engaged on the council of the Geological Society daring the past week. "Tell 

 than," said this veteran philosopher, "to continue their field work with steady 

 perseverence and new wonders will reward their labours." 



Mr. Symonds' address, given as it was on the spur of the moment, was 

 listened to with much pleasure, and was duly acknowledged by the President 

 amidst the general applause of the club. 



There was still no apparent disposition to work, and a stranger might well 

 wonder whether the hammers present were for ornament or for use. They 

 certainly seemed only to be used in a gentle dillctantc style, as if their owners 

 cared not for the interesting fossils, of which the rock is full. Some few shells 

 were got, but the friendly aid of a quarryman was strongly to be suspected in 

 obtaining them. It might be perhaps that time was short, as it really was, for 

 the botanists had been strictly ordered not to wander. Where so much has to 

 be done, and so much ground to be got over in a short time, the necessity for 

 strict punctuality becomes absolute. Or it might be that the spirit of romance 

 had possession of the club for the day, and that all thoughts were bent on the 

 ancient Forest of Deerfold, the Druids, and the Lollards. Be this as it may, the 

 whistle was quickly sounded, and "back tracks" were taken to rejoin the 

 conveyances. The ride to the Forest was pretty and interesting. Gradually 

 rising from the valley of the Lugg the road winds around the base of round- 

 backed hills, whose tops were marked out by the dark foilage of small plantations 

 of Scotch fir. The river itself was extremely pretty, and even the mill stream 

 which runs in such close proximity to the road, looked tempting. It needed 

 not the skill of a Lavater to point out the fishermen of the party. Indeed there 

 could scarcely be any lover of good scenery present who would not like to be a 

 fisherman, for the excuse to follow up that lovely defile where the Lugg flows 

 between the steep wooded hills of Shobdon on its right bank, and the Sneyd 

 wood in the Forest on its left. Still up, up, the road went, through Lower Lye, 

 round the base of the great kill Over-Lye, until the stiff formal allotments 

 made at the last enclosure of the Forest on the Camp hill came in view. The 

 sharp eyes of a botanist detected a fine bunch of Mistletoe on a silver-barked 

 poplar (Populus canescens), which deserves a note since the parasite rarely gains 

 a settlement on this particular kind of poplar. Some fine large bushes of Juniper 

 were also observed growing in the hedge by the road side, the last remnants 

 of the former wildness of the place. 



Another steep pitch down to the Dickendale brook, and another sharp 

 ascent, and the Haven was reached. Here the Messrs. Fortey welcomed the 

 Club. As the carriages successively arrived, their occupants dismounted, and 

 crossing a small field found the orchard in which grows the Mistletoe-oak. 

 " We read in ancient story 

 How Druids in their glory 

 Marched forth of old, with hooks of gold, 

 To forests dim and hoary ; 

 The giant oak ascended, 

 And from its branches rended 

 The Mistletoe, long, long ago, 

 By maidens fair attended." Thomas Miller. 



