512 THE GARDENER. [Nov. 



become stunted, and will not move on, pertinaciously opposing every 

 effort to pusli them onwards. 



We now reached the mansion-house, a brick building, in some 

 respects of an architectural mixture, unpretending in appearance, of con- 

 siderable dimensions, having lately received considerable additions, and 

 flanked by a moat on one side — things now nearly numbered with the 

 past. The flower-garden has lately been remodelled and extended — a 

 pretty geometric design — and very carefully planted, particular attention 

 having been paid by Mr Cox in the arrangement and harmonising of the 

 different shades of colour. Amongst Lord Beauchamp's extensive 

 improvements, he has considerately provided excellent school accommo- 

 dation for the poor ; and more than that, has built a handsome and com- 

 modious church for the use of the parish. 



Having still a journey of nine miles to traverse by road ere I could 

 reach my resting-place for the night, necessity compelled me to part 

 with my kind and indulgent friend, Mr Cox, who, with his amiable 

 wife, had rendered my visit so very agreeable. I now started for 

 Eastnor Castle, the residence of Earl Somers; and as my route lay 

 through the town of Malvern, a passing notice may not materially 

 interrupt the thread of my narrative. 



Malvern cannot with propriety be called a town. The designation 

 would be more truthful by describing it as an assemblage of detached 

 villa residences bristling on the hill-side. I understand that it contains 

 some first-class educational establishments ; but its reputation rests not 

 upon either classical or mathematical acquirements, but as a curative 

 emporium for every shade of disease, whether imaginary or real — con- 

 sequently Malvern represents every phase of the medical profession. 



Ascending bit by bit, I had now reached the summit of an outlying 

 spur of the Malvern Hills, which, like the entire group, is a kind of 

 granite composed of quartz, felspar, and hornblende, or what geologists 

 term "a syenitic formation." Standing on this jutting point, we have 

 the extensive vale of Worcester lying at our feet, its cathedral tower and 

 spires rising above every other object. Before proceeding further, let 

 us think for a few minutes and contemplate the incessant movements of 

 fixed and immutable laws that have taken place in this world of ours, 

 and which are now as active as they have been through vast cycles of 

 ages that are past — essentially the same as those now in progress. 

 This vale, now teeming with human industry, once formed a gulf of 

 the sea that separated England from Wales ; and were it to subside, 

 even to the depth of a hundred feet, the whole would again become 

 submerged. There is no want of evidence that we have here an 

 ancient sea-bottom, and that the temperature is now greatly reduced, 

 arising from the fact that the fossil remains of the hippopotamus, the 



