1859.] BOTANICAL SKETCHES FROM CHESHIRE. 235 



level lands, with scarcely a tree or a hedgerow to mar the dull 

 monotony of the scene. What is interesting to the lover of the 

 picturesque is not always profitable to the owners. The ancient 

 University of the south of England, the favoured abode of the 

 museSj as a poet would say, with her beautiful towers seated in 

 the very richest of fertile meadows, now lends interest if not en- 

 chantment to the view. This is the first stage of the outward 

 journey from London to Chester. 



From Oxford to Birmingham the traveller, by the road recom- 

 mended, passes through a country diverse in its aspects from that 

 on the London side of Oxford. The face of the country is rather 

 pastoral than agrarial ; and although the surface is by no means 

 flat, like much between London and Oxford, there are no hills 

 of considerable elevation like those betw'eeen which the river 

 flows near the Goring Gap. 



From Oxford to Banbury the line takes the Vale of Cherwell, 

 near the line of the ancient canal, if the term ancient can be ap- 

 plied to works erected or constructed in the days of our grand- 

 fathers ; but as canals are disappearing, they may be classified as 

 belonging to the things that were ; they are the memorials of a 

 period now past, and will be, in some parts of the country, objects 

 of antiquarian investigation to the grandchildren of the present 

 generation. 



This part of the country, an extent of tvv'enty-three miles, is 

 entirely in grass, producing both hay and pasturage. This is 

 subdivision first of division second. 



From Banbury to Birmingham, a distance of above forty miles, 

 there is another change of scene. The country is richly wooded, 

 mostly in grass, but interspersed here and there with a few corn- 

 fields. The general aspect is undulating, with no very prominent 

 elevation, and no extensive flats. This part of the route is agree- 

 ably diversified by the modern town of Leamington, which the 

 writer of this notice remembers about thirty years ago, when 

 there were only many brickfields and a few houses, hotels, and a 

 church, where there is now a fine, large, fashionable town. 



Guy's Cliff, the Avon, Warwick Castle, and the fine tower of 

 St. Mary's church, Warwick, are all noticeable objects, and they 

 convey reminiscences, either pleasurable or disagreeable, accord- 

 ing to the feelings of the individual who now contemplates them, 

 or as they were associated with pleasant or sad recollections in 



