in 



These formations have one after another been rent asunder, and thrown back 

 as far down as the Woolhope beds : there the disruption has ceased, and a 

 mass of sandstone dislocated in many places forms a dome-shaped covering to 

 the unseen agent that has reared our picturesque home. From the fact that 

 Upper Llandovery beds lie always unconformably on whatever Lower Silurian 

 rocks they meet, indicating thereby a complete alteraiion of geographical 

 conditions in the Silurian epoch, we may infer with fair confidence that the 

 upheaving force was brought to bear immediately on this formation. But our 

 district is more than a valley of elevation : water, another great geological agent, 

 has done further work than removing the fragments rent on all sides from the 

 continuous mass. The formations which we have mentioned are not of uniform 

 character ; while some, as the Aymestry, 'Wenlcck, and "SVoolhope Limestones 

 are hard compact rocks, able to present an invincible face to many a beating 

 wave, ocean current, orriver flood ; others, as the Lower Ludlow and Wenlock 

 Shales are mud-stones, decomposing even under atmospheric influence, and 

 these beds have been scooped out, hollowed into valleys by the wearing and 

 denuding agency of water, which has been able to effect on them what it has 

 failed to do on the limestones. From any eminence on the external ridge the 

 district will tell its own marvellous history : the thickly wooded dome-shaped 

 hill (the Haughwood) is composed of Upper Llandovery Sandstone, and has 

 been raised some 9,000 feet from its position, due to the Silxirian uplifts at 

 Ledbury and May HiU. On it once reposed continuously the "Woolhope beds, 

 which now only line its sides ; the adjacent valley is the site of the AVenlock 

 Shale, washed out down to its present low level. The ridge in front is the 

 Wenlock Limestone, once outstretched in a plane continuous mass, now dipping 

 off in aU directions. There is again another valley (Lower Ludlow Shales) below 

 you denuded like the other. The rocks on which you stand once lay horizontal 

 and in union with the rest of the encircling ridge. Behind you are the upper 

 beds of the Ludlow series plunging beneath the Old Red Sandstone, whose 

 boundary line is discerned by its colour so familiar to a Herefordshire eye and 

 derived from iron oxide. This is the general account of the district. The visitor 

 must not expect to find an exactly spherical dome, two perfect level valleys, 

 and two concentric regular ridges, or even be baffled if he fails for some time 

 to discriminate between the two upper limestones in looking down on the S.W. 

 side. The important faults and dislocations will be spc^ken of presently. It 

 may be remarked here, generally, that if one only reflects carefully on the 

 compUcated actions to which the rocks have been subjected he will feel 

 siirprised i-ather that there is so much symmetry in the district. Consider the 

 case of flat beds of limestone and shale, upheaved as a globular protuberance 

 with such powerful and prolonged energy, that the portions on which the force 

 is chiefly brought to bear have been torn from the main masses, which are 

 kept in their place by the superincumbent beds. Combine with this the agency 

 of water in washing out the unprotected softer strata. Perfect lines of circum- 

 vallation could not be expected ; if for some distance a continuous escarpment 



