LOCAL OCCURRENCES IN NATURAL HISTORY. 
61 
would form a valuable fund for occasional contributions to the “ Transactions” 
which I could have wished the Society to publish. The Council, however, 
having never embarked upon such an enterprize while I continued among them, 
my materials have remained in a great degree undisposed of, with the exception 
of such as I have communicated to Dr. Hastings for the enlargement of his 
lecture illustrative of the Natural History of Worcestershire, delivered before the 
Society in 1833.* Although, therefore, I was disappointed in this respect, and 
although, from other circumstances, my official connection with the Society I had 
assisted to found has terminated, I have not altogether lost sight of the object I 
originally contemplated. I have indeed removed lower down the vale of Severn, 
but still occupy a position on its western banks; and though not now actually in 
the strictly legal limits of Worcestershire, I reside on a tract of Gloucestershire 
dove-tailed within it, and thus still have my old-father county on three sides 
of me. 
“ Shall old acquaintance be forgot, 
And never brought to mind ?’’ 
No, indeed, my powers of thought and memory are not yet quite extinct. 
I have only intruded these personal particulars to “ show cause” why I venture 
to describe any local occurrences at all in the district I have indicated. If any 
one chooses- to dispute the ground with me, let him be prepared to shiver a good 
stout lance; and if not, then I presume I shall stand excused for the employment 
of my humble materials, even if ultimately they should only prove a collection 
from which others may elaborate a more perfect structure. I care not who 
extracts from me for any object they may entertain, if they will only at the same 
time acknowledge the source of their information. I intend to proceed with my 
6i local occurrences” in the following order 
I. Present Aspect of the District, with Geological Facts and Inferences. 
II. Rivers, Streams, and Marshes, with reference to Meteorological phe¬ 
nomena. 
III. Plants and trees—their habitats, Influences, and Peculiarities. 
IV. Facts and Occurrences relative to the History and Appearances of the 
Indigenous Animals. 
Dyer, whose poem of The Fleece , marks him at any rate as a very faithful 
observer, has called the vale of Severn “ Nature’s Garden wide,” in allusion to its 
fertility and beauty; and whoever, under the influence of a bright sun and clear 
sky, has traced the country from the Severn to the purple ridges of Malvern, and 
marked the wild hedge Roses trailing abundantly from the luxuriant hedges, the 
festooning Hops dangling from their array of poles, the picturesque sweep of the 
* See Hastings, Illust. of Nat. Hist. Worcest 8vo., Pref., pp. 69, 97,99, &c., and Appendix, c. 
