V 



THE VALLEY OF THE TEME: HOPS 

 AND FRUIT 



THE Teme Valley, through which our course now 

 lay, has some claim to be considered the richest stretch 

 of land in England at any rate, in its course from 

 Ludlow down to Knightwick it possesses all the 

 elements of beauty which commend it to the farmer's 

 eye. The valley is carved out of a plateau of Old 

 Red Sandstone, rising to a height of about 400 feet 

 on either side of the alluvial plain, in which the 

 river wanders in a bed cut by the winter's rains some 

 twenty feet below the general level of the meadows. 

 On one or other side the river generally shows a 

 low scar of red sandstone, which also runs across the 

 stream in low reefs, breaking it into a succession of 

 rapid runs and still pools, appropriate the one to the 

 trout and the other to the grayling, for which the 

 river is famous. On its other bank the river bed 

 shows the deep red alluvial soil, strong in its texture, 

 but rendered friable by an admixture of sand and 

 stones, giving rise to the most fertile land of the 

 valley. 



The alluvial flat proper has either been left in 

 permanent pasture, peopled by the big white-faced 

 Herefords which are so much at home in these their 

 proper meadows, or else is cultivated for hop gardens, no 



