Grantsfield in 1884, and are said on page 173 of the Transactions of that year to have been discovered whilst digging a drain on the Heath Farm at Laysters.

Mr. Moore here made some observations upon the subject of barrows or tumuli, first drawing attention to the fact of their frequent propinquity to Churches. If the tumulus were erected first, a natural reverence for the monuments of the departed might attract worshippers to build a Church in the vicinity; whilst the selection of a commanding and conspicuous situation would apply equally to the Church and to the tumulus. That a prominent site was preferred for the tumulus we learn from the translation by Mr. J. H. Kemble, 1837, of the Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf, whose dying request was that his people should raise a mound "on the place of his funeral pile" proportionate to the celebrity of the hero's deeds. The same poem throws light upon the ceremonies accompanying the act of burial.

Command the war-chiefs

to make a mound

bright after the funeral fire

upon the nose of the promontory;
which shall for a memorial

to my people

rise high aloft

on Hronesness;

that the sea-sailors

may afterwards call it

Beowulf's barrow,

when the Brentings

over the darkness of the floods

shall sail afar.

BEOWULF, line 5599.

They accordingly raised a mighty funeral pile to burn his corpse; it was

"This mound or barrow, synonymous with the Latin word tumulus, eventually became a low or meeting place for the people, a term still used in Derbyshire, derived from hlæw, a hillock, and retained in such names as [Ludlow,] Arborlow in Derbyshire, where there is a circle of mounds, Bartlow, in the parish of Ashdon, Essex, where there is a group of Roman tumuli, Eastlow Hill, at Rougham, in Suffolk, where a body was found entire, which had not undergone cremation, Hounslow, &c. Barrow (beorg, beorh, bearw), the technical term adopted for all these ancient sepulchral mounds, appears to be still retained in Sussex and elsewhere in the name burgh."*

Looking round our own county, we find tumuli at King's Caple, St. Weonard's, Thruxton, Kingsland, Eardisland, Aston, and probably several others might be mentioned, in close vicinity to the Church. The tumulus at St. Weonard's was opened by Mr. Thomas Wright in 1855, and therein were found ashes, mixed with charcoal and fragments of human bones, vaulted over with large rough stones, conclusively proving that it was a sepulchral monument. The tumulus at Thruxton has also been opened but with no satisfactory result, probably due to the absence of supervision of experienced explorers. Mr. Moore exhibited a drawing of the explorations upon the five tumuli on the Ludlow racecourse, of which an account from the pen of Mr. Charles Fortey is printed in Archæologia Cambrensis, 1887, and Mr. Fortey, being present, took up the cue and personally explained the proceedings and the many discoveries there made. Mr. Moore next proceeded to point out how, by the exploration of tumuli, much light had been thrown upon the domestic surroundings, not only of the Anglo-Saxons, but of the Romans, and of the early Britons, owing to the custom of interment of almost every conceivable article of dress, of ornament, and of domestic use, together with the body, and in case of the Romans, a coin, obolus, to propitiate Charon and to pay the passage in his boat, carefully noting the exception that warlike weapons are never found in Roman graves. Reference was made to the erroneous title of Celt given indiscriminately to every implement which resembled an axe or axe-head, whether it were made of flint or any other hard rock, of bronze, or of any other material, as misleading; this name should only be applied to the smaller instruments, such as chisels, from Celtis, a chisel. From the The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, by Thomas Wright, 5th edition, 1892.

For the very early use of knives and flints, reference was made to Joshua v., verse 2, and to Exodus iv., verse 25, best read in the revised version of the Bible. In conclusion Mr. Moore insisted that no attempt to open a tumulus should ever be initiated without a consultation through our delegate, Rev. J. O. Bevan, with the Committee of Aid of experts appointed by the British Association for the advancement of science.

From Laysters Church the members walked to what is known as the Poet's Stone, a massive piece of local Red Sandstone, formerly six feet long by four feet broad, and two feet deep, now split in twain, probably in the process of removal from the opposite side of the road where it was originally situated in the time of Wordsworth. The stone is about a quarter of a mile east of the Church, on the right-hand side of the road leading from Church House to Tenbury, and commands an extensive and charming view much appreciated by the late poet, overlooking Tenbury in the foreground below, and on the horizon the Clee Hills, High Vinnals, Black Mountains, and other heights. The initials of the poet W.W. over those of his wife M. W., with the date October 22nd, 1845, are inscribed upon the stone. In the Sunny Bank Dingle, just below the stone, may be observed the process of the formation of travertine by the incrustations of carbonate of lime, dissolved from the cornstones of the locality, redeposited upon mosses and other vegetation.

