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and much-appreciated privilege they so kindly extended to the members of viewing this unique collection at any future period when time should not be so limited as at present.

Resuming their seats in the brakes, the party proceeded towards Leintwardine, time not permitting an inspection of Clungunford Church, a stone building of Early Decorated style, whose register dates, according to Kelly's Directory, from 1559. A tumulus situated N.E. of the Church, circular in form, 15 feet high, 103 feet at the base, and 49 feet at the summit (of which an account may be found in Hartshorne's Salopia Antiqua, page 102), was carefully opened several years ago, and afforded an unmistakable evidence of cremation having been adopted in those earlier ages. On the right-hand of the road, about two miles distant, near Broadward Hall, upon the right bank of the river Clun, another tumulus was observed, where some ancient weapons have been discovered which are now in the British Museum. After a drive of about another three miles Leintwardine was entered, some members approaching by Watling Street which runs upon its eastern side, direct to the site of the old bridge, of which some traces of oak timbers, blackened with age and deposit, are said to be still found. The advance guard made for the camp. Mr. Fortey conducted it to the north-west angle, where the ancient vallum and fosse are clearly discernible, being more conspicuous here than elsewhere. The Rev. J. W. Colvin, the vicar, also attended, as also Mr. Hugh Thomas Evans, who has been resident thirty-six years, and who assisted the late Rev. W. D. Ingham by his observations and information in drawing out the plan of Leintwardine which accompanied Dr. Bull's excellent paper on Roman Stations and Towns in Herefordshire (see Woolhope Transactions, 1882, page 251). If any member ever had any doubts after reading that paper, that Leintwardine and the Roman town of Bravinium are identical, such doubts were assuredly at once set at rest by the evidence of his own senses, supplemented by Mr. Fortey's demonstration in situ to day. On the way to the Church Mr. H. T. Evans stopped to exhibit in his house specimens of ancient pottery, and, in the shed in the rear, portions of the antique screen from the Church. The Church was next visited where the Rev. J. W. Colvin showed excellently preserved parish registers dating from October 2nd, 1547, and not as erroneously stated in Kelly's Directory from 1530. The order for the establishment of parish registers was given by Henry VIII., temp. 1536, but as only eight registers are known to exist prior to 1538, it does not appear to have been at once generally acted upon. In the parish registers of Leintwardine there is the usual gap during the period of the civil wars; in this case the interval embraces from 1642 to 1656,

The Rev. T. AUDEN read to the members assembled in the Church the following

NOTES ON LEINTWARDINE.

LEINTWARDINE is an example of an unusual thing-the formation of a Saxon village within the very fortifications of a Roman camp. In general the remains of old Roman cities and stations were shunned by the Saxons as haunted ground, but the important position of Leintwardine near the two streams probably caused this superstitious dread to be overcome. Mr Hartshorne (Salopia Antiqua, p. 484) derives its name from the Celtic word for water, which is found in London and Lancaster. In Saxon times Leintwardine was the head of a hundred containing 49 manors, several of which are now in Herefordshire and Radnorshire. At the date of Domesday, Picot de Say, the founder of Clun Castle, held a small portion of the manor of Leintwardine proper, but the greater part was in the hands of Ralph de Mortimer. In Saxon times it had been held by King Edward, and was of considerable importance. In 1086 it possessed a Church, a priest, and a mill, which paid an annual rent of 6s. 8d. and six sticks (a stick consists of 20) of eels. There were several superior tenants, with a Provost, and a knight (unus miles), who possessed several tenants of his own. Later, it became a member of the Walcheria of the Mortimers, that is the independent jurisdiction, round their Castle of Wigmore. At the death of Edmund de Mortimer (II.) in 1332 it was stated that he had possessed there a dilapidated messuage, 80 acres of arable land, 6 of pasture, 15 of meadow, and the Bosc called Moktre, with the rents of various tenants.

The Church was, in Saxon times, the head of a large parish, only one other manor of Lenteurde Hundred (Wistanstow), being mentioned in Domesday as possessing a priest.

