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Vol. 1866, page 172, Remarks of Mr. Curley. Records of the Rocks, by Rev. Wm. S. Symonds, pp. 139, 160. "Old Stones by the same author, page 57 of edition 1880. In Murchison's Siluria, Chapter VI. geological sections are represented through Nash Scar, and through Corton near Presteign.

Descending from the Camp, the members returned through the grounds of Highlands, and entered the road to Presteign, visiting, en route, the ancient mansion, now a farmhouse, occupied by Mr. Aaron Rogers, of The Rodd, which gave its name to a family as early as the beginning of the fifteenth century. It is a picturesque brick building, bearing over the porch, and over the windows some graceful oak carving, and upon its porch door the date 1629. A front view is given in the Rev. C. J. Robinson's Mansions and Manors of Herefordshire; an end view showing the large chimney stacks is given in pen and ink sketches of H. T. Timmins's Nooks and Corners of Herefordshire, and the elaboratelycarved mantel-piece on the first floor is represented between pages 68 and 69 of the same work.

The old timber house at Wegnall, on the opposite side of the railway line, was visited on the way to Presteign. Wegnall Mill, on the river Hindwell, is apparently of the Elizabethan period, with a grand stone chimney stack of similar character, and a good porch.

The showery condition of the weather had so scattered the members that, on arrival at Presteign, the Church was visited by detachments in separate parties. This Church was visited by the Club in 1889, see Transactions. Since that date it has undergone restoration, and to the remarks on page 330 of Vol. 1889 may be added the following objects as worthy of notice :-An early walled-up light, with splayed sill, in the north wall of the aisle, formed of rough Travertine, whose dimensions, as seen externally, appear about 3 feet high by 9 inches wide; another light in the same wall more westerly, also of Travertine, about 4 feet high by 18 inches wide; internally, the remains of another Travertine circular arch in the west wall, near the entrance door; and a round arch in the east wall of the north aisle. Externally, above the east window, there is inscribed a date which, however, is not decipherable. The walled-up opening eighteen inches by six inches under the east window, and the opening about two feet and a half square under the east window afford scope for conjecture of the curious, and remind us of somewhat similar openings in the east wall at Atcham Church, which we visited last May.

In the Village the Radnorshire Arms is a picturesque, black and white gabled building, over the porch of which the date 1616 is inscribed.* During alterations to this building a small secret chamber was discovered in the front of the house, probably, by tradition, the hiding place of a royalist. Two or three small volumes were found behind the oak panelling of the cell, one of which had been much gnawed by rats. One contained "Reflections upon the Psalms." The regicide Bradshaw resided at the rectory here, and it is traditionally reported that he purchased the Radnorshire Arms. That the times were trying for loyal Church people the Parish Registers bear evidence. For

*The date 1617 as given in the Transactions, Vol. 1889, page 330, is an error.

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instance, amongst other entries appears one showing that Nicholas Taylor, the same who harboured King Charles I. at Lower Heath, "was constrained to send in these bad times," there being no lawful minister settled in our Parish, for those gentlemen" (different clergymen of the Church of England) "to baptize my children, therefore I cause this to be registered, being May 15th, 1672, as followeth." Then follows a list of his children baptized from 1657 to 1660.

After an excellent luncheon well served at the Radnorshire Arms, Mr. H. Southall made a few remarks on the late extraordinary season, 18941895 with its unprecedented frost, and violent hurricane of Sunday, March 24th, short notes of which have already been published.

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About a quarter of mile distant from the village of Presteign is an elevated knoll known as "The Warden," an eligible site for a defensive position, and here is supposed to have been a castle of the men of the March or men of the Border. The termination "warden or 'wardine" is prevalent along the border land of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, and Cheshire. In the Shrewsbury Chronicle of January 12th, 1894, is a list of names ending in "Warden," and in the issue of that paper for March 2nd, 1894, Saxon writes as follows:-"The termination Warden' indicates the former existence of a protracted Saxon settlement in which dwelt the ætheling or his reeve, around whom clustered for protection the rest of the tribe forming a free township. The noble, or æthling, was a wardian, or Weardman, accountable to the Hundredmoot for the security of the land acquired from the Britons along the western border of Mercia."

