PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 221 



in the Old Red Sandstone rock. Most satisfoctorily, of 

 course, the legend accounts for them. It is as follows : — 



" A person, said to be a girl with a pair of pattens on, 

 " having stolen St. Catharine's mare and colt, and led 

 " them down several l)rooks to avoid detection, the saint, 

 " upon being informed of her loss, prayed that wherever 

 "the animals and thief trod the marks of their feet might 

 " be left, and that in answer to this prayer the prints of 

 " the animals' feet and also of the patten rings, were 

 " deeply indented, not only in the earth, but also in the 

 " stones whereon they trod, and thereby they were traced 

 " to and found at Ledbury."* 



A worthy Worcestershire antiquary is said to have 

 been dissatisfied with the saintly part of this explanation. 

 He argued in a valuable pamphlet that the marks were 

 really made by antediluvian mares and colts. 



Beyond Ledbury is some interesting Old Red Sand- 

 stone country. It is fertile and suited to the growth of 

 hops. Irish labourers come over for the hop picking. 



Some miles beyond Ledbury, on the Leominster road, 

 is a place called England's Gate, suggestive of a former 

 boundary between English and Welsh. The influence of 

 the latter was also brought home to us in another way. 

 We took a wrong road here, and were informed that it 

 would lead us over Dinmore Hill. The name shows very 

 little alteration from the original Welsh Din luazvr, the 

 big hill. In our own district the Welsh origin of place- 

 names is generally more involved : they have taken an 

 English form. As an instance may be cited Garrick's 

 Head, a well-known place on the Gloucester to Stow road 

 — its first word is Garrcg\ a common Welsh place-name 

 connected with carcg, a stone. The whole is possibls' an 

 Anglicised version of Garrcg sad, firm stone. So, too, 



* E. Lees "Pictures of Nature," p 141. 



