10 



niember who was good for nothing else was your present President, who 

 was accordingly elected, and having failed to prove himself useful in any 

 other capacity, has continued as your President to this day. 



The business of the formation of the Club, and its few and simple rules 

 having been most appropriately transacted in the garden of the Inn, on the 

 summit of one of our own Cotteswold Hills, with the rich Vale of the Severn 

 lying at our feet, and the bold chain of the Volcanic Malverns, with the old 

 red sandstone of May Hill and the Forest of Dean in the back ground — we 

 commenced our walk through the Beech woods of Witcomb Park — by the 

 fine remains of the Roman Villa, with its beautiful tesselated pavements to 

 Cooper's Hill, where our Geologists found some interesting Quarries — and 

 all found interest in a grand and extensive view — and returned to Birdlip 

 through the wild and forest like district of the Cranham wood. 



I will say nothing of the objects of interest we met with in our course, 

 though it was a good specimen of the north-eastern part of the Cotteswolds 

 summits — abounding with fine views, principally up the Valley towards 

 what is usually known as the Vale of Evesham — and full of a rich and 

 luxuriant beauty. 



But I must allude to one good omen that occured at this our first meeting 

 — in the presence of a Naturalist of that Society on the model of which we 

 are formed. This is not a fit time to speak of the private merits of one of my 

 oldest and kindest friends, but I may simply allude to the spirit which 

 breathes through Selby's works, as a proof of the real value of that study 

 which it is the object of our meetings to cultivate; for a really sound 

 Naturalist can hardly be other than a good and happy man. 



Ere we parted, delighted I believe universally with our first day, we bad 

 agreed at our next meeting on August 18th, to take a bolder flight, beyond in 

 truth the limits we had originally intended as the Park of our Club ; and to 

 visit that wild district beyond the Severn, little known indeed to most 

 Gloucestershire people who dwell on this side the water ; except by its name 

 of the Forest of Dean. 



The night of August 17 th found many of the party assembled at the 

 King's Head, at Gloucester, though some, undeterred by distance, even left 

 Cirencester on the morning of the 18th, determining to perform the whole in 

 the day, or at least within the twenty-four hours. Our party, to the number 

 of eight or ten, then started in a break, which Mr. Lysons had kindly lent 

 to us, to Westbury-on-Severn — where we spent some time in examining 

 "Westbury Cliff, where the bone bed at the junction of the Lias and red 

 marls overhanging a broad reach of the Severn, afforded objects of great 

 interest to the Geologist, the Botanist, and the lover of Scenery — to the 

 former indeed it was peculiarly interesting, as Mr. Woodward pointed out to 

 us the importance of this bone bed which divides the strata throughout 

 England into two divisions, characterized (as many of the phenomena of 

 nature are, «by objects which have no apparent reference to such a dis- 

 tinction) by the different types of the fish embedded in each ; the lower or 

 older strata abounding with fish having their tails unequally forked : whilst 

 those of a shape more resembling the existing genera are found in the Lias 

 and the superior beds. 



Returning to the break we proceeded still through the Vale of the 

 Severn (though of a character less flat than we find on our own side of the 

 river) to Little Dean, where even the breakfast provided for us was not more 

 welcome than the sight of Dr. Daubeny, who had come there to join our 

 party in the Forest. Leaving Little Dean we ascended the steep hill which 

 gave us a glorious view of the Vale of the Cotteswolds opposite — and, soon 

 after bidding adieu to fields and cultivated land, we plunged into the forest 

 wilds. 



Whether it were that the tutelary genius of the Cotteswolds was here 

 unable to protect us from the gnomes of the forest district, or that he had deter- 

 mined to punish us tor our breach of bounds, I know not. But scarce had 

 we lost sight of our own hills, when it appeared that the Undines or Naiads 



