176 



Yorkshire Naturalisis at Ripon. 



Fountains Abbey. The party met at the Town Hall, Ripon, 

 where they were received by the Town Clerk, and a few minutes 

 were spent in inspecting- the little museum which is at present 

 stored there. The building of the new Ripon Spa Baths and 

 Pump Room has displaced the old museum formed by the Ripon 

 naturalists, though it is understood that a new and much more 

 convenient home will shortly be prepared for its reception. 

 The collection, though containing some odds and ends more 

 curious than edifying, is one of great value. The party 

 inspected with special interest an excellent collection of cole- 

 optera made by Lord Ripon himself in the days before his 

 political duties had diverted him from that active participation 

 in scientific ^vork in which he delighted as a young man. The 

 charters of the city, some other of its ancient records, and 

 the remains of its once extensive but now sadly diminished 

 store of silver plate w-ere also exhibited and inspected. 



Leaving the Town Hall at about eleven o'clock the party 

 made their way, under the guidance of Mr. B. M. Smith and 

 Mr. T. Pratt, by Borrage Lane, to the banks of the Skell, and 

 follow^ed that stream up its course to Fountains Abbey. For a 

 mile or so upward from its junction with the Laver, the Skell is 

 a fast running stream, sunk in a deep gully in almost flat lands, 

 and with little picturesqueness to boast of. Presently the valley 

 closed in with low-wooded hills, and the Mackershaw^ Woods 

 w^ere reached. Here the joys of the botanists really began. All 

 through the wood the way was carpeted with Primroses and 

 Wood Anemones, with here and there a patch of Avens or of 

 Garlic coming into flower, or a fine head of the Spotted Orchis. 

 And every tree, except the still gaunt Ash and Elm, was 

 beginning to put on ' her mantle green.' The Lily of the Valley 

 also grew in abundance. Very likely it is truly w^ld, though 

 botanists are a little apt to look with suspicion, as perhaps due 

 to human interferance with nature, on records for such plants 

 in localities which have received so much attention from the 

 gardener as Studley. 



Beyond the woods the river flows in a narrow valley shut in 

 with high cliffs of the Permian, and crossed with numerous little 

 rustic footbridges. The lake from which the Skell flows — the 

 lake which is so important a feature of the scenery by the 

 entrance to the grounds of Fountains Abbey — was at the moment 

 drained, and a foot or so of the mud from the bottom was being 

 removed, a little railway having been constructed to facilitate 

 the w^ork. The examination of the mud-heap provided abundant 



Naturalist, 



