216 



There was no discussion as to the age of this fortification, and both the President 

 and Mr. Lines intimated an opinion that it was of older date than the camp on 

 tlie Herefordshire Beacon, but as nothing has been hitherto discovered here, this 

 idea must be held as problematical. Some of the company took an easier course 

 by the side of the hill, and progress was thenjnade to Bronsil Castle. This ruined 

 structure only presents the remains of one of the entrance towers, but the site, 

 which is a tangled mass of bushes, evergreens and weeds, is surrounded by a very 

 wide moat, over which is a narrow bridge. The vicinity is pretty, and near the 

 castle is a modern edifice, the residence of Mr. Hamilton Bailey, who was thanked 

 for his courtesy in allowing an examination of the castle and grounds. The Rev. 

 R. P. Hill exhibited a drawing of the Castle as it appeared before its demolition, 

 and Mr. Piper read an account of all that he could collect respecting its history. 

 He said it was built by Lord Beauchamp, of Powick, in the reign of Henry the 

 Sixth, but was demolished some time in the 17th century. There was an old story 

 that in a vault here was a chest of treasure guarded by a raven, and whoever dis- 

 covered it would be a fortunate man ; but the bones of the last Lord who owned 

 the castle must be first found. 



The carriages took up the party at Bronsil, and conveyed them at once to 

 Ledbury, but a pause was made at the Court House, where Mr. Piper had kindly 

 arranged all the articles that had been secured from the excavations on the Beacon 

 Camp, and these, all carefully labelled, were inspected with much interest. 



At five o'clock, the United Clubs partook of a plain dinner well served at 

 the Feathers Hotel, Mr. G. H. Piper presiding. When dinner was concluded. 



The President in brief but expressive terms proposed "The health of our 

 excellent Queen," which was loyally responded to, and then said that as the 

 Woolhopian members had been examining the Mistletoe Oak in Eastnor Park 

 that morning, he would ask Dr. Bull to give them some account of the Mistletoe, 

 as he had well worked up the subject. 



Dr. Bull, in responding to the call, said that he was sorry to find tliat the 

 Mistletoe Oak in Eastnor Park was in a declining state, and the plant in a less 

 quantity than he had formerly seen it. He must claim Herefordshire as the head 

 quarters of the Mistletoe, and it possessed several oaks with mistletoe upon them, 

 held sacred in Druidical times, and they were very scarce in other counties, and 

 none, he believed in Worcestershire. It had been said that male and female 

 mistletoe jslants never grew together on a tree, but he must contradict this, as he 

 had seen them gro%ving together. 



Mr. E. Lees reminded Dr. Bull that he had assisted him in hunting up 

 Mistletoe Oaks in Herefordshire, and two had been discovered in Worcestershire. 

 There was a physiological fact respecting the mistletoe which it would be interest- 

 ing to his Herefordshire friends to examine. Professor Buckman, in a work on 

 orchard trees, had stated that the mistletoe was of advantage in exciting the 

 gro'wth of apple trees, and causing them to produce fruit earlier than they other- 

 wise would. An enterprising firm of nurserymen, Messrs. Smith, of Worcester, 



