26 
WARWICKSHIRE STOUR VALLEY AND ITS FLORA. 
botanist past and present. Now' and again the roadside banks 
became too attractive to allow us to pass them by, and then 
we walked and dallied and compared notes ; ultimately we 
reached Honington, where, with thoughtful kindness, I found 
a second breakfast awaiting me. After that we had a good 
turn through the woods and pastures about Honington Hall 
for about four hours, and then returned through the pretty 
Worcestershire village of Tredmgton to dinner—and all the 
time we seemed in a sort of charmed land. Everything about 
me appeared to have fresh interest, for upon even the more 
common plants my companion had something to say, or 
something to tell me which Mr. Borrer, or Dr. Boswell, or 
Mr. Baker, or some other notable botanist had said ; so that 
the time literally fled. But we were not idle talkers merely, 
for though the season was far advanced, and the ground 
covered of small extent, my companion had so well explored 
the district that I found by the entries in my note book we 
had observed in fruit or flower about 234 species. Part of our 
conversation was on the Flora of Warwickshire and the form 
it should take, and it was owing to this conversation that I 
decided upon rewriting the whole matter, and taking the 
water partings of the river basins as the basis of my districts, 
these being, in Mr. Newbould’s estimation, the more natural 
botanical districts. 
Mr. Newbould’s work in this district was, as I have said, 
the first of which I had any record ; altogether he recorded 
about 420 flowering plants and ferns. Included in this were 
some MS. notes (which he had copied from an old Flora) made 
by the Bev. James Gorle, vicar of Whatcote, and were most 
of them from Whatcote, Idlicote, or Halford. 
These notes of Mr. Newbould’s have also been supple¬ 
mented by others kindly sent to me by F. Townsend, Esq. 
After Mr. Newbould’s death, feeling a desire to finish as far 
as circumstances would allow a work so ably begun, I gave a 
portion of my leisure time of 1886-7 to this district, and, 
although my present record exceeds my own expectations, I am 
convinced that much still remains to be done. The district is 
very difficult of access, the nearest railway station at the 
southern extremity being Moreton-in-Marsh, which is two 
miles from the Warwickshire border, has an inconvenient 
service of trains, and is a journey of from three to four hours’ 
duration. The stations on the northern border are Ettington 
and Kineton, both of them being very awkward as regards the 
service of trains. No line of railway or canal penetrates any 
portion of the district, a tramway running from Stratford to 
Moreton-in-Marsh is used for goods only, and seems little 
