16 
The gathering consisted of several parties, the largest of which left Hereford 
by the 9.45 train for Ross, where they received an addition to their numbers, and 
thus started in a train of carriages for Whitchurch. The route taken was along 
the N. Bank of the Wye, past Wilton with its Ancient Castle, long the seat of the 
Greys of Wilton, for ages lords of the district still known as the hundred of Greytree 
(in Old English Grey’s treow, or trees); and thence to Goodrich, famous for its 
grand old Castle, occupying the site of the abode of Godu, sister of Edward the 
Confessor, and its modern mansion, celebrated in these later days for the unequalled 
collection of Ancient Armour now at South Kensington, but originally gathered 
here by the eminent antiquary, the late Sir 8. R. Meyrick. The party did not 
stop, however, to visit either Castle or Court, or the Church, where Dean Swi/t’s 
grandfather was incumbent during the great Civil War, but made their first halt 
at Whitchurch, where they were joined by parties from Bryngwyn, and by the 
Rev. W. 8. Symonds, Colonel Scobell, Sir James Campbell, Bart., M. Mogridze, 
Esq., and other visitors. 
Before making their way to the caves, which part of the journey had 
necessarily to be performed on foot, the party found Mr. Symonds’s beautiful col- 
lection of fossils from the caves laid out for inspection at the Inn at Whitchurch. 
They consisted of bones, teeth, skulls, and other remains of the rhinoceros, mam- 
moth, cave lion, cave bear, and hyzena, and skulls of Bos longifrons, an ancient 
British ox, the badger, and other remains not fossilised, together with specimens 
of the pebbles which had been washed into the caves, and others of the same rocks, 
which had been brought for comparison from Builth. Among the later remains 
were specimens of the flint knives which had probably been used by the human 
beings who had inhabited the caves in ages long subsequent to those of the cave- 
dwelling lions and bears, 
These had been found along with the bones and skulls of the Bos, and other 
animals, which they probably used for food, and with them two cores of flints, or 
pieces from which flakes had been chipped to form knives. These must have been 
brought to the spot by human hands, as there are no flints to be found within 
fifty miles, nor indeed anywhere west of the Severn. The condition of the fossil 
remains showed that the prey of the cave lions and bears had been chiefly the 
rhinoceros, which must have inhabited the Wye, although now only found in 
tropical countries. The lions and bears had dragged the carcases into the caves, 
and after devouring the flesh had left the marks of their teeth upon the bones, 
and afterwards dying in their dens, had themselves been turned to earth, and left 
their bones and teeth as evidences of their presence. Beside the teeth of the cave 
bear lay a tooth of the common brown bear of Europe of the present day. The 
teeth of many of the animals were in a state of almost perfect preservation, show- 
ing that the animals must have died or been killed while in youth or vigorous 
maturity. It was stated that one of them was pierced, but there were no other 
evidences that either the carnivora or the herbivora had ever experienced the tor- 
tures of tooth-ache. One of the members remarked that he had read or heard of 
instances in which elephants of the present day had been found to be suffering 