Hugh de Mortimer, between 1181 and 1185, gave the Church of Leintwardine and the mill there to Wigmore Abbey. Bishop Swinfield visited the Church, May 13, 1289, when the Abbot of Wigmore as Rector provided entertainment for him and his suite. The Bishop then gave alms of 12d. to the "Recluse of Leintwardine." In 1291, the Church of Leintwardine, with its chapels of Burrington and Downton, was stated to be in the deanery of Clun. In 1330, Roger de Mortimer, Earl of March, founded a Chantry in Leintwardine Church for ten chaplains to celebrate Mass daily for the souls of himself, his ancestors, and his successors. For this purpose the Earl intended to give the Advowson of Church Stretton, but this was not carried out. His design was, however, completed from other resources, as in the 14th century "nine chaplains chanted daily in Leint wardine Church prayers for the souls of Edward III., Isabella, his mother, Philippa, his queen, Henry, Bishop of Lincoln, the Earl of Lincoln, his Countess Joan, with all the faithful departed." In the Church was a "regular appointed choir, with stalls yet remaining; thither the Monks (Canons) of Wigmore repaired in processions, and the Abbot delivered an annual sermon on the festival of the Virgin, the patron

Saint." This must mean the chantry, as the Church is said to be dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, though the "King's Book" calls it St. Mary, and it has been attributed to St. Mary Magdalen. At the time of the dissolution of monasteries the Abbot of Wigmore received £36 158. 5d. from Leintwardine. This living was at that time held by John Stiche, whose preferment was valued at £8 3s. 4d., less 7s. 8d. for synodals and procurations. Henry VIII.'s Commissioners accused John Smart, the last Abbot of Wigmore, of many evil deeds; among them that he had neglected Leintwardine Chantry, and had stripped £40 of silver plate from an image of the Virgin which adorned the Church, and appropriated the proceeds. The Advowson passed later into the hands of the Harleys, Earls of Oxford, one of whom, Sir Edward Harley, about 1659, presented to it a zealous Puritan, Richard Hawes, Vicar of Kentchurch. He was ejected after the Restoration, and afterwards lived with his son-in-law, the ejected Vicar of Weobley. He seems to have been a man who learnt much from his experience of life, for Calamy does not give him the highest character in his earlier ministry, though he died in humble faith, respected by all who knew him, Churchmen and Nonconformists alike.

Now to return to the proceedings of the day :

The movements of the members over the ground were so rapid that they would have delighted the heart of Cæsar. These strategical manœuvres somewhat perturbed the peaceable inhabitants and " gentle fishermen" of this head centre for grayling. The suddenness of the occupation of their village was their first surprise, nor was their consternation lessened when the strangers, alighting hurriedly-the lost time not having yet been recovered-were discovered to be armed with hammers of various forms and proportions; one, especially, a most uninviting weapon, suggestive of a boarding pike of a Viking warrior, and wielded by a member of formidable stature, created quite a diversion, dispersion we mean, for it spread dismay far beyond the range of the muscular arms of its stalwart The minds of the villagers began to be appeased when they found that the strangers had entered the Church, the majority of them cherishing the hope that the mission was--if not of an ecclesiastical-at least of a peaceable character; whilst some few, having perceived that some of the strangers had scaled the Church tower, and were making observations therefrom, still maintained their fears; but when our field force, returning from the Church, issued from the village, following their patriarchal leader towards the Church Hill Quarry, distant about half a mile, the villagers peaceably resumed their usual occupations, the object of pursuit of the strangers having been explained to them by a promising young girl, who had probably passed the sixth standard, in the following terms-"There's a mine up that hill, there's gold in it!"

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Upon assembling at the quarry on Church Hill, the rear-guard was again met with, who indiscreetly attempted to remonstrate against the celerity of our advance-guard; they were soon silenced, censured, and put to shame for preferring to linger over the pleasures of Mrs. Rocke's hospitable table, and severely reprimanded for their lack of promptitude in assembling at the first sound of the

whistle. Upon the summit of Church Hill, amongst other fossils, Monograptus colonus was found, which is a common fossil in the beds of the Lower Ludlow age. The Rev. J. D. La Touche read a paper upon the forms of star fish, Ceratiocaris, Pteraspis, &c., which had been discovered in the Lower Ludlow formation exhibited here.

Reassembling at the village, seats in the brakes were resumed, and the members soon began to ascend the rising ground, whence a good view was obtained of Coxwall Knoll, an eminence distant about two miles west of Leintwardine.

A reference to the Woolhope Transactions, 1882, page 182, gives us the most interesting paper read by the Rev. Charles Burrough, in which Coxwall Knoll forms the central feature in the last battle of Caractacus, whence the retreat was made to Gaer Ditches (Caer Caradoc), distant about four miles further north-west. Neither Mr. La Touche nor Mr. Auden support Mr. Burrough, but consider from the surrounding features that Breidden Hill in Shropshire, about one mile and a half from the Railway Station at Middletown, on the Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway, has stronger claims to be considered the site of this last battle, although there is no "Caer Caradoc" in that neighbourhood (Tacitus Annal. liber xii. c. 35).

