and Archaic," by the Rev. Dr. Francis T. Havergal; and a very interesting preface to a reprint in black letter, on "A Treatyse of Fysshinge with an Angle," published in 1496, as well as other contributions by our President elect, the Rev. M. G. Watkins.

With such a record of valuable work, it is hoped that the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club will continue in the prosecution of the objects for which it was originally established, now upwards of forty years ago, and that our younger members will be seen to come forward and assist in the several branches of science in which they may feel an interest-thus rendering themselves useful in their day and generation, in a life devoted to the honour of God, and the diffusion of knowledge and happiness in the world.

I cannot conclude without a remark in reference to a gentleman to whom we are so highly indebted for the time and labour which he bestows on our behalf, and it is only those who are officially in intercourse with him who know the many hours which he devotes by night and day to the service of the Club. A well-deserved acknowledgment was presented to him last year, which was cordially supported by all our members, but it was felt to be a very slight memorial in return for the great service which he has rendered.

The continuation of the volumes of Transactions, which were in arrear when Mr. Moore took office as Honorary Secretary, has been effected, and the materials are now ready for the completion of the years 1893 and 1894, as soon as the funds of the Society will admit of their publication.

Our grateful thanks are due to our respected Hon. Secretary, and I feel assured that we shall all most heartily unite in the hope that he will long live to continue his very valuable assistance in the work of the Woclhope Naturalists' Field Club.

Woolhope Naturalists' Field

FIRST FIELD MEETING, MAY 28TH, 1895.

Club.

ATCHAM CHURCH, WROXETER, AND SHREWSBURY.

ON Tuesday the ruins and the excavations, so far as they have been exposed, of the ancient Roman city of Uriconium were visited. The site of this ancient city, enclosed originally within a circumference of about three miles (says Mr. T. Wright), is represented in the present day by a small village on the river Severn under the name of Wroxeter, about five miles and a half south east of Shrewsbury. The party, having trained to Shrewsbury, were there met by Mr. William Phillips, our honorary member, who has done so much useful work for the Club in the mycological branch of natural history, and who at once assumed directorship of the day's proceedings. Driving through Shrewsbury, which was left by the Abbey Foregate, near which are the only existing remains of one of the numerous towers of defence upon the line of walls, and passing the fine old Abbey Church built of New Red sandstone, whose Norman west door surmounted by a magnificent window of early perpendicular architecture forms so prominent an object, thence past the column to the memory of General Lord Hill, built of Grinshill stone in Doric architecture to a height of 133 feet, the open country is reached, and after a drive of four miles from Shrewsbury the river Severn is crossed by a bridge of seven arches close to which is situated the ivy mantled Church Tower of Atcham.

Here a halt was made in accordance with the programme for the day, and the Vicar, the Rev. A. G. Kingsford, kindly met the members, and pointed out, during their short half-hour of inspection, the principal features of interest. Of these we may record the fine tracery Screen from Worfield Church, a Norman light in the North wall of the nave, and an elegant lofty Lancet Arch in the West end, in front of which in a gallery is a small but ancient organ of some reputation, to which is attached a history of its diapason, highly valued by the late Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley, and which was destroyed by a stroke of lightning. It will probably scarcely be credited-but it is nevertheless true-that the steel stays of a child were marked, and the boots of another were rent, as they sat in the gallery during the same electrical disturbance, though no serious damage was inflicted on the children themselves. Such are stubborn facts, and the boots are exhibited in Shrewsbury Museum. What most interested our Herefordshire members was the association of an ancient stained Glass Window in the South wall of the Church with Bacton in the Golden Valley. In the year 1811, when there was no

