488 Horace B. Woodivard — A Ramble Across the Mendips. 



the lai'gest is, I believe, not sliown to visitors. I went over one, 

 but there was very little to see in it, no stalactites, and merely piles 

 of old bones, which had been collected together by Mr. Beard. 



To the left are the villages of Eowberrow and Shipham, where 

 some of the most active lead and zinc workings have been carried 

 on. About a century ago there were upwards of a hundred mines 

 being worked at Shipham ; many of these, it is said, were in the 

 street, some in the yards, and a few even in the houses 1 Most of 

 the zinc has been worked out, and, indeed, all over the Mendip 

 Hills the surface has been tolerably well explored. It remains to be 

 proved whether deeper mining will be profitable. 



Let us now gain the summit of the hill, between Shutshelve and 

 "Wavering Down, and have a peep over the country to the south of 

 the Mendips, a broad tract of Alluvium and moor-land for some 

 distance, but very diversified further south, and with plenty to 

 interest one. 



It is worth while ascending to the summit of Crook Peak or Black- 

 down, which is the highest point of the Mendips, about 1092 feet, in 

 order to obtain the splendid view over the country which they afford. 

 To the north Dundry Hill and the Oolitic escarpment near Bath 

 bound the view ; to the west we peep over the Bristol Channel, and 

 we can just distinguish the dim outline of the Grlamorganshire coast ; 

 while southwards we overlook the plains of Sedgemoor, with the 

 conical Tor of Glastonbury, and the equally conspicuous Knoll of 

 Brent. In the distance across Bridgewater Bay we may see the 

 Quantock Hills, and further east the outline of the Black Down hills 

 of Devonshire. 



Here we descend the hills, and skirt along their base through the 

 little market town of Axbridge to Cheddar, and then make our way 

 towards the cliffs, which look like a great rent in the Mendip range. 

 The best way to view the cliffs is to drive from Wells by way of 

 Priddy, and then to enter them gradually from their weakest point 

 on the summit of the hills ; thence they become grander and grander, 

 until they abruptly terminate, and we enter upon the moors. As 

 we proceed along the carriage road, which winds along the gorge, 

 we find the cliffs on our left far more abrupt than those on our right, 

 which rise more gradually, and are often obscured by a great talug 

 of fallen fragments. On the left the cliffs are very grand, and impo- 

 sing. The '• Wind Eock " is 480 feet, and the " High Eock " 345 

 feet. They are often perpendicular, and even overhanging, now 

 appearing like "bold pinnacles," then as "shattered battlements," 

 with here and there a yew tree, and the bare rocks, diversified in 

 many places by shrubs and mantles of ivy. In winter time the 

 IDath is rendered very dangerous from the masses of rock which fre- 

 quently fall into the road, dislodged by the action of frost. 



These cliffs are no doubt formed by the agency of rain and 

 streams, with both chemical and mechanical action. The dip of the 

 limestone, which is on the abrupt side away from the cliffs, and on 

 the opposite sloping side towards them, has no doubt greatly in- 



