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Bee Orchis, Ophrys apifera, by the botanists present, but it was too early for the 
blossom, and it could not be found. Chlora perfoliata was there in leaf, and the 
green-winged orchis, Orchis Morio, in abundance, varying’ in colour from purple 
to clear pink and white. Looking back over our route, and around us within the 
compass of a few miles, we recognise traces of all the factions of men that have 
lived and struggled in this border land. We have said nothing of the chain of 
early forts that ran down the Valley from Clifford to Ewyas Harold, of Clifford 
Castle and Snodhill, and beyond the Valley, Skenfrith and Grosmont, and the 
home of the Knights Templars and Hospitallers at Garway. Surely one may 
remember when rambling over such ground that ‘‘ those ever-springing flowers 
and eyer-flowing streams have been dyed by the deep colours of human endeavour, 
valour, and virtue.” 
And presently we arrive at Pontrilas, in good time for the train to Hereford. 
The weather was very wet all the early part of the day, but it was yet a pleasant 
excursion, and every one, notwithstanding, seemed to have enjoyed their visit to 
the Golden Valley. 
PETERCHURCH AND ITS HISTORY. 
The following interesting paper on the history of -Peterchurch, the 
“Metropolis,” as it may be termed, of the Golden Valley, was read by the Rey. 
G. M. Metcalfe, who, for some years, was curate-in-charge of the parish :— 
Twenty years ago (when I had already become strongly attached to 
Peterchurch and its surroundings) I endeavoured to find out if any historical 
account of this old Church or of the neighbourhood existed, but I found none. 
Talking one day, however, to a well-known good old lady, who kept the then 
village shop at Peterchurch, she informed me that she had once seen an old book 
as she put it, called ‘‘ Roger Vaughan on Waterwork,” and that this book showed 
that Peterchurch had once been a place of repute. What became of this particular 
volume my old friend could not tell, nor could I discover any one else who had 
ever even heard of it. Some years afterwards a happy thought struck me, and I 
mentioned this book to a cousin of mine, the present Senior Fellow of Lincoln 
College, Oxford, and after a persevering hunt in the Bodleian Library he pounced 
upon a small quarto volume containing ‘‘The manure of winter and summer 
draining of meadow and pasture by the advantage of the least rivers, brooke, 
forest, or waterprille adjacent, thereby to make those grounds (especially if they 
be drye) more fertile ten for one. Also a demonstration of a project for the 
great benefit of the Commonwealth generally, but of Herefordshire especially, by 
Rowland Vaughan, Esq., London, 1610.” And here then was the book, a copy of 
which had once been in the hands of my old friend of the shop. And I will now, 
before speaking more directly of the Church, at Peterchurch, preface my few 
remarks thereon, by a few extracts from this quaint little work, referring as they 
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