area.

Outside the true camp to the west is also a deep escarpment, about 130 yards from the camp entrance, which may have been very useful in the defences. Two fields on the east side are still called "the Castle fields," and immediately below is another in which a deep and wide intrenchment occupies the principal part. Tradition says that this was the Depository for horses and military stores during the siege of Ludlow castle by Oliver Cromwell in 1646. The camp has no water supply, and therefore in fine weather a siege of three days would be the utmost limits of time it could be held by any body of men, when besieged. At the present time the embankments are covered with trees and underwood, which greatly impede the beautiful views to be seen on every side. Judicious openings made through them would be of greatest advantage. To the west the Black Mountains are visible; nearly due south the Malvern Hills are to be seen; and indeed on all sides where the opening in the trees admits of it, the views near and distant are rich and varied. Quite apart from the historic interest attached to the camp, it forms a pleasure ground worth visiting for itself.

The paper was listened to with much interest, and the President, in proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Charles Fortey, which was received with great applause, said "he had not believed that so much history and interest could be attached to any camp before. The number of men engaged were afterwards critically commented on, as exhibiting an example of the exaggeration which is so very common in the accounts of ancient battles-an extra decimal at least must have dropped from the recorder's pen, and Joce's 7,000 men may be reduced to 700, and Jorwerth's 20,000 were probably far from reaching 2,000, for if such numbers of fighting men could be found then-though it is true that all men were obliged to fight in those days-the commissariat department must have broken down in the wild districts they had to traverse and occupy.

The President then directed attention to the ancient church of St. Mary, at Caynham, which they were about to visit. The original church is supposed to have been erected so early as the close of the 11th century-to be replaced at the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century. The handsome Norman doorway, and two small Norman windows were preserved and built in their old places, but an early English character was given to the new building, and the peculiar chancel arch, its principal feature, was introduced. This triple arch, with massive square pillars and rude caps and labels, almost isolates the chancel from the body of the church, and is of a character but rarely met with. The church is now in course of restoration, or rather it may be said of rebuilding altogether. The Vicar will now kindly take us to see it, and some of you may like to know that a receiving box will be at hand for the "smallest contributions."

Amidst laughter and applause the descent was made through pleasant meads to the church. The chancel, vestry, and organ chamber had been rebuilt in excellent 14th century style, the nave walls are begun, and the square old tower, which it is hoped may be restored, instead of rebuilt, has nothing but its walls

standing. The three bells were on the ground. The two oldest bore the common mottoes "God save the church," and "Jesus be our speed," with the same date 1606; the third had no inscription but bore the date of 1642.

ness.

In the churchyard was a fine old cross of the 14th century. It bears the remains of very rich design and elaborate careful workmanship. It stands on a base of three steps, the upper one formed of a single stone of great size and thickThis stone has the four Evangelists at the corners; a tabernacle on the west side, the emblems of the Passion on the eastern side, and a handsome cable pattern goes round its upper edge. The shaft has the remains of crockets up its angles, but it is much worn and the cross is gone. Much injury to the church and this cross is said to have been caused by Cromwellite desecration.

The carriages were now regained somewhat hurriedly, for longer time had been taken up than should properly have been allowed, and "Forward, forward," was shouted vigorously. The ride up the slopes of the Titterstone Clee hill, through Knowbury to the Dhu Stone quarries was very interesting; many limekilns were observed on the mountain limestone rocks, and the refuse heaps of of coal mines frequently passed. It was, unfortunately, the dinner hour at the quarries, and but very few men were at work. The manager very kindly went with the visitors, explained the works, and soon showed where the coal began. It was necessary, however, to pass quickly on.

The coal mines were not visited, but it was stated here that clear proof exists that coal was obtained from the Titterstone Clee hill so far back as the 13th century. In the Monumenta Historia Britannica, published by the Record Commission in 1848 are records which show this. The "taxatio Ecclesiastica" of Pope Nicholas IV., A.D. 1291 and following years, was made in order to raise onetenth on ecclesiastical revenues for a crusade. Among the items of property belonging to Wigmore abbey are the following:-"Apud Kayhm and Swytton

Item de minera carbonum, ibidum, 0 5 0." Kayhm is no doubt Caynham, and Swytton is doubtless Snitton in the parish of Bitterley. A subsequent entry states that the church of Kayham belongs to the Abbot of Wigmore.

