Wo0lbn|i£ Naturalists' JFi^lir €luk 



August 25th, 1884. 



ROSS, FOR THE BRITISH CAMP ON LITTLE 

 DO WARD AND KING ARTHUR'S CAVE. 



" A sultry noon — not in the summer's prime, 

 When all is fresh with life, and youth and bloom, 

 But near its close, when vegetation stops. 

 And fruits mature stand ripening in the sun — 

 Soothes and enervates with its thousand charms. 

 Its images of silence and of rest. 

 The melancholy mind. " 



Wilcox. 



The intense heat of the last few weeks, was, happily, mitigated on Monday last, 

 when the Woolhope Club made an excursion to explore the British Camp on the 

 Little Doward Hill. At the Barrs Court Station the members and visitors of the 

 Malvern Naturalists' Field Club were welcomed. On arrival at Ross, the church, 

 churchyard, and the "Prospect" were, as now they ever must be, the first objects 

 to attract the attention of visitors. John Kyrle, "the Man of Ross," whom Pope 

 has rendered so celebrated in his Moral Essay, can never be forgotten at Ross; and 

 he "deserves to be celebrated," says Warton, "beyond the heroes of Pindar, for 

 he was the Howard of his age." 



The Churchyard Elms are believed to have been planted by " the Man of 

 Ross."' Some think he planted these trees on the restoration of the monarchy 

 when Charles II. was crowned (1660), and it is the fact that loyalty frequently 

 took the form of elm-tree planting at that time. They are, however, more gener- 

 ally thought to have been planted about the year 1700. There is an archway in the 

 "Prospect " bearing that date, and this would still be about 24 years before Kyrle's 

 death. The Woolhope Club took a special note of these trees in 1868, and Mr. 

 Henry Southall has now again had them all very accurately measured at five 

 feet from the ground, that the growth of 16 years might be ascertained. There are 

 but a dozen trees left, of the many which Kyrle planted ; and beginning opposite 

 the Rectory and going regularly round, the trees measured in 



1868. 1884. Increase, 



ft. in. ft. in. inches. 



14 1 14 9 ... 8 



13 1 ... 13 10 ... 9 



11 8i .. 12 ... 3i 



12 3 ... 13 2 11 



