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Trias of the Moat and Southends. The proximity of these faulted coal 

 measures to the great upthrow of May HUl, renders their economical value, I 

 fear, as nil. Looking still to the east, and towards the churches of Taynton 

 and Tibberton, we see the Wenlock mass of Jordan's Wood. From this 

 Silurian ridge there dip away some Permian breccias, or, at all events, breccias 

 consisting of angular glazed pebbles, similar to those of Haffield and Worshill, 

 and which are supj)osed to be of Permian age. At all events, these breccias 

 lie at the base of the Trias, and are overlaid by the Red Bromesberrow 

 (Bunter) Sandstones and the Waterstones of the Trias. This district is espe- 

 cially interesting to those who love the lore of physical geology. The Old Red 

 Sandstone on the eastern side of May Hill occupies a large portion of the 

 forest-looking district called Newent Woods ; while on the west it lies 

 in the hollow between May Hill and the Forest of Dean coalfield, 

 stretching away westward to Weston-under-Penyard, Ross, and the great Old 

 Red district of Herefordshire and Mormiouth. As you may suppose, there is 

 a great squeeze between May HLll and the coal measure rocks of Drybrook 

 above Mitcheldean ; nevertheless, the Comstones may be seen in situ by Bil- 

 but and Landgrove, west of Longhope, while the Old Red Conglomerates and 

 Yellow Sandstones of the Upper Old Red are seen near Drybrook to support 

 and underlie the carboniferous limestone of Dean Forest. Such are the broad, 

 plain, geological featiires of the country around May Hill. We will now allude 

 to the more distant country around us — its geologj', scenery, and historical lore. 

 Looking northward we see how the scenery of the country is diversified by 

 the bold chain of the Malvems, which rise almost precipitately from the plains 

 of the Trias on their eastern flank, whereas, on the westward, the wooded Silurian 

 and Old Red hiEs of the Ledbury country, rising sharply against the sky, tell us 

 of the earthquake movements which, in times long past, elevated the Silurian sea 

 beds and the Old Red deposits above them, above the Triassic plains on the east ; 

 and how the Malvern hiUs themselves represent a focus, as it were, of earthquake 

 action which elevated the strata on the west of theii' flanks, and threw down 

 the equivalent rocks on the east. Directly in front rises the weird hiU of the 

 Ragged Stone, weird in more senses than one, for in geological times, when 

 the volcano of Cader Idris poured forth its lava and ashes into seas tenanted 

 by crustaceans and shells of the Lower SUurian Lingula Flag period ; there 

 was an active volcano, with its crater above the waves, where is now the site 

 of the Ragged Stone, and which enveloped the tiny oleni and trilobites of the 

 Black shales in hot currents of lava, or smothered them by the sudden deposi- 

 tion of volcanic ashes. Weird, too. are the legends connected with the shadow 

 of the Ragged Stone, as for a short time during Midsummer evenings its long 

 dark shadow is projected over the vale. It rests awhile, like a long cloud in 

 the evening sunshine, over a spot where the Danewort (Samhucus Nigm) tells 

 of the massacre of the Danes by Athelstan, and the bloody reprisals that fol- 

 lowed in the burning of the church of Deerhurst and the flight of its Prior to 

 Great Malvern, where he founded the chapel of St. Ann's. It throws its 

 shadow over the ancient Moreton Coui-t, the home for centuries of the Nanfans 



