THE TOPOGRAPHY OF WORCESTERSHIRE. 345 



till 1218, when it was re-consecrated in the presence of Henry III. 

 and an army of nobility, prelates, and knights. We have been thus 

 particular, because from the vague statements generally made, it is 

 almost impossible for a stranger to understand when our cathedral was 

 erected. It is, in fact, in all its most important details, a structure of the 

 14th century, though on a foundation and with detached specimens of a 

 much earlier date. The period when our topographer says the building 

 was ** finished," was in fact the time of the most arduous labour, for far 

 from being "finished in 1374," as Mr. Tymms says, it was full two years 

 after that date before the choir was vaulted with stone ; it was not till 

 1380 that the Norman arches at the west end were incorporated with the 

 nave, and the porch or northern entrance was not built till 1386. The 

 height of the tower, instead of being 200 feet, according to Mr. Tymms, 

 is in reality but 162 feet. 



But it may be said our " Family Topographer'* is not a professed 

 antiquary ; try the accuracy of his descriptive powers on a subject 

 requiring less research. We will put him to the test, and note his de- 

 lineation of the Malvern hills as an example. *'The Malvern hills, 

 apparently one vast rock of quartz and limestone, nine miles in length 

 and from one to two in breadth, the highest points of which are the 

 Worcestershire Beacon, 1300 feet above the plain, and the Herefordshire 

 Beacon, 1260 feet, whence the views are exceedingly beautiful and 

 extensive." Why the waiter at the Belle Vue would tell a far better 

 tale than this, and a child who had been at Malvern but a day, would, 

 we wager a dozen of claret (and without reading Dr. Hastings's lecture), 

 tell us that the hills consisted of granite and syenite. Limestone, forsooth ! 

 the Malvern hills " apparently one vast rock of quartz and limestone." 

 You will never be an F. G. S. Mr. Tymms, take our word for it. If two 

 centuries ago Mr. T. had said the Malvern hills were 1300 feet high, 

 we might have given him credit for accuracy ; but when every body 

 knows that Colonel Mudge assigns them 1444 feet in the Trigonometrical 

 Survey, what confidence can we place in a guide who, professing to be a 

 ** Family Topographer," neglects the commonest and easiest sources of 

 information for absolute errors and vague crudities ? 



At the risk of tiring our readers, we feel it necessary to notice a few 

 more of the errors of the " Family Topographer," in the hope that 

 before he publishes another edition of his work (if indeed it be ever 

 called for), he will leave his " family" for a few months and look about 

 him, instead of reiterating the errors of others. Under ** Inland 

 Navigation," he says the ** Kington and Leominster canal from Hereford- 

 shire, crosses the Rhea to Lindridge, through a tunnel of 3850 yards 

 [as this would be upwards of two miles, we suspect error here also], and 

 by Bewdley, goes to the Severn near Stourport .'" This would be a strange 

 way, indeed, for the canal to enter the Severn, but the fact is that the 

 canal has never got beyond Lindridge, and consequently must be a long 

 time before it gets into the Severn at all — indeed a railway along the 

 uncompleted line is now contemplated. Stourport is stated to have 

 " bridges, one built in 1775, and one of iron, of one arch 150 feet span, 

 and 50 feet high." Mr. Tymms omits to state that one of these 

 "bridges" was washed away by a rapid flood, and the iron one was then 

 erected in its room. Thomas Foley, Esq. the founder of Swinford Hos- 

 pital, is stated in one place to die in 1677, and on the same page to found 

 a school in 1699 ! Berkeley's Hospital, Worcester, was ** endowed in 

 the time of William III. by Judge Berkeley ;" if so, the Judge must 

 have rejoiced in a good old age, as he was really living in the reign of 

 Charles the 1st. The fact is that the Judge's grandson founded the 



