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gneiss in its quarries. Malvern Chase is said to have extended 

 over 6,000 acres in Worcestershire, 600 in Herefordshire, and 

 100 in Gloucestershire, so it did not extend beyond Bromesber- 

 row. The Chase of Gloucester came on at Murrell's End, in 

 the Parish of Eedmarlej. Malvern Chase is alluded to by 

 Leland and Camden. In Saxon times it is said to have 

 belonged to one Bkihtric. Later on, William of Malmesbury 

 calls it a wilderness, and it was in this wilderness that our 

 Norman forefathers built their early churches, and reclaimed 

 around those churches a few acres of land. Edward I gave the 

 whole chase to Gilbert de Clare, the Red Earl of Gloucester, 

 and the trench which he is saidio have begun digging (a.d. 1287,) 

 with his own right hand, to show the boundary of the right of 

 chase of the Bishops of Hereford from the chase of Malvern, 

 may be still traced along the range of the Malverns, and now 

 divides the county of Hereford from Gloucester on the Chase 

 End ; and further on the county of Hereford from Worcester. 

 Malvern Chase passed from the De Clares to the Despensers, 

 and through Isabel, daughter of the King-maker Warwick, to 

 George Duke of Clarence. It was disforested in the time of 

 Charles the Second. Directly in front of the Chase End rises 

 the weird hill of the Eagged Stone, which is now celebrated for 

 its geological history in ages long passed away, as well as for its 

 legends of gloom attached under its shadow. I alluded to this 

 twofold history in my address last year, on the Newent Coal 

 field and the surrounding district. There are some here now 

 who were not present then, and they may be interested to know 

 that the Ragged-stone rocks are the roots of au ancient Volcano, 

 which in long ago geological ages poured forth its lavas into 

 Lower Silurian seas ; and these lavas flowed over sea bottoms, 

 containing the remains of trilobites and other animals which 

 once lived in the waters. That it once reared its crater above 

 the Avaters is evident from the fact that some of the beds consist 

 of volcanic ash, which must have been evolved into the air and 

 not into the sea. With regard to the legends they are weird 

 indeed, but they have been described by more fairy fingers than 

 mine in the brochure termed " Moreton Court," by a lady, who 



