21 



abont 300 yards further on ; the great mass of drift on the right hand side, where 

 the river approaches close to the road ; and the drift on the left hand side of the 

 road, in the village of Fownhope, between a bridge over a small stream of water 

 and a draper's shop nearly opposite the Green Man Inn. 



"PEOBABLE EXISTENCE OF AN EXTENSIVE LAKE THAT HAD AT SOME TIME FILLED 

 UP THE VALLEYS OF THE WYE, LUGG, AND FROME." 



Tliere is another subject on which I wish to offer a few remarks, and if this 

 were not in all probability the only opportunity I shall ever have of pointing out 

 some of the features which tend to the formation of my belief, I should certainly 

 abstain from doing so. It is my firm conviction that at some very distant period, 

 long ago, the whole of the flat land extending from beyond Weston Beggard, 

 under Longworth, Moreton, as far as Dinmore, part of Hampton and Rotherwas, 

 the whole of Liigg Meadows, the land between Holme Lacy and the road we 

 have travelled over to-day, extending to Capley (where, I conjecture, the dam 

 was), the whole of this land, I repeat, was at one time covered with water and 

 formed a large lake. My reasons for such an opinion are, that at the present time, 

 in many places, the supposed banks, if I may so term them, show the abrupt 

 appearance of having been water-washed. This is the case at Lugwardine, under 

 Newcourt and Sir Herbert Croft's hou.^e ; at Tidnor, under Sufton on the bank 

 between the road and the river Lugg, at Mordiford, Evenpit, thence under the 

 road nearly to Fownhope, distinctly just above the Lea Brink, still more so bet- 

 ween that place and the rock cottage ; and again at and near Capley. These are 

 aU o the left bank of my supposed lake. On the right, under Dinmore hill, 

 between it and the river Lugg, on the bank about half way between Moreton 

 Station and Hereford, on both sides of the road leading from Hereford to Lug- 

 wardine at the Lower House (Tupsley), just beyond Dinedor Court, on the red 

 bank, both above and below it, under Holme Lacy Park, under a hop-ground 

 belonging to a farm called Hollanton, and under Ballingham Wood to Capley. All 

 these places have steep abrupt banks, and it is impossible to account for so level 

 a surface as the intermediate land presents, except by the subsidence of mud held 

 in suspension in water, which by gravitation, would fall to the bottom, and thus 

 form such a dead level. This could only take place in still water, which, when 

 drained ofi, would leave a large soft muddy bottom, through which the rivers Wye, 

 Lugg, and Frome would experience no difficulty in making a passage. The oppo- 

 nents to this lake theory will say that the river is the cause of the accumulation 

 of all this alluvial deposit, and that the abrupt and steep appearance of the bank 

 at different places is cuused by the river having changed its course, and run at 

 different times over every part of the low ground. The same "running powers" 

 must be conceded to the Lugg and Frome ; and it is not consistent with proba- 

 bility that these two small rivers should have taken such erratic courses, and have 

 left an alluvial deposit 1000 times greater than that of the river Wye, which is five 

 times as large as both of them put together. Elvers, in my opinion, do not alter 

 the course to any great extent ; they get deeper, that is, the bottom of the river 



