00llj0{i^ Jiatttralists' fxdh Cteb. 



TTFHE first field-meeting of the Woolhope Club, which should have taken place 

 J[^ on May 17th, was altogether prevented by the rain, which began early in 



the morning and continued, more or less, throughout the day. Only a few 

 of the members mustered, and they speedily decided to stop at home, and reserve 

 themselves for the next occasion. They intended to have gone to Mordiford, 

 where the Rev. F. Merewether had agreed to meet them and point out some beds 

 of debris that had been drifted out of the Woolhope Valley. Mr. Merewether, 

 with commendable punctuality, did not allow himself to shirk the appointment, 

 and, in spite of the mud and rain, kept his tryst, and, with his bag and hammer, 

 was ready to guide the Club into new paths, and direct their attention to those 

 facts which his residence in the locality had enabled him to observe. Although 

 the morning was unfavourable to the field pursuits of the Club, yet many assembled 

 in the evening to listen to Dr. Bull's paper on "Mr. Knight and his work in the 

 Apple Orchards." 



On Tuesday, June 19th, thirty members and some visitors — for the most part 

 members of the Caradoc and Cotteswold Clubs —assembled at the railway station 

 (Barr's Court), and thence, travelling through blooming orchards, new-mo%vn 

 grass, and occasional hop grounds, arrived, after a short and pleasurable drive, 

 at the Ledbury Station, blocked up (as it happened to be market day) with butter 

 and poultry borne in big baskets by bustliug dames and damsels. At the station 

 carriages were in readiness to take the party into Ledbury, through, and out again 

 along the Tewkesbury road, skirting Eastnor Park and Castle, to a notch in the 

 Malvern range, between the Midsummer and Eagged stone hills, called the Holly- 

 bush Pass, which may have sometime deserved the name, but does not now. Here 

 the members alighted, and had scarcely shaken the dust off their coats, when the 

 Rev. W. S. Symonds, of Pendock, was seen coming up the opposite side of the 

 pass, accompanied by Sir Wm. Guise and the Rev. J. D. La Touche, Presidents 

 of their respective Clubs. 



And now, after interchanging greetings and giving the final touch to the 

 arrangements, the walk of the day began. 



It is easy to get to the top of the Midsummer hill by a winding path through 

 the fern, in half-an-hour, and when there it is delightful to meet the cool breeze, 

 and feast one's eyes on the far distant and almost complete panorama ; but as time 

 was getting on, the members arranged themselves on a bank, sloping eastward, 

 and overlooking the Eastnor Obelisk, while Mr. Symonds, standing above them 



A 