Still continuing the ascent until an elevation of more than 700 feet was reached (Leintwardine Bridge being at 394 feet), the members dismounted at the quarry at Mocktree Hill, where was a striking exposure of Aymestry and Lower and Upper Ludlow Rocks-in which amongst many characteristic fossils, which here are very abundant, they found good specimens of Orthoceras ludense, Orthis lunata, &c., and many other fossils of which drawings are to be found amongst the 820 illustrations upon the 22 plates of a Handbook of the Geology of Shropshire, by Rev. J. D. La Touche, vicar of Stokesay. In the Quarry on the left-hand side after leaving Mocktree Hili, Mr. E. S. Cobbold observed from the carriages what appeared to be a case of "contemporaneous denudation," an exposure as if the lower beds had been cut into by some current action while still soft, and a superincumbent stratum of rock had come in afterwards and filled the hollow, the beds above being parallel with and conformable to, and probably containing the same assemblage of fossils as the lower beds. Unfortunately time would not permit of an examination of the beds here, and especially of those at the bottom of the supervening mass, to see if there was any indication of change in sediment or fossils. It appeared a grand example of a very exceptional occurrence, and somewhat surprising in the mudstones and shales of the Ludlow beds. In sandy beds formed near the coast, or in shallow water, the phenomenon is common enough. It is noticeable as having the appearance at first sight of an "unconformity," but there is a great difference between this and a case of beds upheaved and cut down before the newer beds were deposited.

Proceeding towards Forge Bridge, the members alighted at the top of the lane leading thereto, at the bottom of which, upon the left-hand side, is an exposure of rocks, where, at the height of about five feet from the ground, are found the so-called fish bone beds, composed, as the Rev. J. D. La Touche explained, of fish defences, and of fish spines rather than bones. Here the Viking

looking weapon was again to the front, to the dismay of a grand old gardener and his wife. The old man continued his digging upon the heights above until he was disturbed by finding his garden allotments undergoing the process of being gradually undermined; remonstrance being in vain against a force of seventy armed enthusiasts, limited to a day of only eight hours, he, submitting to his fate, calmly viewed the scene from a discreet distance. The members, determined to obtain their object, persevered in their mining operations, and shortly found Platyschisma helicites above the bone bed, accompanied by Modiolopsis and Orthonota and Holopella, an assemblage of fossils which tells us that the bone bed should be close at hand, and that the Passage Beds to the Old Red are also somewhat near. The novices in geology were now initiated into the specialities of the Viking-pike-for it must be explained that the fish bone beds vary in thickness from an almost microscopical line without breadth to sometimes the comparatively large aggregate of eight inches. In this instance it occupied several minutes before it could be discovered at all, although many pocket microscopes were in the field, and were used to determine the scales and fish defences when found. The point of the Viking-pickaxe was able to penetrate the thin band of strata where the orthodox geological hammer could not succeed in obtaining an entrance; consequently, when the fish bone bed had once been discovered the services of this useful instrument were in much request.

The proportionately allotted time to be devoted to exploration of the fish bone bed having been already outrun, several members still lingered to admire the picturesque scenery of the valley of the Teme here, with the weir above the bridge; but so vehemently was the whistle blown, that in their anxiety to resume their seats in the carriages with the least possible delay, their consciences pricked with the reprimand they had received in the earlier portion of the day, the members hurriedly departed, leaving the grand old gardener and his wife still in ignorance as to the cause of this unprovoked attack upon their allotments at their very foundation.

The drive from Leintwardine to Onibury by way of Mocktree, besides presenting so many objects of geological interest, exhibited in the clear atmosphere of to-day charming distant landscapes, Bringewood Chase Hill being the most conspicuous feature upon the right or south-eastern side, whilst upon the left the successive escarpments of the hills named Swan-hill, Saddle-hill, and Brand-hill, extending to View Edge or Yeo Edge, form a striking object, only, however, to be seen from an elevated position in the carriage, owing to the hedges being, at present, of remarkable height and density.

The intended residence of Mr. Allcroft was pointed out upon the left shortly before reaching Onibury. The mansion is being built of Downton Sandstone from the immediate vicinity. A few hundred yards after passing the railway crossing at Onibury, on the road to Craven Arms, in a quarry upon the right hand side, is found a grand exposure of the Downton Sandstone and Transition Beds between the Silurian and Old Red Sandstone. These same Passage Beds are known to the members of the Woolhope Club as they exist at Ledbury Railway Station, at the mouth of the tunnel, and have been again and again demonstrated by Mr. George

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