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NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF AYMESTREY. 



BY THE REV. THOMAS WOODHOUSE, M.A. 



The parish of Aymestrey, in which we are now assembled, is one of the 

 most remarkable in the whole district to which our excursions extend. It 

 embraces in its wide extent great variety of soil and situation, hill and valley, 

 rock and pasture, and especially woods, that cover a very large area. 



In geology it is classic ground ; for it was here that my kind friend of 

 early years, the Rev. T. T. Lewis, investigated the order of succession of strata 

 in the upper members of the Silurian System, labours referred to and acknow- 

 ledged by Sir R. Murchison ; who says, in one passage :— 



" The central member of the Ludlow formation was named by me after 

 the beautiful village of Aymestrey, where the rock is well laid open, and where 

 its relative position and fossil contents were elaborately worked out by my 

 friend, the Rev. T. T. Lewis." 



How patient and careful those researches were none can doubt who had 

 ever the happiness of knowing that humble-minded and unassuming man, one 

 of the least ready to parade his own knowledge, one of the mo3t ready to 

 communicate his knowledge to others. 



"Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes." 



The conformation of the country gives great facilities for the examination 

 of its geological features. Deep narrow valleys intersect it in various directions : 

 steep abrupt hills, in many cases clothed with wood, disclose their internal 

 structure by many a picturesque crag and quarry. 



The Lugg enters the parish at its western extremity and traverses it for 



above five miles ; it flows through a valley, or rather a succession of three valleys, 



of remarkable beauty. At first it passes at the foot of the northern declivity of 



Shobdon hill, through meadows often shaded by that gloomy and lonely ridge ; 



its banks everywhere fringed by alders, its waters tenanted by 



" Here and there a lusty trout 

 And here and there a grayling." 



Below the stone footbridge at Lye Pole the valley is narrower, and the 

 hills for some distance steeper than before. After it turns towards the village, 

 it has more space for the curiously tortuous windings which distinguish it. 

 At Aymestrey it turns again, snd after running southwards for about a mile 



