Woolbop^ Jlatiiraltsts' JFbltt OlUtb. 



FiKST Field Meeting, Tuesday, Jcne 7th, 1853. 



EASTNOR CASTLE. 



MEETING OF THE WOOLHOPE, COTTESWOLD, AND MALVERN 

 NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUBS. 



The first aggregate Meeting of the members of tlie three Clubs, formed to 

 investigate tlie botany, geology, ornithology, and zoology of Herefordshire, and 

 of the neighbouring counties of Gloucester and Worcester, was, by the kind 

 permission of the Right Hon. Earl Somers, held in his Lordship's beautiful 

 demesne of Eastnor, at the southern extremity of the Malvern range of hills, on 

 Tuesday (7th June). 



The continuous rain of the previous day — so acceptable to the thirsty soil and 

 languishing vegetation — had cleared the sky, and freshened up the entire face of 

 nature. Under a brilliant sunshine, the charming undulations of the scenery, 

 the delicious hues and varied outline of the masses of foliage, the sweet soft green 

 of the meadows, and the silvery glitter of the streams and pools, throughout the 

 whole of the beautiful district lying between this City and the Malverns, were 

 fully brought out. Although there was scarcely a breath of air in the early part 

 of the day, the previous rain had given a pleasant coolness to the air, and it was 

 not until about noon that the fierceness of the sun's rays began to be oppressive. 



Unluckily, the philosophers were at that time engaged in toiling up the steep 

 aides of "the Ragged Stone," and therefore they had full opportunity of testing 

 in their own persons the effect of solar heat in the resolution of the human body 

 into its constituent elements. This conflict between caloric and scientific devo- 

 tion, however, ended triumphantly for the latter : the members gallantly 

 weathered all the perils of the ascent, for which they afterwards duly awarded 

 themselves by fulfilling the description of the poet, 



■' And greatly daring dined." 



The meeting was altogether a most brilliant and successful one, the company 

 numbering nearly sixty of the members of the three Clubs ; and the addresses, 

 delivered on the hills and at the dinner, being admirably lucid and instructive. 



The idea of the gathering, which originated at the Whitchurch Meeting of 

 the Woolhope Club last year, as reported in our account of that meeting, was 

 heartily taken up by the Cotteswold and Malvern naturalists ; and we trust that 

 the meeting of Tuesday last will prove to be but the commencement of a long 

 series of similar delightful and useful meetings. 