The ascent of the Titterstone hill began from the quarry margin, along the basaltic ridge called Hoar Edge, and the way would have seemed long but for the interesting wild plants found. Wahlenbergia hederacea, the delicate and graceful ivy-leaved Bell flower, was very abundant; Scutellaria minor, Narthecium ossifragum, Eriophorum vaginatum, and the fly-eating Sundew, Drosera rotundifolia, was plentifully gathered; but the Viola lutea had done flowering. Children were gathering whinberries, or whortleberries, Vaccinium myrtillus, on the slopes of the hill, but were not inclined to sell the flat-tasting fruit.

Descending from the Hoar Edge into a dip in the hill called Horse Ditch, a curious three-sided stone is carefully erected, which looked like a boundary stone. It had these inscriptions on its flat sides. On the south was cut L. C. WILLMORE, P. W. L., 1826; on the easterly side, T. B. L. C., MINE; and on the N.W., the letters or word, WERB. These inscriptions may be clear to the natives, but to strangers they seem enigmatical and quite past ordinary comprehension. Will some of your readers kindly give the right interpretation of the mystery?

The cairn at the summit was reached at length, and the Ordnance Survey cairn, simply and firmly built was close at hand, and, with the Giant's Chair, were all visited, and the glorious view on all sides enjoyed. Where was the President, who was announced to give here the Geological address? He had last been seen hainmering out fossil plants from an outcrop of coal in the valley below, and it was clear he had shirked the hill and gone off "by Bedlam to Bitterley" according to the programme, so the descent was soon begun to rejoin him.

The parsley fern, Allosorus crispus, was seen growing at the foot of the old cross in Caynham churchyard, but none was met with on the hill. The Osmunda regalis, was not seen at all, nor yet the Botrychium lunare; but the oak-fern Polypodium Dryopteris, and its limestone sister Polypodium calcareum, were found in abundance on the stony descent of the hill, with many more common varieties; and here it may be added, to conclude the botany of the day, that on the banks of the river Ludwyche the poisonous Monks-hood, or Wolfsbane, Aconitum Napellus, has completely naturalized itself, and was growing freely in patches all along its banks.

وو

The carriages were rejoined at Bitterley, and another pleasant drive soon landed the visitors at that good hostelry, the Feathers' Hotel, fully prepared to enjoy the good things provided. How they did so, how an excellent paper on "The Salmon Disease was read by Mr. H. C. Moore, and how Dr. Bull showed that Leintwardine occupied the site of the old Roman station and town of Bravinium, and how the President's Geology was given in the return train, there is neither time nor space to tell. A large section of the company immediately after dinner fled from the papers and went off to see the castle and the church; let us hope they did it in the spirit of the local poet above quoted, with

"Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven."

ON THE COAL MEASURES AT THE CLEE HILLS. By MR. GEO. H. PIPER, F.G.S. (President).

