FLOODS OF THE RIVER WYE.

UPON this subject it may be noted that the date given upon the plate in Mr. Pritchard's yard at the bottom of Gwynne Street, Hereford, is February 11th, 1795, when the river rose to what may be fairly estimated, in comparison with the gauge upon the central pier of Wye Bridge, according to Mr. Moore's observations and measurements, as being as much as nineteen feet above the summer level of the river.

The mark, F. 6, 1852, painted in black on the south-west side of the southern pier of Wye Bridge at Hereford, was incised by Mr. Nott, who kept the provision shop near the south end of the bridge. On the authority, however, of Mr. Stephens, the mark represents the highest portion of the pier splashed by the waves on that occasion, and may be considered an exaggeration of the real height of the water. An inspection of the arch will show that the flood must have filled the entire archway.

Mr. Moore, having recently interviewed Mr. Thomas Nott, has obtained from him the admission that his mark represented the highest reach of the wave created by the obstructing pier, possibly three feet above the actual level of the flood.

A reference to Transactions, 1869, page 151, gives us the following information:-"The flood of December 19th, 1869, was 16 feet. The only higher floods on record are of February 6th, 1852, 18 feet 4 inches, and of February 11th, 1795, 20 feet." See also on the same page Mr. Curley's useful Table of Cubic Feet of water per minute passing through Wye Bridge, Hereford, up to 10 feet in height of flood.

In May, 1886,- -a strange season of the year for a river's overflow-we experienced a rapid and severe flood on the Wye. The same rainfall, however, influenced the overflow of the Severn more severely than that of the Wye. We read on page 201, the second edition of "Deerhurst," by the Rev. G. Butterworth, that in that locality "the Severn rose to just the same height as in 1852," which earlier flood was always referred to by the distinctive title of "the great flood." In the flood of May, 1886, several bridges on the Teme were washed away, including the railway bridge between Bransford and Worcester. An estimate of the force of the water may be obtained from the fact that the débris of the brickwork of this bridge were collected along the hedge of the field at the distance of two hundred yards below the bridge.

A correspondence in the Times, generated out of another correspondence on the Longford Holbein, has brought us authoritative information respecting the SS. collar.

The correspondence occupies the papers from August 25th, 1891, to Sept. 3rd. Mr. W. H. St. John Hope writes in the Times of Sept. 2nd, "I must again repeat that the collar of SS. has no connexion with the Order of the Garter. It was a livery collar, pure and simple, and was worn by esquires and ladies, as well as knights who were not of the Order of the Garter. The effigies of the poet Gower in St. Saviour's, Southwark, of Queen Joan of Navarre at Canterbury, and of Sir Edward Thorpe and his lady at Ashwellthope are cases in point."

"In quoting the brass in Trotton Church, Sussex, S. H.C. (Times, August 31st), should also have told us that Lady Camoys, as well as her husband is shown with the collar of SS."

Mr. Albert Hartshorne, Bradbourne Hall, Ashbourne, writes on Sept. 3rd—

THE COLLAR OF THE GARTER AND THE COLLAR OF SS.

Sir,-The interesting correspondence concerning the Longford Holbein has brought up the subject of the knightly collar of the Garter and the livery collar of SS.-two totally distinct decorations. The subject of the Garter is too familiar to need any comment now, but it is not so with the SS. collar.

Few antiquarian matters have excited more research and controversy, but, like the two most exalted Orders in Europe, the Garter and the Golden Fleece, the origin and real meaning of the SS. collar still remain a mystery. The popular derivation is that it was first devised by Henry IV. when he was Earl of Derby, in allusion to his motto, "Soverayne." Like many popular attributions, this has no foundation in fact; indeed, the collar was in use as early as 1371, as is distinctly proved in the example shown on the effigy of Sir John Swinford at Spratton, in Northamptonshire, who is known with absolute certainty from the public records to have died in that year. Whether the mysterious letters originated in the S. of Seneschallus, in allusion to the office of Seneschal held by "time-honoured Lancaster," or in the S. of Sanctus, we shall probably now never know, but Seneschallus seems the most likely source. And it is easy to conceive that the events of that stirring time would rapidly develop the family collar of an august house into a badge of feudal allegiance, to become, eventually, the decora tion of a great political party. Its subsequent employment as the "Livery" of the great Lancastrian party during the reigns of Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI., is a matter of history, which is amply illustrated in almost endless variety by the effigies and brasses of this period.

The collar of SS. appears to have been repeatedly conferred upon envoys

and foreigners of distinction, and notably upon certain Italians who visited this country in the early part of the 15th century, the decoration appearing upon their monuments in the Churches of St. Eustorgio and St. Ambrogio at Milan. I find also, from my notes upon the subject, that the chivalrous Swiss traveller, Conrad von Scharnacthal, received this mark of the Royal favour from Henry VI., when he came hither in 1446; it is stated that he constantly wore the collar of SS., which is represented in his memorial in a window of the Church of Oberhofen, on the northern shore of the Lake of Thun.

Nothing is more probable than Mr. Walter Money's suggestion that Castiglione had the livery collar of SS. granted him by Henry VIII. when he received the Garter on behalf of his master; indeed Henry VIII. would only be following the precedents of earlier times in thus honouring an eminent foreigner. The brass of Lord Camoys, "strenuus miles de Gartero," who married the widow of Hotspur, is an interesting example of the SS. collar and the Garter appearing upon the same figure, and I do not at the moment recall another instance. But the one decoration has nothing whatever to do with the other, and perhaps the isolated evidence of a lost drawing from an effigy in a forgotten Church of a George appended to a collar of SS., mentioned by "G. A. S.," need not be taken seriously into account.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

Bradbourne-hall, Ashbourne, Sept. 1.

