Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/192

 90 front, which, with the deep ravines intersecting them, give a romantic and pleasing character to the slopes, much heightened in summer and autumn by the large rich purple flowers of the foxglove, and the deep yellow of the furze.

From the summit of the Worcestershire Beacon, (the highest point of the range, and commanding a most extensive panoramic view over several counties,) the eye wanders towards the east over an immense and apparently perfectly level country, studded with villages and towns, and threaded by the windings of the Severn. In the west are seen hills of various forms and sizes, rising one behind the other for several miles, covered with wood, and intersected by deep vallies. On the eastern side the descent is at first very precipitous, and then the slope is gradual into the plain just noticed; on the west the primitive hills mingle themselves with the secondary, at a greater elevation. In the former direction the horizon is bounded by the low lias escarpments of east Worcestershire and Warwickshire, and the öolite of Bredon, Cheltenham, and Gloucester; in the latter by the black mountains, and other hills in South Wales and Shropshire.

Along the base of the Malvern hills, on either side, is a purely agricultural country. On the east lie the parishes of Great and Little Malvern, Hanley Castle, Welland, Leigh, Madresfield, and the chapelry of Newland, forming the eastern division of the district under consideration. The soil here, near the hills, is of a dry gravelly nature, resulting from the disintegration of the materials which compose the constituent rock; it contains, in large