88 



the same to which miraculous powers were attributed in monkish 

 chronicles, when its waters were duly appUed by believers, in 

 the name of God and St. Simon. 



In the gardens attached to the mansion, which are extensive 

 and well kept, are many rehcs of the ancient Abbey of Evesham, 

 in gargoyles, finials, crockets, encaustic tiles, &c. ; but many of 

 these being preserved in a locked building, to which access 

 could not be obtained, were not examined. 



Before quitting the grounds, the President and the Eev. W. 

 S. Symonds read notices of the battle; that by the former being 

 mainly compiled from the latin chronicle of Rishanger, Monk 

 of St. Albans, who flourished fifty or sixty years after the 

 events of which he wrote ; while Mr. Symonds drew his facts 

 principally from the careful account of May, the historian of 

 Evesham. 



From hence the party, under the guidance of Mr. Stmonds, 

 crossed the Avon by a ferry to Offenham, a small village at 

 which King Offa had a residence, the position of which is still 

 pointed out, though no traces are now apparent to the eye, of 

 the site of the ancient palace of the kings of Mereia. 



The valley of the Avon hereabouts exhibits well-defined 

 examples of those terraces, called "Low-Level Drifts," which 

 mark the boundary of a more ancient Avon; while the rich 

 meadows through which the river now flows are due to the 

 contraction of the stream, and its gradual silting-up through 

 long spaces of time. 



The party dined at the Crown Inn, at Evesham. After dinner 

 Mr. Stmonds read a paper on the "Belgian Bone-caves," from 

 the joint notes of himself and the President, who had lately in 

 company visited the district referred to. The authors described 

 the three now celebrated caves of the Trou du Frontal, the 

 Trou des Nutans, and the Trou de la Naulette, and explained the 

 relations of the stratified deposits (called by Dr. Dupont, Lefim 

 and Loess) to the rolled drifts which underlie them. They 

 showed that the phenomena exhibited in these caves are in all 

 respects analogous to those in the Enghsh and Welsh Bone 

 caverns in Grower, at St. Asaph, Tenby, Banwell, &c., and 