ALBERT HARTSHORNE.

THE

FORMATION

OF TRAVERTINE.

By the Rev. SIR GEORGE H. CORNEWALL, Bart., President.

IN offering a few remarks on the subject of Travertine, I do not suppose that I shall be able to advance anything new, or to state facts which may not have come under the observation of many members of this Club. At the same time I have this advantage-I can show at no great distance from this house the rock in process of formation, growth I may truly call it, and I can ask you to judge of its value as a building material, since the walls of Moccas Church, reported to be the oldest in the County of Hereford, are built of travertine and nothing else. First, as to the name of this rock. Many persons on visiting Moccas Church have said, "I see that it is built of tufa." I have corrected them, and maintained that tufa is a volcanic product, and that the stone here, being formed by incrustation of lime, differs from tufa, and should properly be called travertine. I do not know that I was so very far wrong, but it is fair to say that, on looking more fully into the matter, I have discovered that the custom of calling the stone which we are discussing "tufa" is a very common one, and I dare say many would contend that "calcareous tufa" is the name by which this stone is most commonly known. As regards the derivation of the words "tufa" and "travertine," for both names are Italian, it is very difficult to come to any sound conclusion. "Tufo" and not "tufa" seems to be the original Italian word. There is a verb "tuffare" (to plunge, to dip), but that does not help us much, although it may indicate the moist spongy situations where calcareous tufa is ordinarily found. On the other hand we have the geological term "tuff," as to the meaning of which there never has been any doubt, it being a volcanic product. The word " travertine" would seem to suggest that which is changed; action by which (where travertine is found) moss roots and like substances are changed by incrustation into stone. But, unluckily, there seems no word in Italian which we might coin by analogy with the Latin, such as travertere," the ordinary word in Italian to change is "cambiare " or "mutare," which do not help us. Sir Charles Lyell throws out the idea that the stone being commonly found at Tibur on the Anio, the modern Tivoli, and being therefore called by the ancients "lapis transtiburtinus," has been first corrupted into "trasteverino," and finally into " travertino," but "Tevere," the Tiber, is not the same word as the town on the Anio. "Tibur," the Trastevere, as is well known, is that suburb of Rome which lies on the other side of the Tiber; consequently his derivation does not appear altogether satisfactory. At the same time the opinion of Sir C. Lyell on the subject of travertine is one of great weight, for he has observed very carefully in various parts of Italy the growth of this rock, and would no doubt have given a satisfactory explanation of the names tufa and travertine had it been possible. In the glossary appended to "The Elements of Geology," p 785, we find :

66

Tufa calcareous.-A porous rock deposited by calcareous waters on their exposure to the air, and usually containing portions of plants and other organic

substances incrusted with carbonate of lime.

The more solid form of the same

deposit is called “travertine,” into which it passes.

Tuff, or Tufa Volcanic.-An Italian name for a variety of volcanic rock of an earthy texture, seldom very compact, and composed of an aggregation of fragments of scoriæ, and loose materials ejected from a volcano.

Travertine.-A white concretionary limestone usually hard and semicrystalline, deposited from the waters of springs holding lime in solution.

As regards nomenclature, therefore, it would seem that they who assert that Moccas Church is built of calcareous tufa are not altogether in error, but they run the risk of confusing travertine with the volcanic tuffs, which are a perfectly distinct formation. As regards the name of travertine there is no such difficulty. Again, to found the name on the relative compactness or porousness of the stone does not supply a very clear distinction, as may be seen on examining the walls of Moccas Church.

And now with respect to what I have called the growth of the stone. In an ordinary quarry of building stone it is usually conceived that the upper layers of the stone are not so hard or so valuable as those which lie deeper in the bed. It is not so with travertine, for it grows on the surface.

There is needed, in the first instance, a spring strongly impregnated with bi-carbonate of lime, also, as in other springs, an impermeable stratum which forces it to the surface. Exposed to the air it deposits an incrustation of lime on all surrounding objects over which the water may drip, it being needful that the lime-impregnated spring should be exposed freely to the action of the atmosphere, or no deposits will be made. But there is another element in the growth of travertine, as observed in this neighbourhood, which must not be omitted. There is a certain moss, Hypnum commutatum, which flourishes freely in this lime water, it grows and thrives in the drip of the water, and in its luxuriant growth opposing itself to the free course of the rivulet, forces the water to percolate among its roots, the lime is thereby incrusted upon them, but the growth and the health of the moss do not suffer, as the lime is deposited; that which was once the roots of the moss becomes now a porous stone, as the moss grows the stone increases; as the cushion of rich green moss becomes larger and larger, higher and higher, so does the stone which underlies it. At last arrives a time when the growth which I have described affects the course of the stream; it can flow over it no longer; the level of its course will not permit it; the stream must find a different channel; the moss dies; the lump of travertine becomes overgrown and is forgotten; a new formation of a precisely similar kind begins. This action may be readily observed in Depple Wood.

There can be no question as to the value of travertine as a building material. A large proportion of the most splendid edifices of ancient and modern Rome are built of travertine, derived from the quarries of Ponte Lucano, on the Campagna. St. Peter's and the Coliseum, to name two well-known buildings, are constructed of travertine. When I made a somewhat perilous journey to visit the temples of Postum in 1863, I was surprised to find that these ancient structures, with their colossal columns of simple Doric, perhaps the most striking relics of the past to be