5l0all}0p^ Jiaturalt5ts' f'ulh Club, 



August 28th, 1888. 



On Tuesday, Aup^ust 28th, for the fourth Field Meetin}; of this year, 1888, more 

 than fifty members accepted the invitation set forth in the programme, and the 

 majority attended the meeting, notwitiistanding the depression of tlie barometer, 

 and the unfavourable forecast of the weather. Leaving Hereford in brakes, the 

 first halt was made at Brinsop Court, where the members were received by 

 Mr. Dearman Edwards, the occupier of the house. The remains of this ancient 

 fortified mansion are very interesting. Portions of the moat now form useful 

 and ornamental water, partly surrounding the building, except where a permanent 

 roadway is substituted for the drawbridge. At the entrance a mutilated 

 sculpture of a monkey playing a fiddle surmounts one of the piers. The walls and 

 windows of the old chapel, of the Decorated style of architecture, still exist ; but 

 most interesting of all is the beautiful specimen of the 1-lth century timber work 

 represented in the grand roof of the building opposite the chapel, called " The 

 Hall," which is now used as a granary. The windows are of the Decorated style, 

 the massive oak beams supporting the floor of the hall remain in situ ; the fire- 

 place of the Hall, and of the room on the ground floor below it, clearly indicate 

 that the ceiling of the lower apartment was only nine feet high. 



Whilst partaking of refreshment in the Court, the full length portrait was 

 observed of the poet Wordsworth, a c(>i>y in oils from Pickersgill, presented by the 

 late Lord Saye and Sele to Brinsop Court in perpetuity, in remembrance of the 

 visits of the poet to this residence, then occupied by his wife's brother, Mr. 

 Thomas Hutchinson. The members were thence summoned to assemble underneath 

 a cedar tree upon the lawn, under the spreading boughs of which Mr. Thomas 

 Hutchinson read a paper, which was an interesting record, collated from the 

 family archives, of the various visits of the poet and his family to this residence 

 of his (Mr. Hutchinson's) grandfather. 



This cedar was planted by the Poet just 50 years ago ; it is a well grown 

 specimen, with a girth of lift. lin. at 5ft. high, and compares favourably with 

 others of similar age. The cedar in the Vicarage garden at Bredwardine, 55 years 

 old, yields r2ft. The cedar in the King's Acre Nurseries was planted by Mr. J. 

 Cranston's grandfather in the year 1785, when the Nurseries were established : 

 it is, therefore, now 103 years old. It is impossible to take its circumference at 

 the height of 5ft. from the ground, because of a large arm, 3ft. in circumference, 

 issuing from the bole at that elevation. At 4ft. from the ground the girth is 14ft., 

 and at 7ft. from the gi-ound as much as 13ft. llin. 



