LITHOLOGY, 



55 



steep slope of plates, leading to the broad floors of the Lower 

 Scar Limestone.' In its general lithological characters the 

 Millstone Grit much resembles the Lower Oolite and its peaks 

 and ridges rise above the Main Limestone scars with usually 

 the same rotundity and undulation of slope and the same com- 

 parative humidity of surface which have just been mentioned as 

 characteristic of the northern range of moorlands situated on 

 the east of the Central Valley. 



There is in ' Rokeby ' the description of a glen of each kind : 

 the gill where the Greta below Mortham flows beneath scars of 

 Main Limestone to pour its waters into the Tees ; and the 

 neighbouring hollow of Thorsgill with its gradual arenaceous 

 slopes. Here we have not only the physico-geographical facts, 

 but also the ideas and imaginations thereby suggested. 



THE GLEN OF THE GRETA. THORSGILL. 



' By Barnard's bridge of stately stone 

 The southern bank of Tees they won, 

 Their winding path then eastward cast, 

 And Eglestone's grey ruins past ; 

 And skirting high the valley's ridge 

 They crossed by Greta's ancient bridge. 

 Descending where her waters wind, 

 Free for a space and unconfined, 

 As 'scaped from Brignall's dark wood glen 

 She seeks wild Mortham's deeper den. 



The open vale is soon passed o'er, 

 Rokeby though nigh is seen no more ; 

 Sinking 'mid Greta's thickets deep, 

 A wild and darker course they keep ; 

 Broad shadows o'er their passage fell, 

 Deeper and narrower grew the dell. 

 It seemed some mountain rent and riven, 

 A channel for the stream had given, 

 So high the cliffs of limestone grey 

 Hung beetling o'er the torrent's way, 

 Yielding along their rugged base 

 A flinty footi)atirs niggard space. 

 Where he who winds 'twixt rock and wave 

 May hear the headlong torrent rave, 

 And like a steed in frantic fit 

 That flings the froth from curb and bit. 

 May view her chafe her waves to spray 

 O'er every rock that bars her way. 



' When Denmark's Raven soared on high 

 Triumphant through Northumbrian sky. 

 Till hovering near, her fatal croak 

 Bade Reged's Britons dread the yoke, 

 And the broad shadow of her wing 

 Blackened each cataract and spring 

 Where Tees in tumult leaves her source 

 Thundering o'er Caldron and High Force, 

 Beneath the shade the Northmen came. 

 Fixed on each vale a Runic name, 

 Reared high their altar's rugged stone. 

 And gave their gods the land they won. 

 Then Balder, one bleak garth w.xs thine. 

 And one sweet brooklet's silver line, 

 And Woden's Croft did title gain 

 From the stern father of the slain. 

 But to the Monarch of the mace 

 That held in fight the foremost place, 

 To Odin's son and Sifia's spouse 

 Near Starforth high they paid their vows, 

 Remembered Thor's victorious fame. 

 And gave the dell the Thunderer's name. 

 Vet Scald or Kemper erred, I wccn, 

 Who gave that soft and quiet scene. 

 With all its varied light and shade. 

 And every little sunny glade. 

 And the blithe brook that strolls along 

 Its pebbled bed with summer song. 

 To the grim god of blood and scar, 

 The grisly king of northern war. 

 Oh, belter were its banks assigned 

 To spirits of a gentler kind I ' 



April x888. 



