314 ON LANDSLIPS. 



rails three feet in one niglit. It wonld have caused an 

 accident had it not been observed very early in the morning. 

 I understood they had a good deal of trouble with it after- 

 wards, but the house below remained steady from that time. 

 In Herefordshire, where we were in the old red sandstone 

 and marl, we had no slips ; but on the New Passage line, 

 which was the next under my charge, we had many. The 

 worst part of this line was in the Ashley Hill Valley, up 

 which the railway runs. After passing through the deep 

 but short Narroways Hill cutting, where the formation is 

 new red marl with some beds of rock, the line enters the 

 aforesaid valley upon a high embankment. 



Ashley Hill Valley Slips. — Now, in my preliminary 

 walks along the line, I had noticed that both sides of this 

 valley were covered with natural landslips, many of them 

 showing quite recent movement. I anticipated great risk 

 from these slips, particularly as the railway works were 

 heavy, and I was prepared to take strong precautions. I 

 had a local Board of Directors, of whom Mr. Christopher 

 Thomas was the chairman ; and I have no doubt Mr. Brunei 

 had told them of my experience in the management of land- 

 slips, for they always, without hesitation, allowed me to do 

 what I thought necessary as a provision against these 

 movements, although the cost of the precautions was large, 

 and they, as a Company, were very poor. We did not, con- 

 sequently, have a serious slip anywhere along that valley. 



The valley is in the lias clay, and with a watercourse at 

 bottom. The sides have, evidently, sometimes here and 

 sometimes there, kept on slipping downwards from time to 

 time after heavy rains, until, on reaching the bottom, the 

 slips were washed away by the brook, but not entirely, for 

 I afterwards found that the slips had raised the level of the 

 brook many feet. 



