CHAPTER XII 



SHROPSHIRE AND JACK MYTTON 



After having finished our work in Brecknockshire we 

 returned to Kington for a few months, doing office-work and 

 odd jobs of surveying in the surrounding country. Among 

 these what most interested me was the country around Lud- 

 low, in Shropshire, where there are beautiful valleys enclosed 

 by steep low hills, often luxuriantly wooded, and watered by 

 rapid streams of pure and sparkling water. I had by this 

 time acquired some little knowledge of geology, and was 

 interested in again being in an Old Red Sandstone country, 

 which formation I had become well acquainted with in 

 Brecknockshire, and which is so different from the Upper 

 Silurian shales so prevalent in Radnorshire. In this country 

 we were near the boundary of the two formations, and there 

 were also occasional patches of limestone, and at every bit of 

 rock that appeared during our work I used to stop a few 

 moments to examine closely, and see which of the formations 

 it belonged to. This was easily decided by the physical 

 character of the rocks, which, though both varied consider- 

 ably, had yet certain marked characteristics that distinguished 

 them. 



One day we were at work in a park near a country house 

 named " Whittern," and my brother took a pencil sketch of it 

 in his field-book. Just as he was finishing it the owner came 

 out and talked with him, and seeing he was something of an 

 artist, went to the house and brought out a portfolio of 

 drawings in sepia, by his daughter, of views in the park and 

 in the surrounding country. These seemed to me exceed- 

 ingly well done and effective, and, of course, my brother 

 praised them, but, as I thought, only moderately, and as 



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