118 RAMBLES WITH A HAMMER. 
rocks are a great series of ‘volcanic ashes, grits, breccias, and slates, 
destitute of fossils so far as yet known, and of which the precise age 
(except that they are certainly pre-carboniferous) cannot be decisively 
ascertained. These are pierced and disturbed by syenitic masses of later 
date, and the whole region appears to owe its existence at the surface to 
an extension of the same upheaving forces which elevated the Pennine 
chain. An anticlinal line traverses the forest from north-west to south- 
east, which is also a line of fault. East of this line the strata dip (on 
the whole) at a pretty high angle to the north-east, and on the other 
(western) side we find them inclining in the same way to the south-west. 
The Midland main line from Leicester to Nottingham affords a fair 
view of the eastern ridge, while the branch line from the former town to 
Burton passes along the western side. The line from Ashby to Derby, 
via Melbourne, is of little service to the visitor, as the trains are few and 
fit in badly. 
At least two days are required to ‘‘do” the Charnwood rocks 
properly, of which one should be devoted to the south and east, and the 
other to the centre and north of the chain. One or other of these may 
be taken first, according to the direction from which any person arrives ; 
and, of course, either may be begun at the end which is most con- 
venient. 
First Day’s Wat, from Sileby, by Mountsorrel, Brazil Wood, 
Swithland, Old John Hill, Bradgate Park, Newtown Linford, and 
Groby, to Leicester, (thirteen miles.) Getting out at Sileby, (on 
the Midland main line, seven miles north of Leicester,) we walk 
westwards through the village, stopping to take a brief look at the 
fine church (Decorated Gothic, Henry VI.) and the ancient elm tree 
30ft. in circumference, which grows in the churchyard. Starting from 
the church we may either take the north road and first inspect the 
extensive limestone quarries in the Lower Lias, which lie about halfway 
between Sileby and Barrow-on-Soar, or, avoiding this detour, which will 
be about a mile out of our way, take the west road, which leads straight 
to Mountsorrel. A pleasant half hour’s walk across the alluvium of the 
Soar ends in the main street of the long, narrow village. Turning tothe 
right, we seek the Granite Company’s Offices, and obtain leave to inspect 
the quarry, a request ever kindly granted by the courteous manager, 
(C. H. B. Hambly, Esq.,) himself a good geologist, and one of the earliest 
students of the Royal School of Mines.- Then, walking up a narrow 
passage opposite to the offices, we find ourselves in the midst of a scene 
of great animation. In front rises a grand wall of rock, nearly half a 
mile long, and about 100ft. in height. On the floor lie enormous blocks 
of the rock, and in long lines of wooden huts some 600 men and boys are 
engaged in breaking these up into setts, kerbs, &c. Tiny steam engines, 
the ‘‘ Fairy,” “ Pixy,” &c., are puffing up and down, conveying heavy loadsto 
the powerful steam stone-crushers, and carrying finished material by a 
branch line to the company’s siding near Barrow. ‘The rock is a 
hornblendic granite, consisting of felspar, quartz, hornblende, and a very 
little mica. There are two principal varieties, grey and pink, the difference 
being caused by the variation in tint of the felspar. Embedded in the 
