00llj0p^ Jiatealtsts' JFM& Club. 



Adgdst 24th, 1880. 



TITHE fourth field meeting was held on Tuesday, at Church Stretton, in 

 I Shropshire. A small party assembled at the railway station, and, on 



arrival at Church Stretton, were met by the Rev. W. Elliot, the Secretary 

 of the Caradoc Field Club, who conducted them to the summit of the Longmynd 

 Hill, taking the way through the hamlet of Little Stretton, and along the Ashes 

 Valley. Close to Little Stretton, a quarry of Upper Llandovery rock, resting on 

 the flank of the Cambrian of the Longmynd, and containing a few of the more 

 characteristic fossils — Pentamerus ohlongus, Petraia, and Atrypa — was pointed out ; 

 and on the way up the valley, in exposures of the Cambrian rock, several speci- 

 mens of worm-tracks (Arenicolites), together with the marks of rain-drops and 

 wave ripples, were found. Until the discovery of the Eozoon Canadense in the 

 Laurentian series of North America, these worm-tracks and burrows represented 

 the earliest indications of animal life afforded by the records of the rocks. 



Some wonder was expressed at finding, in such a peaceful spot, the hint of 

 "war's alarms," in the shape of numbers of round sliot scattered along the bottom 

 of the valley and the bed of the little stream along which the path lay. They find 

 their way there from the guns of the Volunteer Artillery, whose targets are placed 

 on the side of one of the enclosing hills. 



A few years ago, when the Royal Artillery came to Stretton for their 

 annual practice, a shell, unduly elevated, passed over the top of the hill, and fell 

 into the hamlet of Minton, causing some damage to a barn, and a considerably 

 greater degree of not unnatural fright. The incident went " the round of the 

 papers " for some little time after, under the sensational heading of " Bombard- 

 ment of a Shropshire Village. " 



At the pole (1,674 feet above sea level) which marks the highest point of the 

 wide heath-clad range, it was found that the thoughtful kindness of the President 

 (J. H. Knight, Esq.) had directed certain well-stored baskets, sent from the hotel, 

 to meet the party, and a profitable half hour was spent in discussing their 

 contents. 



From this spot, on a clear day (and the present was a very fair specimen), a 

 magnificent panoramic view is displayed, from the Sugar Loaf and the Mon- 

 mouthshire hills on the south, across the plain of Shrewsbury to the Cheshire 

 hills on the north ; from the Malverns on the east, over the hilly country of 



