400 A Hay with the Field-Clubs. 



greenstone, "white and pink quartz, and many rarer minerals. 

 The mass of the rock is felspathie, like that of Malvern, 

 with tufaceous heaps of half-burnt cinders, and sandstones 

 and conglomerates changed by heat into shattered quartzose 

 and granitic blocks. Attracted by the prospect of a pleasant 

 country lane, and in the expectation of making a short cut to 

 Caer Caradoc. I had turned off from the read with a small 

 party, immediately after repassing Hazlar gate. We enjoyed 

 for some distance the rural character of the road we had thus 

 taken ; but we soon found, that instead of easing our walk, we 

 had to pass over the ridge of au intermediate, though not very 

 elevated hill, and our progress was rendered somewhat difficult 

 by the luxuriance of the ferns which covered it. On our way up, 

 Hope Bowdler hill presented a bold mass on our right, stretching 

 out from the south-west to the north-east nearly parallel with 

 Caradoc, and we had a very distinct view of the singular object 

 on its side, which the peasantry call the Battle Stone; and 

 thev tell us in their lesrendarv traditions of sansruinarv engfao>e- 

 ments which took place in this valley, and how the prisoners 

 were carried up the hill to be beheaded on this stone — it being 

 then, of course, the custom thus to treat any unfortunate 

 captives. The stone is a porphyritic mass, with red stains, 

 which seem to have suggested to the popular mind these tales 

 of slaughter. The descent of the hill we had to pass was found 

 steeper than the ascent, and it was uncomfortably marshy at the 

 bottom ; and we had to cross a marsh and a stream before wo 

 stood in the middle of the valley, with the mighty mass of Caer 

 Caradoc before us. This place of meeting had, as it will have been 

 already seen, been fixed entirely on its geological claims, for 

 the district over which we were wandering presented no great 

 interest to the botanist, and not much to the archaeologist. 

 The faces of the hills are covered mostly with rather stunted 

 gorse, heather, and wild thyme, sprinkled over with the bluo 

 hairbell, and there are few plants of any rarity. The Drosera 

 rotund] [folia, or sun-dew, is said to be found in these marshy 

 spots at the foots of the hills, though if so, it is very rare ; but 

 the Pinguicula vulgaris, or butterwort, an exquisitely beau- 

 tiful purple flower, grows here abundantly. 



The Caradoc range is, as already indicated, a mass of ex- 

 tremely abrupt mountains running from S.AV.to X.10., highest at 

 its north-eastern end, where Caer Caradoc rises to an elevation, 

 according to the ordnance survey, of full 12U0 feet above the 

 level of the sea. The elevation is most considerable from the 

 plain on the west, on which side its summit is almost inac- 

 ssible, but on the eastern side it is less elevated, because it 

 rises from an elevated valley ; nevertheless, especially on such 

 a sultry day as the loth of August, it required both courage 



