RAMBLES WITH A HAMMER. 121 
The north-east road from Bardon Station leads to the Birch Tree 
Tun, at the back of which is an exposure of pinkish slates and grits (dip 
80° south-west.) Then, making for the tall chimney of the crushing mill, 
a wood on the right contains a knoll of rock, composed of volcanic breccia, 
irregular masses of slate, &c., embedded in an ashy matrix. At the 
entrance of the lower quarry is a bed of finer breccia, and further in a 
remarkable shale-bed (called a “fault” by the workmen,) and thirty 
yards further a remarkable rock, (on the left hand,) containing large 
quartz and felspar crystals. The main mass of the quarry, (which the 
men ¢all ‘“ good rock,”) is apparently a highly altered slate. The floor of 
the upper quarry is sixty feet above the one below, and a path leads 
thence to the top of the hill, (902 feet,) the highest point in Leicester- 
shire. This is an important trigonometrical centre, and here we see the 
cairn built by the Ordnance Survey. The view is most extensive, 
extending to Black Tor in Yorkshire, (fifty miles north-west,) Lincoln 
Minster, (483 miles north-east,) Stow-on-the-Wold, (fifty-nine miles 
south,) the Wrekin, (fifty-two miles west,) the Longmynds, (sixty-six 
miles west,) &c., and embracing an area of over 9,000 square miles. 
Facing north-east, the forest region lies spread out at our feet like a 
map. Markfield Knowl on the right shows its cone eaten half away by 
the remorseless quarrying to which it has been subjected. We recognise 
Old John with its tower, whilst right in front rises Beacon Hill. Near 
the northern foot of Bardon is Green Hill, on which is a conspicuous 
house having a turret and cupola, (Thos. Nevinson, Esq.) The ridge 
running to the left forms High Towers, Peldar Tor, &c., and just at its 
south-west foot runs the great Coleorton fault which bounds the Leices- 
tershire coal-field, the coal seams rising as they approach it till they 
become vertical. Prof. Hull estimates the ‘‘throw” of this fault at 
2,200 feet. 
Descending the north-west side of the hill through brushwood and 
fern we quickly reach Green Hill, a porphyritic rock, the embedded 
crystals of quartz and felspar having probably been ejected from a 
volcanic vent, a theory which their broken condition goes far to prove, 
This bed is probably identical with the one already described in Bardon 
Quarry, and shows that that hill has been thrown forward by a cross 
fault; the same bed is again seen further north-west at Peldar Tor. 
Gaining the high road we turn to the left, and then cross a field on the 
right ascending the High Towers ridge. Here a bed of breccia, containing 
immense masses of slate, is well exposed; some of these are six feet 
long, and strangely contorted. A little reservoir is close at hand, 
Timberwood Hill lies next on the right, and Ives Head is the bold 
prominence in the north-east. 
Walking along the ridge it is just possible that a call at the Forest 
Rock Inn may be deemed desirable, which will involve a slight detour 
to the left, (south,) where the inn stands at the cross roads. Returning 
along the north-east road, we leave on the left the Roman Catholic 
Reformatory and the well-known Monastery of St. Bernard, (founded in 
1835, Cistercian order, buildings designed by Pugin,) and enter a private 
road on the right, leading to Charnwood Lodge. Here is a wonderful 
