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changes ; therefore it is necessary to make allowances for such changes by 

 comparison with a fixed barometer ; and it so happened to-day that the barometer 

 at Hereford remained throughout the day persistent at 29 '7 inches. Under 

 Merbach Hill have been found, says a writer in Quarterly Review, July, 1879, 

 page 154, relics of a i-ough type of ancient local pottery. 



The descent from Merbach and return to Dorstone was made by " Scotland 

 bank," the name given to a dingle at the Bage, a hamlet at the northern opening 

 of the Golden Valley into the broader valley of the Wye, a sheltered spot whose 

 picturesque representation of wood, hill, dale, and rivulet in epitome, has not been 

 improved by niodern civilization, for now a precisely straight, lofty, and steep 

 embankment bearing the Dorstone to Hay extension of the Golden Valley 

 Railway traverses the dingle, just slicing off one extremity of an ancient large 

 tumulus upon the opposite bank. This locality is one of the spots, of which there 

 are several extant in Herefordshire, which retains its name in memory of the 

 advent of the Scots under Lord Leven in 1645 — for an account of which see 

 A]jpendix xxvii. of Webb's Memorials of the Civil War in Herefordshire. 



About half a mile from Dorstone, upon the right hand side of the main 

 road from Hay, and almost toucliing the right hand post of a gate at the comer of 

 a field, the members were halted by Mr. Powell in order to examine what was 

 known as "the standing stone." When Mr. Piper had completed his examina- 

 tion, so far as it could be conducted, of the stone overgrown as it is with many 

 years' growth of ivy, he could only come to the conclusion that so far as being 

 " an old coarse stone about eight feet above the ground, and about a foot and a 

 half broad," it coincided with the stone seen by Salmon 180 years ago, referred to 

 in Mr. Piper's paper,* but as to "the figure of a cross made by cutting into the 

 stone an inch or two, as we see them sometimes in churches," this could only be 

 determined by investigation after the removal of the ivy and other overgrowth. 



Dinner was the next business, served al fresco by the landlady of Pandy 

 Inn, Dorstone, under the trees growing upon the adjacent ancient mound, 

 misnamed Dorstone Castle. This is an earthen circular mound, elevated more 

 than twenty feet above the natural surface of the ground, measuring ninety feet 

 across the summit, and surrounded by a (now dry) moat. It bears more the 

 character of a military post than of a tumulus : situated as it is in a line with the 

 chain of defences extending from Clifford Castle, Scotland Bank, to Snodhill 

 Castle, the fortified farm building at Urishay, and further southwards through 

 Ewyas Harold to the important equilateral defence of Skenfrith, Grosmont, and 

 Whitecastle beyond the valley, it may possibly have served as a post of observation 

 iu that chain. Mr. Geo. T. Clarke, m his Medkeval Military Architecture, 

 page 109, whilst enumerating no less than 38 sites of Castles in Herefordshire, 

 disposes of the one now under consideration in the following short notice : — 

 "Dorston, a Soler's Castle." 



This movind is probably of remote antiquity. With the early invaders of 

 our country, after the departure of the Romans, says Mr. G. T. Clarke, self- 

 government prevailed : each family held and gave name to its special allotment. 

 * Transactions, 18S2, page 178, line 29 



