2 
remarkable than its penetrating coldness. On their way up, the botanists of the 
party noticed on ‘every hand the effects of the late frosts upon the vegetation. 
In the pass, frost-bitten cowslips were gathered, and on the ridge the sward was 
parched and the culms of the short grass were blanched and dead. Even the 
hardy bilberry (Vaceinium myrtillus) had its young leaves nipped into a browner 
shade than usual, and its growth stunted to little more than half its usual height, 
except indeed in the few places where the plant was sheltered by the bosses of 
black rock, The rock bedstraw (Galium saxatile) which ought at this season to 
have covered the surface with its delicate white flowers, was visible only to a close 
search ; and the only wild flowers which seemed wholly unaffected were the pretty 
mountain pansy (Viola lutea), the bright yellow lip of which adorned the sward 
wherever there was half an inch of soil to afford it foothold, and stunted specimens 
of the dog-violet (Viola canina). 
To the Archzologists of the party, the caer, i.e. camp, was an object of 
interest, as apparently one of the rudest and simplest specimens of ancient 
castramentation in the district. The whole of the summit is included, but there is 
very little of human handiwork. The excavation—there was no construction— 
could not have taken long, even with the rude tools and unskilled labour of 
Caradoc’s time, 1800 yearsago. A trench was cut right across the ridge just below 
the peak connecting the natural crags and precipitous sides of the hill, a hollow 
was excavated on the opposite side of the peak; and the rest of the defence was 
left to the stout arms of the garrison. The only supply of water was ascanty 
spring on the N. side, now dried up. The position was therefore untenable for 
any considerable body of men, and as the approach along the ridge is easy, its 
defenders must have succumbed to a single assault by a Roman force. How such 
a position could ever have been mistaken for the scene of Caractacus’s. last 
encounter must remain a mystery. In no one particular does it bear out Tacitus’s 
very clear and remarkable description. 
To the tourist, the scene is altogether beautiful, the only deficiency in the 
view being the want of water. Unfortunately the sky on Friday was covered 
with a cold gray haze, through which the Wrekin and the Stiperstones were but 
dimly visible, but the near view was charming. The long broad range of the 
Longmynd, cleft with so many beautiful glens, the rich vale, the pretty town of 
Church Stretton, with its ancient church, nestling amid bright green foliage, the 
noble masses of the Lawley, the Raglet, the Brown Clee, and Titterstone 
stretching far away in the dim perspective to the south, all made up a sylvis scena 
coruscis well worth the trouble of the ascent. 
The geologic section of the party was unusually small in number, but those 
who were present could not help regarding with interest the highly suggestive 
view. On the east, the eye looked down the scale of ages, across the vast period 
of the Mountain Limestone and Coal strata to the New Red Sandstone which 
dimly appeared in the distance. Looking westward across the broad valley which 
marks what a distinguished honorary member of the Club—the Rev. W. Symonds, 
in his ‘Records of the Rocks ”—has described as ‘‘a tremendous fault,” the 
observer’s eye rests upon one of the very lowest and earliest of the sedimentary 
