215 



The party then descended to " Chitter's Cave," mentioned by Dean Stanley 

 as a recess where some recluse from Little Malvern Priory had once told his beads, 

 though its dark and dirty aspect did not present an inviting view, unless mortifi- 

 cation was the object intended. So the ladies and most of the assemblage des- 

 cended into the glen below, where is a huge boulder of syenitic rock, which Mr. 

 Lines, in his imaginative way, designated "The Stone of Divination," or sacrificial 

 stone, and supposes that grey -bearded Druids, in ancient British times, here ex- 

 pounded mystic secrets to an awe-struck multitude that filled the terraced hollow 

 where this broken rock now stands. No doubt it rolled down the hUl at some 

 distant period ; but if ever Druids gave the rock a voice, no sound could be 

 obtained from it now, and its augury has ceased, unless assailed by a geological 

 hammer. Mr. Lines, however, in support of his idea of this being an " augural 

 stone," has made an attempt to prove that this isolated rock is identical with a 

 boundary mark known in former times as " The Shew Stone," and which is men- 

 tioned in a siu^vey of the Forest of Malvern made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 

 and the account of which is g^iven at length in Dr. Nash's History of Worcester- 

 shire. As this " Shew Stone " was certainly stopped at by the riders who were 

 taking the bounds of the Chase, Mr. Lines thinks the e.xploring party would, in 

 pursuance of old custom, stay here for refreshment or carousal ; and above this 

 rock, just at the place where the Red Earl's ditch makes a right angle with its 

 former course, along the rampart of the camp towards the east, are the foundation 

 trenches of some place of refuge, 60 feet by 25, which has been long a puzzle to 

 archaeologists. This is a very curious point, and deserves further looking into, but 

 there is "a missing link" in the evidence. No previous observer has given the 

 locality of "The Shew Stone," and it does not at present appear that any old 

 inhabitant of Malvern Chase can point out Mr. Lines' " Stone of Divination " as 

 having from time immemorial borne the name of "The Shew Stone," and one 

 would imagine that such a memorial stone would remain intact for centuries, and 

 its position and name not be lost to tradition. 



Leaving this rock, called by Mr. Lines " The Old Pagan Augural," the party 

 moved on to "The Silurian Pass," where there is a bridleway across the ridge, 

 and at this locality the strata, included in what Sir Roderic Murchison has called 

 "The SUurian System," appear in contact with the syenitic rocks of the axial 

 chain, and being apparent on both sides of the hill. Professor PhilUps considered 

 the name of " Silurian Pass " peculiarly applicable. Here, by request, Mr. Piper, 

 in the absence of the Eev. W. S. Symonds, who was prevented from being present, 

 gave an instructive outline of the geological aspect of the Malvern chain and the 

 country around, intimating that the researches of Dr. Holl had shown that the 

 fundamental rock of which the hills consisted was of " Laurentian " age, meta- 

 morphosed by igneous action, and penetrated by dykes of syenite and trap. 



The party then passed onward along the western base of Svrinyard hill, 

 to the head of the Gullet Glen, and many ascended to the summit of the Holly- 

 bush hill, and made a survey of the castrametation that here occupies the ground, 

 a single trench only having been e.xcavated around these heights as a defence. 



