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the Dark Maiden of the Marsh used to creep out from her room 

 at Eastington on a June evening, and watch for the cloud which 

 fell from the Eagged Stone across the plain, and would even sit 

 in its shadow and pray for the time when her " spirit might be 

 joined to his who her own father hounded as a criminal to the 

 gallows," and whose memory she cherished through a Hfe of 

 solitude to the bitter end. Such, gentlemen, are a few of the 

 most striking points in geological, historic, and legendary lore, 

 which belong to the districts round the southern Malverns ; but 

 I need not tell you that there is much more of interest for the 

 student of nature, and of history than can be even alluded to 

 in a brief resume of this kind, and that I have merely alluded io 

 certain subjects, such as the history of our Malvern drifts, 

 which are of the highest interest to Geologists, and which 

 would occupy too much time to deal with now. I commend 

 their investigation to the younger Geologists of the Cotteswold 

 Club. Much concerning them has yet to be unravelled, so 

 intricate are the phenomena with which the drift history is 

 shrouded. 



I 



