10 



interesting and well-preserved effigies of Sir John Delameee 

 and his wife, who rebuilt the transept in 1382. The clerk of 

 the parish, a really intelligent man, had much to say about the 

 church and the celebrities of the place, both lay and clerical, 

 concerning whom he had collected, with great industry, a 

 store of manuscript records. From Minchinhampton the party 

 proceeded to Avening, halting by the way at a spot known as 

 " Woful Dane Bottom," to see a rude monolith, which has 

 apparently, at some time, formed portion of a cromlech. Another 

 stone of the circle still remains included in the foundation of 

 a neighbouring wall. Report says that the superstitious poor 

 were at one time in the habit of passing ricketty babies, by 

 moonlight, through an aperture in the stone ; which, if true, 

 would seem to connect it traditionally with some religious 

 purpose. At any rate, it had nothing to do with the Danes, 

 who did not inter their dead after that fashion. 



The Church at Avening displays architectural characters of 

 remarkable interest, shewing the transition, by additions, from 

 the simplest style of Norman to the "Early EngHsh" and 

 " Decorated." The arches of the nave and tower, with the 

 vaulting-ribs and shafts, and the stone roof, are perfectly 

 preserved, and the later additions and alterations are clearly 

 traceable. This church would well repay careful and detailed 

 examination by a competent antiquary. Attention was directed 

 to a broken stone in the Chancel, on which is inscribed a circle 

 intersected by a cross, with a portion of an inscription, aj^parently 

 in Norman letters : it is very peculiar, and merits attention. 



On the return to Nailsworth a halt was made to examine a 

 gravel pit, in a wood, near Longford Mills, where an angular 

 sub-aerial drift, 8 feet thick, is seen overlying the rolled gravels 

 of the valley. 



The party dined at the George Inn, Nailsworth. After dinner, 

 Mr. Maw, F.G.S., of Benthall Edge, exhibited a series of beau- 

 tifully executed diagrams, in illustration of a paper lately read 

 by him before the Geological Society of London, on ^' The 

 Disposition of Iron in Variegated Strata," in which he shewed 

 how, by the action of chemical affinities, the metallic oxides 