No doubt most of my hearers are familiar with the generalized statement that coal lies in the lap of the Mountain, or Carboniferous, Limestone. This rock is a tough, bluish-grey, crystalline formation, and occurs in massive beds immediately upon a band of yellow sandstone, deposited upon the Devonian Limestones and Old Red Sandstones, which prevail so extensively in Herefordshire. At the Clee hills the Mountain Limestone is found only in two places, one on the south and the other on the north of the Titterstone Clee. These beds are in some places highly fossiliferous, and are exposed, north-eastward of the Clee hill, at Oreton and Farlow. The quarries at Oreton supplied the very numerous and fine specimens of palatal teeth of Orodus ramosus, and fish spines, in the collection of the late Mr. Weaver Jones, of Cleobury, which many of us have seen; and here we have the base of the Clee hil! Coal Measures. The limestone occurs again between Cornbrook and Knowl, southward of the hills. From the nearly vertical positions of the sections at this place it has been suggested that the great dislocation of the Mountain Limestone, which is traceable in various parts of the Clee hill district, occurred before the carboniferous deposition. The condition of the rocks proves that before the coalfields were laid down, subterranean forces were active beneath this tract, but the present position of the lava affords satisfactory evidence that it was poured out by volcanic means over the surface of the coalfield after the carboniferous deposit had taken place. Further proofs of earthquake forces having existed here, before the deposition of coal, may be found at Oreton and Knowbury, where there is evidence of great dislocation of the Mountain Limestone, which must certainly have occurred before the Millstone Grit was deposited. The Rev. W. S. Symonds says, "Nothing in physical geology appears to me to have less foundation than the supposition that such outliers as the Clee hill Limestone and those of North Wales, were little isolated coral reefs. The Millstone Grit which overlies them should be sufficient to overthrow such theories, for, even allowing that isolated coral reefs may have accumulated in the Lower Carboniferous seas, we cannot suppose that the Millstone Grit could have been deposited above every outlier by accommodating and peculiar currents, which spread their particular and peculiar pebbles over those accommodating coral islands, and adapted their flow to such widely distant and separated areas as are those of the Little Orme district, near Llandudno, the Titterstone Clee, and Pen Cerrig, near Crickhowell. Fossil shells and fish spines-Ctenacanthus-similar to those found at Oreton, occur at Knowbury. Producti have been obtained at Gorstley Rough; thus the fossils yielded by these patches of limestone are identical with those found in carboniferous limestone districts miles and miles away, on the flanks of Dean Forest in the South Wales Coalfield, or the isolated outlier of Pen Cerrig." The inference to be drawn from these appearances is, that at

some early period of the earth's history, that which we know as the South Wales Coalfield extended very many miles northward and eastward of its present site, and included in its area the carboniferous formations of the Dean Forest, the Clee hills, and other places, at a time when much of the Old Red Sandstones of Herefordshire was overlaid by some important mineral.

A few minutes more may perhaps be usefully occupied in considering the manner in which coal was formed and deposited. It is a subject which has been much discussed, but upon which geologists are by no means agreed. On examining sandstone and shale, it is easy to perceive from their texture and composition, that they must at one time have been respectively loose sand and mud, borne down by, and deposited from, water; but the case is somewhat different with Coal. This mineral being chiefly composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and revealing in its mass evidence of vegetable structure, no doubt is entertained of its organic origin. But whether the plants of which it is composed were drifted down by rivers, and deposited along with layers of mud and sand in estuaries, or whether dense forests and peat mosses were submerged, and then overlaid by deposits of sand and mud, are the two main questions at issue. According to the latter hypothesis, the vegetable matter must have grown and accumulated in dense jungles and peat mosses for many years; then the land must have sunk and become the basin of a lake or estuary, into which rivers carried mud and sand; these covered the vegetable matter itself, which then underwent the process of bituminisation and mineralisation, and was converted into Coal. This being done, or while in process of being done, it is supposed that the area of deposit was again elevated, or at least so far silted up and rendered so shallow as to become once more the scene of luxuriant vegetation; again submerged in the process of gradual subsidence, and overlaid by new deposits of sandstone and shale; once more shoaled and covered with plants, and then submerged; and this alternating process of submergence and shoaling is presumed to have taken place as often as there are beds of Coal in any particular coalfield. The other hypothesis is, that while partial elevations and submersions of land might have taken place, as at the present day, and jungles, pine-swamps, and peat mosses been thereby thrown beneath the waters, the great masses of the Coal Measures were deposited as drift and silt in lakes and estuaries, that the vegetable matter of which Coal is composed was carried into these estuaries by rivers and inundations, and that various rivers might discharge themselves into one estuary, some chiefly carrying down sand, while others transported plants, mud, and heterogeneous débris. This hypothesis also supposes that the transporting rivers were subject-like the Nile, Ganges, &c.—to periodical inundations, and that during the intervals of overflow the deltas were choked with a rank growth of vegetation which, in conjunction with the vegetable drift from inland, went to the formation of beds of Coal. These hypotheses are known as the "terrestrial " (or "peat-moss ") and "drift " theories. There is truth in both. We see in some thick, continuous, and pure beds of Coal, the remains of submerged peat-mosses or pine swamps; in others the matted masses of drift vegetation, enclosing shells and fish-bones; in some, the upright trunks and accumulated foliage of gigantic