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Probably Mr. Flavell Edmunds is more happy in his etymology than is "Saxon." He ascribes the suffix to sites of camps near water, e.g. in Herefordshire we have Bredwardine (Bre-dwr-din) the water camp of the promontory or hill; Leintwardine (Llain-dwr-din) the water camp of the strip of land; Lugwardine (Lugwater camp); Marden contracted from Marwardine (Maér-dwr-din) the field of the water camp; Pedwardine (Peada's water camp). King Peada being a son of King Penda; etc., etc.

By permission of the proprietor, Mr. Clifford Jones, the members were allowed to visit the grounds of Silia, the entrance to which is close to the Warden. These grounds have been laid out principally in a plantation of of rare Conifers, a list of which is given on page 331 of Transactions, 1889. It was gratifying to find that so few trees had been injured by the prolonged and severe frost of last February. The following plants also especially attracted attention :-Tritŏme kniphofia=Niphota, Bamboo Metake, Spirea aruncus from Tyrolese and Swiss Valleys, a Japanese Maple, and an Acer atro-purpurea.

The following attended the meeting. In the absence of the President, Mr. James Davies acted as President for the day. The following ex-presidents attended-Rev. C. Burrough, Rev. William Elliot, Rev. A. Ley, and Mr. H. Southall. Vice-presidents-Mr. W. H. Banks and Mr. T. Hutchinson. MembersHis Honour, Judge R. W. Ingham, Revs. H. A. Barker, W. S. Clarke, E. R. Firmstone, J. E. Grasett, H. B. D. Marshall, M. Marshall, and Rev. H. C. Sturges; Colonel Napier Sturt; Messrs. Ernest Ballard, R. Clarke, A. J. H.

Crespi, C. Fortey, Iltyd Gardner, E. A. Greenly, F. R. Kempson, W. P. J. Le Brocq, P. Levason, R. Lewis, H. J. Marshall, Alfred Parker, Scudamore Powell, John Probert, H. G. Sugden, J. P. Sugden, H. A. Wadworth, H. Cecil Moore, Hon. Sec., and James B. Pilley, Assistant Secretary. Visitors-Mr. and Mrs. Charlton Parr met the members at the cottage of the warrener; Miss Moberly and Miss B. Symonds, from Boultibrooke; Mr. Edward Boycott, Mr. James Gaskell, Mr. C. C. Marshall, Mr. C. H. D. Marshall, and Mr. Paul Marshall.

A CHAT ABOUT CONIFERS.

THE BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION AT PRESTEIGN

BY DR. CRESPI.

THE fashion of introducing hardy trees and shrubs from temperate regions into England originated, in its modern form, with the discoveries of Douglas and his successors, who, for nearly fifty years, found an almost inexhaustible supply of novelties in California and the wonderful region north of that beautiful land. This field was in time completely worked out. Every shrubbery and pinetum in Europe bears witness to its wealth, in the sequoias, piceas, pines, cypresses, and other splendid conifers which so much increase the sylvan beauty of England. The mountains of Mexico and of Northern China, the Himalayas, and the Caucasus have also sent us some species, and when Japan was opened up Fortune and Veitch were the pioneers of a multitude of collectors who have ransacked that fairy kingdom, from the plains to the summit of Fusi Yama, for its inexhaustible variety of trees and shrubs adapted to our English climate. So eagerly has this exploration gone on in all parts of the world that at last the travelling horticulturist finds his occupation practically gone. He has introduced so many hardy trees and shrubs that, in despair of finding more, he is reluctantly penetrating the steaming jungles of the tropics in search of those exquisitely beautiful orchids which find enthusiastic and wealthy cultivators in another branch of the gardening cult. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain is not the least distinguished admirer of these lovely flowers. Though the modern enthusiasm for introducing hardy novelties may be said to have begun when the Horticultural Society sent David Douglas to the wilds of America, Englishmen had long before that day been bringing home the trees and shrubs of the lands which they had visited. The pilgrims to the Holy Land brought the seeds of the cedars of Lebanon at so early a date that the trees near London and in some of our beautiful southern parks and ancient gardens are actually finer than the majority of those on Lebanon itself. Perhaps no greater popular mistake is made than to fancy that the cedars of Lebanon are very large, numerous, and ancient. The real number perhaps hardly exceeds 400, and most of these are under 200 years old, though a few have seen the flight of from 400 to 800 winters. There are 12 of great age; and of those the largest is 63 feet in circumference and another is 49. The cedar is more remarkable for girth than height. There is a fine cedar at Sion House, eight feet in diameter three feet from the ground. Sion House, the Duke of Northumberland's seat, near Isleworth, in Middlesex, is also interesting to the antiquary as being the place where the crown was offered to Lady Jane Grey. Some cedars planted at Beaufort Castle, the seat of Lord Lovat, in Invernesshire, in 1783, are three or four feet in diameter. The Maronites assert that the cedars near the village of Eden, in Lebanon, are the remains of the forest which supplied Solomon with timber for

