Pictures of Nature in the Silurian Region Around the Malvern Hills and Vale of Severn

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856. Excerpt: ... SURVEY OF THE VALE OF SEVERN FROM WORCESTER TO BEWDLEY, WITH PA8SING NOTICES OF GEOLOGICAL FACTS ON THE FORMER EXTENT OF THE SEVERN ESTUARY; AND DESCRIPTIONS OF SEVERAL RAMBLES ABOUT HARTLEBURY COMMON, WYRE FOREST, AND HABBERLEY VALLEY. Now Where shall our dwelling be? Under the brow Of some steep mossy hill, where ivy dun Would hide us up, although spring leaves were none; And where dark yew-trees, as we rustle through, Will drop their scarlet berry-cups of dew? O, thou would'st joy to live in such a place 1 Keats. Ages have passed since the salt waters of the Severn estuary pressed on into the heart of England, and cut erosively the Red Sandstone cliffs of Bridgnorth, still scored with their water-marks. Farther back in the mists of time, a channel of the sea extended through Cheshire, and cut off the mountainous principality from the sister-shores to which it is at present joined. The marks of this former channel being clearest in the Severn valley, opposite to the wavy ridges of Malvern, Sir Roderick Murchison appositely distinguished this inlet in his Silurian System by the name of the Malvern Straits. The extent of the ancient strait is shown by the terraces of boulders and gravel that occur on either side of the Severn; but more especially on the western banks, at a considerable height above the present bed of the river, as near Ball's Mill, Grimley, Henwick, Bromwich, and other localities. The boulders, principally about the size of a fist, though often much larger, consist of a great variety of igneous and other rocks, all rounded by the action of the water, and forming beds of several feet in thickness. This Northern Drift, as it has been called, extends a great distance along the eastern WATER-CHANGES IN THE VALE OF SEVERN. 255 frontier of...