TRACKS IN TEME. 63 



" I am not going to support that fiction," says he, " however 

 ingenious it may be," &c. (p. 2) ; yet it appears to us that 

 every subsequent fact related, or argument urged, tend to 

 support the " fiction" in question. We must proceed with 

 the history itself: — " A person, said to be a girl with a pair of 

 pattens on, having stolen St. Catherine's mare and colt, and led 

 them down several brooks to avoid detection — the saint, upon 

 being informed of her loss, prayed that wherever the animals 

 and thief trod the marks of their feet might be left ; and that 

 in answer to this prayer the prints of the animals' feet, and 

 also of the patten rings, were deeply indented, not only in the 

 earth, but also in the stones, wherever they trod, and that 

 thereby they were traced to, and found at Ledbury." Nothing 

 can possibly be more clear: the facts are overwhelm- 

 ing. No sooner were we aware that the Tracks in Teme 

 were thus readily accounted for, than we took a place per 

 Worcester mail, inside, back to the horses, and before ten 

 o'clock the next morning we waited on Mr. Evans, the Secretary 

 of the Worcestershire Natural History Society, and solicited per- 

 mission to view the miraculous impressions. Mr. Evans, with 

 that cordial politeness which never forsakes him, introduced us 

 to the wonders, and we were convinced ! Dr. Buckland — how 

 the name shrinks into insignificance before that of Jabez 

 Allies, Esq. — Dr. Buckland had ventured to express a doubt, 

 indeed he went so far as to suppose that the tracks were softer 

 portions of the stone, and hinted that they might probably be 

 traced below the surface : or, " cavities from which concretions 

 of marlstone and other matter have been washed out by the 

 action of the brook." The stone had been sawn in twain, 

 and the doctor disappointed ; the track descended not a frac- 

 tion of a millemeter into the stone; and the same stone is 

 preserved in the museum, to the eternal honour of Teme, 

 St. Catherine, and Jabez Allies, Esq., and the eternal dis- 

 comfiture of Dr. Buckland and Roderick Impey Murchison.^ 



Jabez Allies, Esq. has of course made several expedi- 

 tions to ascertain every particular ; he has literally waded 

 knee-deep in Teme ; of one visit he speaks thus : — " About 

 half-a-mile further down we were shown a stone in the channel 

 of the brook containing several very distinct tracks ; namely, 



' " I am confirmed in this opinion by Mr. Murchison, who was here yester- 

 day." — Buckland. 



