434 



MODERN DISLOCATIONS. — LANDSLIPS, ETC. 



Modern Dislocations. — Landslips. — The Wonder. 



Passing from the great dislocations of former periods, let us now consider the minor 

 ones of modern date which come under the name of landslips. 



The Upper Ludlow rock is strikingly laid bare at several points on the left bank of the Wye, 

 particularly above the high road from Hereford to Ross, in the woody hills of Fownhope Park, and 

 at the brewery, where the high angle of inclination, 65° to 70°, occasions at this day considerable 

 slips of the beds into the low ground beneath. 



The most striking example, however, of the sliding down of one mass of strata upon another, 

 occurred on the eastern side of the valley of Woolhope, near the village of Putley, and on the ex- 

 terior slope of Marcle Hill. Our ancient chronicler Stowe has given a most portentous account of 

 the phenomenon, which is thus described by Camden, vol. ii. p. 443. "Near to the confluence of 

 the Lugg and Wye to the east, a hill called Marclay Hill, in the year 1575, rose as it were from 

 sleep, and for three days moved on its vast body, with an horrible noise, driving every thing before 

 to an higher ground, to the great astonishment of the beholders, by that sort of earthquake I sup- 

 pose, which naturalists call Brasmatia V On visiting the spot I found the phenomena to be similar 



1 Fuller says, " the field moved was twenty acres, and that it travelled fourteen hours, and ascended eleven 

 fathoms up hill, leaving a chasm 400 feet wide and 520 long." Baker, in his Chronicle, gives a much more 

 marvellous account. "In the 13th Queen Elizabeth a prodigious earthquake happened in the east parts of 

 Herefordshire, at a little town called Kinaston. On the 17th of February, at six in the evening, the earth 

 began to open, and a hill with a rock under it, making at first a great bellowing noise, which was heard a great 

 way off, lifted itself up and began to travel, bearing along with it the trees that grew upon it, the sheepfolds 

 and flocks of sheep abiding there at the same time. In the place from whence it was first moved, it left a 

 gaping distance, forty feet broad and fourscore ells long, the which field was about twenty acres. Passing 

 along, it overthrew a chapel standing in the way, removed a yew tree standing in the church-yard from the west 

 to the east. With the like force it thrust before it highways, sheepfolds and trees, made tilled ground pasture, 

 and again turned pasture into tillage. Having walked in this sort from Saturday evening till monday noon it- 

 then stood still." — This spot is still called " the wonder." 



Drayton notices it thus, 



" But, Marcely, grieu'd that he, (the neerest of the rest, 

 And of the mountain kind) not bidden was a guest 

 Vnto this nuptiall feast, so hardly it doth take, 

 (As, meaning for the same his station to forsake) 

 *Inrag'd and mad with griefe, himself in two did rive : 

 The trees and hedges neere, before him up doth drive, 

 And dropping headlong downe three daies together fall : 

 Which, bellowing as he went, the rockes did so aphall, 

 That they him passage made, who coats and chappels crusht, 

 So violentlie he into his valley rusht." 



* " Alluding to a prodigious division of Marcle Hill, in an earthquake of late time (cio.d.lxx.v), which most 

 of all was in these parts of the island." — Drayton's Polyolbion, book vii. p. 105. Ed. London, 1622. 



The notes in this best edition of the Polyolbion were by the famous John Selden. My friend the Rev. T. 

 T. Lewis, who called my attention to old Drayton, begs me to refer my readers to the whole passage describing 

 the marriage of the Wye and more lovely Lugg. 



