207 



conyiction that other forces have been at work in producing 

 that gigantic denudation, and that those forces were marine. 



The hospitaHty extended to the Club on this occasion by Sir 

 Maxwell and Lady Steele Gteaves was highly appreciated, 

 and elicited the warm thanks of all the members present. 



The Third Field Meeting took place at Stanton Court, near 

 Broadway, by invitation from T. W. Wtnniatt, Esq. The 

 rendezvous was at Hayles Abbey, the ruins of which, consisting 

 of a few broken arches, is all that now remains of a vast 

 monastic establishment founded by Richard Earl of Cornwall 

 and King of the Romans, second son of King John, in 1251. 

 So late as the last century, according to Rudder, the cloisters 

 and the Abbot's house were still standing ; but the ruthless 

 hand of modern spoliation has removed what time and former 

 depredators had spared, and the pick of the explorer now with 

 difficulty traces the foundations of buildings which have so 

 entirely disappeared that a trench, carried from east to west 

 across the site of the Conventual Church, failed to reveal the 

 slightest vestige of it. Some notes on the Abbey were read by 

 Mr. Pkuen, the clergyman of Didbrook, who likewise exhibited 

 some engravings of the ruins in the last century, the position 

 of which could with difficulty be correlated with the existing 

 remains. 



At Hayles the party separated, some taking the direction of 

 the Church at Didbrook and Lord Wemyss's fine old residence 

 at Stanway, while the remainder mounted the hill, through 

 Hayles Wood, to the encampment on the summit. By the way, 

 a quarry, in the Middle Lias, yielded an abundant supply of 

 fossils. At Farmcote they were drawn aside to see a small but 

 interesting Chapel, having a Norman belfry and a font of Early 

 English workmanship. The original altar-slab, with its five 

 crosses, was here noticed occupying a place in the stone floor of 

 the chancel. The encampment above Hayles Wood occupies a 

 commanding position on the edge of the escarpment of the 

 Cotteswolds. It is small, probably enclosing less than two 

 acres. The prospect from this point over the broad vales of 

 Evesham and Worcester is singularly extensive, and viewed as 



