12 



through many of our meetings), we accepted the hospitable invitation of 

 Mr. Bayly to breakfast with him at Brookthorpe Vicarage, and then 

 proceeding up the hill to the Horsepools Inn, skirted the summits of the 

 Ridge, to the noble British encampment of Painswick Beacon, which looks 

 loftily over that plain which appears from the Vale to form the summit of 

 the Cotteswolds. Those who had the good fortune to be there will not forget 

 Mr. Strickland's lecture on the Geology of the Vale from that commanding 

 point, where the eye passes over Robin Hood's Hill (or Robin's Wood Hill) 

 isolated by the Lias but capped with the Inferior Oolite, to the Volcanic 

 Sienite of the Malverns, the Caradoc sandstone of May Hill, the coal 

 measures and the old red sandstone of the Forest of Dean. 



Our fourth meeting took place on December the 1st, 1846, at Hardwicke 

 Court, where, if the other members of the Club enjoyed their reception one- 

 half as much as the President enjoyed their company, all must have spent 

 a happy day. Some collections of birds, prints, and dried plants, were 

 examined, and among the latter a specimen of the Epipactis rubra, 

 determined several of our botanical members to make, what I fear has 

 hitherto proved, a vain search for it — though it was at the same time 

 determined, with the spirit of true naturalists, that should it be found there 

 should be no wanton destruction of a plant now become extremely rare if 

 not extinct in this country. 



The first meeting in 1847 took place on the 13th of April at Cirencester. 

 I was unable to attend as I was Sheriff and the Assizes were going on, but 

 I find that those members who were more fortunate than myself visited the 

 Roman Pavement near Mr. Anderson's house in the Park. The fine 

 Flemish and Suffolk cart horses in Lord Bathurst's farm buildings. The 

 Agricultural College then of considerable interest, though less so than now 

 in its more perfect state, and the curious slip in the strata which is seen in 

 the cutting of the Great Western Railway near the end of the Sapperton 

 tunnel. The evening was rendered interesting by Mr. Woodward's paper 

 on the geology of the district embraced by the Club. 



On May the 18th the meeting of the Yeomanry, at Bristol, again detained 

 me from the Cotteswolds Club, who assembled at the Bear Inn, on 

 Rodborough Common, and although they found on this side of the hill 

 many of the beautiful anemone Pulsatilla, yet, with a most praiseworthy 

 moderation, they only bore away one or two specimens, that they might 

 not wantonly rob even a common of its objects of great interest and beauty. 

 Crossing the valley by Woodchester, beneath the turf of which rest some 

 of the most beautiful Roman tesselated pavements in England, but which 

 are only uncovered once in every five or six years, the party proceeded up 

 the hill and through the long wood to Frocester Hill, which, if it affords 

 less of a panoramic view than many other points, yields to none in the rich 

 and varied character of its foreground. Returning through Woodchester 

 Park to the Bear, the evening was signalized by the interesting paper by 

 Dr. Wright on the anatomy of the mandible of the Geophilus longicornis 

 which appears in our annals. 



On July the 2nd the Cotteswolds Naturalists met at Chalford, and in the 

 course of a most interesting walk, we examined three Churches and two 

 Manufactories. Looking to our name as the Cotteswolds Naturalists, this 

 scarcely appears a satisfactorily spent day, but we must remember that the 

 first rule of our Club is, that our object shall be to investigate the Natural 

 History, Antiquities, and Agriculture, and other objects worthy of interest 

 in the Cotteswolds district and its neighbourhood ; and where could we find 

 objects of higher interest than Bussage, Oakridge,and Frampton Churches 

 — all built by private charity in late years in hamlets far from any other 

 church. For the manufactories, one at least may claim an intimate 

 connection with agriculture, as its object is to make paper from straw, and, 

 thanks to the kindness of Mr. Cochrane, who shewed us the process, it 

 came peculiarly under the head of objects of interest. The paper will not 

 indeed bear folding well, but it answers admirably for packing goods, and 



