MALVERN CHASE. 85 



there a pool, where the lovers of hunting may follow 

 harriers and fox-hounds, if the chase of nobler animals 

 than hares and foxes can now be no longer taken. 



" In the autumnal and winter seasons Longdon Marsh 

 covered with water used to present the appearance of an 

 extensive lake, and bordered by a dense growth of sea- 

 rushes, tall carices, and an army of plumose reeds, had a 

 wild and solitary aspect, a few clumps of silvery -leaved 

 poplars (Populus canescens) giving a peculiar character to 

 the aqueous scene. But the drainage of the marsh, 

 recently taken in band, will, if successful, change the 

 aspect of things entirely. 



" In the parish of Colwall, near the old hunting seat of 

 the Bishops of Hereford, is a good-sized fish-pool, though 

 now almost half choked-up and closely environed with a 

 dense growth of tall carices, which on the last occasion I 

 saw it was crowded with a flock of sable coots (Fulica atra). 

 These birds inhabit few pools in the Malvern district at 

 present." 



Of woodland clumps and of remarkable trees, solitary 

 representatives of the denizens of the forest and of the 

 chase in days long gone bye, cuts and graphic descriptions 

 are given both in the volume cited and in the abridgement 

 of it given in the Journal of Forestry. 



B. Cannock Chase. 



In Cannock Chase, not far from Litchfield, we have a 

 case of a Chase having been reduced to what may be called 

 a ivaste. Mr. Walter White, in graphic details of a pedes- 

 trian tour made by him in Central England, published 

 under the title All Round the Wreken, thus describes his 

 visit to this Chase, after having given details of his visit 

 to the Potteries, and of a brief sojourn at Stoke, whence 

 he went by rail to Colwich : " I alighted here for a few 

 hours' ramble on Channock Chase, the flanks of which, 

 represented by a fir-crowned hilly ravine, are in sight from 

 the station. Walking down the road to Little Heywood, 