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the Temple full 3,000 years ago. However apocryphal this antiquity may be, they are certainly very old, and they were very old 300 years ago. Maundrell gives the size of some of the cedars-the largest he measured was 36 feet 6 inches in circumference, and 117 feet in the spread of its branches. There is a magnificent cedar at Ranston, near Blandford, the beautiful seat of Sir Talbot Baker. head was blown off in a great storm some years ago, but till then Sir Talbot tells me it was the finest in the United Kingdom. This giant, in spite of this catastrophe, is not squat, but is still of colossal height, probably 120 feet or more, a grand, glorious, beautiful object. Who first brought the oriental plane, thought to be the sycamore of the ancients, from the Levant we no more know than we do the name of the benefactor who brought the chestnut from Asia Minor, and the southern almond to flower in the cold days of our northern spring.

It is surprising how few of the familiar trees and shrubs of England are native to it. When Cæsar visited Britain the only indigenous conifer-if we except such distant relatives as the yew and the juniper-was, it is believed, the Scotch fir. Even the larch is supposed to be an importation from Norway, and several of our oaks are suspected of a foreign origin. All our other firs and pines, and piceas and cypresses are naturalised, though many have flourished so well as to appear to the manner born. The tamarisk, so much at home on our southern coasts, was brought by Edward Grindal, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, as a memorial of his Italian exile. Although John Evelyn claims with honest pride that the publication of the "Sylva" led to the planting of millions of trees, there were quiet folks who, like Scott's Laird of Dumbiedykes, were aye stickin' in a tree," on the principle that it grew while all the world was asleep. The cherry, which Lucullus introduced into Italy from Pontus, passed 26 years later into Britain, where it flourishes as it hardly does in any other country; and the apricot arrived in the sea chest of Tradescant, the Lambeth gardener, who had shipped on board a privateer in the hope of rifling the Sultan of Morocco's garden of this choice fruit.

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Certainly the most beautiful collection of Conifers in England or Wales known to me is that at Silia-about half-a-mile from the Radnorshire Arms-a beautiful hostelry dating from the 17th century, in the middle of the old town of Presteign. Capt. Bevan, the gentleman who laid out Silia, chose a site on the slope of some hills, having a higher one opposite to them seven miles off. The side of the hill was laid out in terraces, and it was said 40 acres were covered with choice Conifers half a century ago. Now the trees have, many of them, reached a height of 60, possibly even of 80 feet in some cases. The most wonderful thing is the symmetry of many of the trees. No artist could depict anything more exquisite. To say that Silia would well repay a special visit from London would be no exaggeration. For my part, although I had often seen beautiful Conifers, I must confess that I had never realised how lovely a large collection of them could be.

Careful selection might do much to increase the number of sorts of fruit trees growing in the open air, and we may yet see grapes, tomatoes, and maize flourishing and ripening on our sunny southern coast. But it is a mistake to

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