resident Clergyman at Bacton, a window (most probably suffering from want of proper preservation), to the memory of Blanche Parry, maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth, was removed amidst rejoicings and a general holiday at Bacton to Atcham Church. The act of removal is recorded on an inscription on the East wall of Atcham Church. However, as regards the window in question, the elements have, unfortunately, waged war victoriously. So much damage was done by the winds in the early part of 1894 that the window was condemned as dangerous. It was removed and a modern stained glass window supplants that to the memory of Blanche Parry. There still exists a beautiful ancient glass window in the East end to the memory of Miles ap Harry, an ancestor of Blanche Parry, which likewise was removed from Bacton Church. As regards the exterior of Atcham Church, the chief points of interest consist in its traces of Norman work at its base, the enormous stones used in the masonry indicating by their size and tracings of decoration of laurel leaves their connection with those dug up amongst the ruins of the adjacent Roman city. On the East wall are observed at the height of a man's eye small openings, one at each side of and below the East window, of which there is no trace interiorly. These openings are not large like that which will be seen at Presteign under the East window there when our Club visits that Church at their meeting announced for Friday, June 28th.

After thanking the Vicar, seats were resumed for the extension of the drive for another mile and a half, passing the grounds of Attingham Park, and over the river Tern, to Wroxeter. When the party reached the site of the enclosure, Mr. Phillips left his carriage, and from a favourable intermediate position gave particulars of the excavations which had been conducted between the years 1859 and 1863. Out of 170 acres of enclosure only four have been excavated, and fortunately these have revealed to us much connected with the interior domestic arrangements and articles pertaining to the Roman rulers. From a diagram Mr. Phillips showed the contour of the city, the small rivulet called the Bell brook flowing from east to west through the city, the Watling Street-road from Kenchester and Caerleon, leading to Deva (Chester) in the North, and a cross road from the East leading over the Severn by a bridge (of which the masonry foundations are said to have been seen during the present century) to the Breidden Hills, whence all trace of its prolongation has been lost. A depression on the opposite bank of the Severn, which can be seen from the extremity of the lane at the west of the church, indicates the continuation of the road, and consequently the site of the ancient bridge.

Both by Ptolemy and Antoninus the name Uriconium is written Viro-conium. This is probably at bottom "Vrekon," the same word as "Wrekin," a hill which is visible five miles away. "Uriconium " seems a mere variant. Next (after the analogy of Exeter from " 'Exanceaster") in Saxon times it became "Wreokonceaster." Leland calls it "Wroxcester," and it eventually settled down into "Wroxeter." In Roman times Wroxeter stood on the Watling-street, the great road beginning at Rutupiæ in Kent, and passing by way of London and St. Alban's to Shrewsbury, and so to Deva (Chester).

Besides this Wroxeter was in direct connection with Isca (Caerleon), where the 2nd Legion was stationed. From Isca a Roman road ran north to Gobannium (Abergavenny), by Ewias Harold and Abbeydore to Magna (Kenchester). This road continued to Wroxeter and so to Chester, the headquarters of the 20th Legion. Wroxeter was probably destroyed first by the Picts in the deluge of barbarians from the North, when the Romans left the Britons to themselves, 426 A.D., and then a century later it seems to have suffered the same fate at the hands of the Saxons. The Severn, having changed its course, now flows over part of what was the Roman town.

A few minutes were given to an inspection of Wroxeter Church, with its monuments to the Newport family, an altar tomb dated 1544, an Eastersepulchre, an ancient oak chest in the Vestry, parish registers from 1615, pure Norman lights in the Chancel, beautiful Norman doorway, and transitional architecture elsewhere, with a puzzling incongruous filling in of perpendicular work in the west wall of the tower. The approach to the churchyard on the west has its steps enclosed within Corinthian pillars. By the kind permission of Mr. West a view was obtained in his adjoining garden of an arbour whose façade was composed of Roman architectural columns, shafts, and capitals intermixed with ecclesiastical work, made up from fragments discovered in the neighbourhood by his predecessor. Upon arrival at the site of the excavations, about half a mile north east of the Church, Mr. Phillips took the opportunity of demonstrating from a favourable eminence the plan of the buildings whose ruins of tesselated pavements, hypocausts, barrel roofs, and numerous compartments were exposed to view. The custodian of the premises exhibited flue tiles with flanges, bricks, flat tiles, and numerous specimens of finds. After the lucid description given by Mr. Phillips, the work of following the plan on plate 5 of the small book, an abridgment of Thomas Wright's "Guide to the ruins of Uriconium," sold on the premises for eighteen pence, was easy, and the better part of an hour was pleasantly occupied in strolling over the ruins, which can be so well viewed from a commanding eminence formed out of the excavations. Very excellent specimens of Roman mortar and cement were examined. In the remains of the old wall, about fifteen feet high, the groining of the three barrel roofs is still conspicuous, and in this wall it was observed that every, however small, piece of New Red Sandstone masonry employed in the structure was placed upon its proper bed as found in the quarry, thus preserving it from peeling off in shales, as is always the case when the stone has been laid by careless, ignorant, or unscrupulous builders. After stopping for want of funds, excavations were resumed in 1867. These resulted in opening up the public Baths of the town, and the latrinæ adjoining. Here too tesselated wall patterns were found, a feature which is unique in Roman remains. Many coins have been picked up at various times. They appear to terminate about 385 A.D., and thus afford the means of making a guess when the place was finally burnt. The Britons who would occupy the town at the departure of the Romans must have been more civilized than is generally supposed. The Romans had spent 374 years in Britain disseminating their own civilization between the arrival of Ostorius in 52 A.D., and the departure of the

