VOL. XVIII. (2) EXCURSION— TIDENHAM CHASE 105 



From the garden Mr Butt led the way through a wild coppice on his 

 estate to an open spot on the edge of the cliffs, where the party looked over 

 one of the most enchanting bits of scenery in the Lower Wye Valley. To 

 their left, on the opposite side of the river, rose up the limestone cliffs of the 

 Windcliff, crowned with their dark clump of trees, which is so well-known a 

 landmark. Below them and to the right were limestone cliffs, wooded where- 

 ever possible. In front, up the valley, was pointed out the conical hill be- 

 neath which is situated that far-renowned ruin, Tintem Abbey. Again the 

 valley was seen under ideal conditions of light and shade, and after its beauty 

 had been appreciated numerous questions arose as the reasons for the deep- 

 cut valley and the precipitous cliffs. Mr Richardson, on being asked to say 

 something on this point, in reply gave a brief outline of the geology of the 

 district. 



Returning to the house, many of the party inspected with great interest 

 a collection of flint implements made by Mr Rooke at Newland and Bigsweir, 

 and by Mr Burder from a field near Tidenham Chase. The flints are of a rude 

 type, and it is difficult to decide whether the shape of some of them is due to 

 man's handiwork or to natural causes. What is certain about them is that 

 they were carried there by man, for the nearest rocks in which flints occur 

 are many miles to the east. It is probable that they belong to the 

 Neolithic Period, and they may be contemporaneous with man's occupation 

 of the Lower Wye district at a very early date. 



An early morning start from home, and the invigorating air of the high 

 ground which had been traversed, had by this time created an appetite, and 

 the party cheerfully accepted the kind invitation of the President to a sumptu- 

 ous luncheon in his house, his hospitality being gracefully and gratefully 

 acknowledged on behalf of the company by Mr W. R. Carles, a Vice-President 

 of the Club. 



TIDENHAM CHASE. 



From Oakwood the drive was continued for a short distance and then 

 the brakes were left and the party walked for about a mile and a half over the 

 wind-swept and flower-decked moorland known as Tidenham Chase. The 

 archaeologists of the party at once made for a tall, tapering stone near the 

 e'dge of the cliff wJiich they took to be a menhir, or long-stone, such as was 

 erected by man in prehistoric times. They were disappointed. Colonel 

 Marling, V.C., of Sedbury Park, had the stone hauled there and set up as a 

 memorial of the Queen's Jubilee ! A few yards from the stone is a mound 

 not unlike a round barrow, which is said to be the site of a Roman altar. 

 About this nothing could be definitely advanced, but the President read the 

 following notes, from George Ormerod's ' Stiigulensia,' supplied by Mr Roland 

 Austin, the Librarian of Gloucester Public Library. 



" The village of Stroat [near this place] lies on the vicinal road 

 from Venta to Glevum, which Leman, in his Commentary on Roman 

 Roads (Hatcher's Richard of Circencester, p. 114), has included in his 

 Ryknield Street. Its distances are between eight and nine miles from Caer- 

 went, and four from the Roman Camp and Temple at Lydney. At this 

 point of Stroat, on a rising ground to the south-west of the village, are vestiges 

 of excavations and earthworks, much reduced and altered by agricultural 

 operations and of unknown origin, which, combined with the former marshy 

 banks of the Severn, would inclose a space of about ten acres, nearly oblong, 

 but somewhat rounded on the south-west side, and which it is difficult to 

 refer to anything but military purposes. The Gaerston Hill farm, adjoining, 

 and Dinnegar to the north, evidently derive their names from them (as ancient 

 names of unknown origin), but the appellations of " Street " preserved in the 

 name of the village, and of the " Oldbury Field " (situated within the traces 

 of earthworks), point as far as they go to Roman origin. A Camp, considered 



