180 WILD FLOWEKS OF 



great masses of sandstone in its bed of various sizes 

 and shapes, some covered all over with moss, but the 

 generality bare and giving a wilderness aspect to the 

 scene. "We leaped from stone to stone wherever we 

 could, and where we were unable from the interven- 

 tion of a deeper reach of the water, climbed the steep 

 bank, again to descend to the deep shadowy and 

 slabby bed of the brook. Some distance below the 

 Hope Mill we found a great sandstone slab on the 

 side of the brook marked with those semicircular in- 

 dentations that countenance the tradition and legend 

 of Si. Catharine's mare and colt, said to have left their 

 impressions upon the sandstones in the bed of the 

 brook when carried off by thieves, who were thus 

 detected, and their spoil recovered ! * The slabs with 

 the marks upon them are generally found on the 

 stones exposed to the degrading influence of the 

 water, which seems to wash out the softer particles of 

 argillaceous matter that filled up a former hollow 

 made by some means when the sandstone strata was 

 originally deposited. The brook itself now flows at 

 the bottom of a very deep chasm in the sandstone 

 strata, which some ancient convulsion or rush of 

 water must have given rise to. On the shaded banks 

 of the brook above Hope Mill, we found plenty of the 

 rare Carex strigosa, and below the mill in several spots 

 the rosy Snakeweed (Polygonum listorta,) in full 

 flower, and scattered on the rocky banks in almost 

 impassable places, the pretty white Saodfraga gra- 

 nulata. The exquisitely blossomed Wood Vetch 



* The subject has been illustrated and examined in its geological rela- 

 tions, in a work entitled " Observations on certain curious indentations 

 in the old red sandstone of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, considered 

 as the tracks of antediluvian animals, &c ," by JABEZ ALLIES, Esq., F.S.A. 



