194 



ON THE COTTESWOLDS. 



BY W. V. GUISE, ESQ., F. L. S. 



"Jamque ascendebant collem qui plurimus urbi 

 Imminet, adversasque adspeetat desuper arces." 



That portion of the ancient Roman road — the Irmin Street — which 

 connects the towns of Gloucester and Cirencester, surmounts the steep 

 escarpment of the Cotteswolds, at the point known as Birdlip Hill; on 

 the crest of which is placed the little village of Birdlip, whose hostelry, 

 the Black Horse, placed on the very verge of the summit, forms a favourite 

 resort of pleasure-parties during the summer months, in consequence of the 

 extraordinary beauty of its situation. 



Well, to the Black Horse, upon a beautiful day in the latter end of 

 the last month, (April,) I drove, accompanied by a friend, an ardent and 

 accomplished naturalist, bent upon a long day's naturalizing upon the 

 Cotteswolds. We had more than one object in view in selecting the Black 

 Horse at Birdlip upon this occasion, but more particularly because we were 

 desirous, if possible, of satisfying ourselves concerning the existence, at that 

 point, of a rare land shell, the Clausilia Holpliii, which a writer in "The 

 Naturalist," in August, 1854, had described as existing there "in several 

 colonies." 



The season, early spring, was deemed peculiarly favourable, as it appeared 

 probable that the animal would not yet have wandered from its hybernacula 

 at the roots of grasses and other plants. I must add that we had at a 

 former visit hunted indefatigably for this same mollusk without success; 

 and a friend of mine, an official of the British Museum, well known for 

 his learned work upon the inollusca, though directed to the spot, I believe, 

 by the discoverer, had, equally with ourselves, failed in detecting the 

 desiderated rarity. 



Our directions, derived from the gentleman just referred to, were very 

 precise, and we followed them to the letter. The precipitous face of the 

 hill below the Black Horse, and for a long distance westwards, is covered 

 with beech-woods, through which runs a road following the crest of the 

 hill at right-angles to the Roman road. The garden-wall of the little inn 

 bounds this road for a short distance, and where it ceases, a sort of gully 

 worn by the rains leads down through the wood to the angle of a hedge 

 which forms the boundary of the meadow below. This is the hedge which 

 is said to afford shelter to Clausilia Bolphii. 



At the period of our visit the ground on the side of the wood was 

 richly carpeted with large patches of the Golden Saxifrage, {Chrysosplenium,) 

 which, with the frequent tufts of the pretty but inconspicuous Moschatel, 

 (Adoxa moschaiellina,) gave botanical interest to the otherwise barren hedge- 