legions in 426. Think what 374 years mean in our own history. They take us back to the reign of Henry VIII., and how enormous is the advance that has been made since that time in the arts and sciences! For the antiquities found at Uriconium, and now, by agreement with the Duke of Cleveland, deposited in the Shrewsbury Museum, reference should be made to Mr. T. Wright's book, "Uriconium."

At 2.15 the return journey was undertaken, and on arrival at Shrewsbury the members assembled in the room of the Caradoc and Severn Valley Field Club. Here the Rev. J. D. La Touche delivered a scientific exposition of the causes of the Ice age, briefly discussing the theories of Sir Chas. Lyell, Dr. Croll, and Sir Robert Ball, and by means of a diagram and model he demonstrated the eccentricity of the earth's orbit in an ellipse, and Kepler's law, the precession of equinoxes, the cold period due to astronomical changes, and the inclination of the axis of the earth to its orbit as the standard for the regulation of heat.

He proceeded to illustrate upon Mr. Charles Fortey's excellent model the causes of Glen Roy Parallel Roads near Ben Nevis at the respective heights of 1,150, 1,070, and 860 feet above the sea, leaving a vertical distance of 80 feet separating the two highest lines, and the lowest road 210 feet below the middle parallel. Mr. La Touche and Mr. Fortey visited this district last year, and a model of the locality is the outcome of their visit. The model, on the horizontal scale of one inch to a mile, embraces within an area of over 600 square miles the valleys of the Spean, the Spey, and the Roy of the Lochaber district of Scotland, extending from Fort William on the west to Loch Ericht on the east. The model is about three feet long, and represents a length of about 36 miles. On the vertical scale, Ben Nevis 4,370 feet high, is represented about 43 inches in height. Mr. Fortey used about four thousand pins in following the various contours. The heads of the pins were cut off to the altitudes required, and the model was gradually built up of clay. Towering above the dominant hills stands the monarch Ben Nevis-these mountains on the west coast are the first to receive the vapour-laden winds of the Atlantic, which, robbed of their vapour during the glacial epoch would precipitate it in the form of snow, and charged with the heat set free in the process of precipitation, would pursue their course across Scotland to the east coast, where the rainfall at Culloden, the northeast end of the Caledonian Canal is only 24 inches annually compared with 46 inches at Loch Laggan, twenty miles east of Ben Nevis, and with 86 inches at Fort William, the south-western end of the Canal.

At the conclusion of the lecture a visit was paid to the Shrewsbury Museum where, amongst numerous other objects, thousands of finds from Uriconium in the magnificent collection of local antiquities were examined at leisure.

After dinner at the George Hotel, Mr. John Cordeaux, M.B.O.U., from Great Cotes, Lincolnshire, read an interesting paper expressly written for the Woolhope Club, on "The rush of the Arctic Birds on the east coast of Great Britain in the winter of 1894-95," and exhibited specimens of three beautiful and rare birds, namely the Shore Lark, the Snow Bunting, and the Little Auk.

The members, of whom a list is given below, left Shrewsbury at six o'clock,