Upon resuming their seats in the carriages, the members commenced the return journey by the conspicuous Poplar trees at Leysters, on an elevation of 714 feet, gradually descending towards the Church called Middleton-on-the-Hill, where a bench mark on the north-west angle of the Church showed, by the Ordnance Map, an elevation of 414 feet. Here the Members were met by the Vicar, Mr. Hutchinson, and the party from Grantsfield. The Curate, the Rev. P. J. Oliver Minos, took great pains in pointing out the architectural features, though it must be confessed, with all gratitude for his painstaking, that the visitors did not agree with his views as regarded the Saxon work. The Church dedicated to St. Mary is a very fine Norman building, consisting of nave, with a fine tower of later date at the west end. The chancel is divided from the nave by a massive Norman arch, which is pierced above by a round-headed opening. There are two Norman doorways: one on the north, walled up; the other on the south, with a wooden porch, as we see in many Churches of the period in Herefordshire, even smaller than the one now under consideration. Each has the Norman zigzag pattern around the arches, with plain tympanum. On the south side of the chancel there is a priest's doorway of Norman character. The tower arch is very massive, and slightly Pointed, apparently Transitional. There are some small beautiful Norman lights on both sides of the nave and chancel. There is an Early Decorated window in the east end of the chancel, forming a triplet. In the south wall an Early English window has been inserted at a later period, some of the Norman arch coinciding with the one opposite still existing, although the Pointed character has been slightly introduced in the process of alteration. In the north wall of the chancel the Norman light with original arch, and finely splayed sides, has not been interfered with. The tower is very massive, rising in three stages;

the lower part six feet thick, is lighted by long narrow lancets; the upper storey is of later architecture, and the windows are very much wider. The font, early Norman, has a circular bowl with simple Norman enrichments, and stands on a circular shaft without any basement. In the chancel wall on the south side is a double piscina under one arch, and there is a small plain aumbry in both the north and south walls.

From Middleton Church the members returned to Leominster, re-entering the main road near Ashton Camp, which was visited by the Club on June 19th, 1884 (see Transactions, page 174). The trees, the greenery, the beautiful floral display of the May trees in the park of Berrington Hall, formed a beautiful picture, whilst fauna of many species gave animation to the scene. A Heron flew over-head from the large heronry preserved by Lord Rodney. The only other heronry in Herefordshire is at Letton Court. The dinner at the Royal Oak Hotel gave much satisfaction. It was followed by a paper read by the Rev. Joseph Barker on "The pre-Reformation Bells of the Churches visited during the day," and some extracts bearing on "Lemster ore were read by the Rev. Sir George H. Cornewall, from an original copy of Michael Drayton's "Polyolbion."

THE PRIORY

CHURCH

OF

LEOMINSTER.

By Rev. A. G. EDOUART, M.A., Vicar of Leominster.

Read before the Members of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club on the occasion of their visiting the Church on May 31st, 1892.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, by way of introduction to the subject of the Paper I am about to read to you, I would observe that not only hallowed and personal, but historical associations entwine themselves around our ancient Parish Churches, of which the venerable Priory Church of Leominster is one. They are identified, I may say, with the history of the Christian Church from the beginning. In these consecrated houses of God have assembled for generations and ages past the professing children of God, the members of Christ's visible body. Their history, lost in antiquity, unites us in communion with the early Christians and with Apostolic times. Often in the very spots, sometimes in parts of the very walls of churches still standing, faithful Christians have worshipped their God a thousand or twelve hundred years ago, or it may be even much further back than this. These remarks are singularly applicable to the noble Church your society has this day come to visit, which on account of its great antiquity is by no means devoid of historical associations and interest.

The Priory Church of Leominster originally belonged to the Monastery founded by Leofric, Earl of Mercia, who largely endowed it, and is unquestionably of very early date. Leland, the old historian, says it was built before the Norman Conquest, and assuming the late Sir Gilbert G. Scott to be correct in his opinion that the Inscription which encircles the remarkable Fresco of the Wheel of Time in S. Anthony's Chapel, the present Baptistry, supposed to be the only one of its kind discovered or to be found in England, is in Saxon characters, there is good reason for believing that Leland is not far wrong, and that the Norman portion of the Church at least was standing before the Conquest. Anyway, the gable-roofed windows in the North Aisle are in the style of architecture which existed prior to the commencement of the Saxon Heptarchy. Be this as it may, it is certain that the Priory Church of Leominster existed many years before the foundation of Hereford Cathedral was laid, and is said to have been the Mother Church of the whole district. In point of antiquity it undoubtedly ranks with the oldest Church now existing in this kingdom.

It is, however, more probable that the Norman Nave, which forms a part of the present Church, and is 125 feet long, was built during the first half of the 12th century, or possibly in part towards the end of the 11th century. It was originally a cruciform structure with central tower; its choir was apsidal with a continuous aisle or ambulatory round its eastern end, from which branched out three Chapels, one of which was dedicated to St. Mary, another to the Holy Trinity, and the third to Our Lady of Pity, to each of which was assigned a Priest; each of these Chapels was also separately endowed. To the eastern side