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and beautiful fungus, Agaricus (Pholiota) auricomus, Thus the Camp was per- 
ambulated throughout ; its agger, its embankments, its trees, and the views to 
be seen on all sides from it, were all examined and discussed with much 
satisfaction. 
In the valley below the Camp on its northern side lies the ancient mansion of 
Brinsop Court, a moated residence of much antiquarian interest. Mr. Robinson 
in his ‘‘ Mansions of Herefordshire,” states that references to it exist from the 
early part of the thirteenth Century, and that the Daunteseys, or Danseys, held 
it from the fifteenth to the beginning of the present Century. According to a 
MS. account compiled for the Dansey family, the Court was ‘‘ moated round and 
approached by a drawbridge ; within the quadrangle was a chapel with a crypt 
beneath it, a dungeon, and a blacksmith’s forge. The chapel, with the staircase 
leading to it, occupied one side of the square; it had a groined roof and walls 
painted in frescoes.” . . . Two towers flanked the drawbridge, having grotes- 
que figures on their tops—one being a monkey playing with a fiddle. In the inner 
court was a third tower which, though in a perfect state of preservation, was 
‘pulled down about fifty years since (c. 1790) to assist in building a wall round 
the stables.” 
The President sallied forth from the north-west entrance to the Camp with 
a good following, to visit this interesting old mansion. It is now occupied as a 
residence by Mr. Dearman Edwards, but on application permission was very 
readily given to inspect its interesting features. The moat exists there still, and 
so, too, does the hall (called the chapel) which is extremely fine, and belongs to 
the early or middle part of the fourteenth Century. It is used now as a granary, 
but is still in good preservation. It is an upper room, built over a storehouse, 
having good two-light traceried windows, and a fire-place, now built up. Its chief 
point of interest, however, is its grandly beautiful timber roof, which indeed may 
vie with the best roofs of the period in this country. The great trusses which 
carry it are cut out of large oak timber with most beautiful outlines, and fine 
mouldings throughout. The eastern portion was plastered between the rafters 
and decorated with simple rosettes in red with a dark centre. The west 
end was close boarded under the rafters and decorated with a similar rosette 
placed between cross-lines of a dark colour. In this part also the roof timbers 
are richly coloured, indicating it as the place of highest dignity. There are also 
some remains of grotesque finials, which show an appreciation of the humorous 
side of life, and give the probability that merry times were held in this grand old 
hall. 
The house was formerly occupied by Mr. Hutchinson, brother-in-law of the 
poet Wordsworth, who frequently visited here, and was sometimes accompanied 
by Southey. The poet thoroughly enjoyed the rural scenery of Herefordshire, and 
in an ode to his dearly loved sister occurs this verse— 
“Then come, my sister! come, I pray, 
* With speed put on your woodland dress ; 
And bring no book: for this one day 
We'll give to idleness.” 
There is a portrait of Wordsworth—a copy after Pickersgill—presented to the 
