Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/72

 A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE to the north-eastern extremity of the county the boundary sweeps round over New Red Sandstone in a wide semicircle, between the points of which, on Warwickshire soil, stands the city of Birmingham. From the north-eastern corner the boundary turns suddenly in a nearly southerly direction over the Red Marl, until in the neighbourhood of Inkberrow it passes on to the Lias formation, having enclosed the Bromsgrove Lickey, with all its curious variety of geological structure, where the Beacon Hill rises to a height of 956 feet. Below Inkberrow the boundary meets the Avon, and, crossing the river, plunges into the hilly district of the Cotswolds, becoming extremely irregular, and stretching down to the south-east, where a number of isolated portions of the county reach to within some fifteen miles of Oxford. Here a section of the Oolitic system is brought within the limits of Worcestershire. The south- eastern promontory of the mainland of the county is Broadway, which rises at the Beacon to 1,024 ^^^t. The southern boundary of the county is perhaps the most irregular of all, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire penetrating each other in great lobes ; it crosses Bredon Hill, 848 feet high, and, sinking down to the level of the Severn at Tewkesbury, bends sharply back to leave the parish of Twyning to Gloucestershire ; and after more irregularities, having crossed the Severn, turns to the north at Redmarley d'Abitot, and meets again the Malvern Hills. The surface of Worcestershire generally is undulating and diversified, the only portion of comparatively flat land being that known as the Vale of Evesham, largely occupied at the present time with market gardens. In the south and west of the county hops are largely cultivated, a few hopyards only being found to the east of Worcester. Apple and pear orchards are a feature of the same districts ; and these trees grow not only in orchards, but are scattered thickly in the hedgerows. No orchards, however, occur in the north and east of the county, and with them disappear also hedgerow trees of the same kind. Here also the mistletoe, so plentiful in the orchards of the west, and on poplars and other kinds of trees, is quite unknown. The feature of the hedgerow timber of Worcestershire is the small-leaved elm, Ulmus campestris, which flourishes to such an extent in the red marl and sandstone that it has gained the name of the ' Worcestershire weed.' In the north-east of the county the general level rises considerably, and encloses the Lickey Hills, which are an island of altered Cambrian rock rising out of Red Sandstone and Permian formations. The aspect of this part of the county, with that of the Permian and coal measures further to the north, is markedly bleaker and colder than that of the valley of the Severn. On the Lickey the bilberry flourishes, and the hills are clothed with ling and heather, all plants that are unknown in south-east Worcestershire. The holly grows extensively on the lower slopes of these hills, and the hedgerows sometimes for considerable distances are formed exclusively of this plant. XJlex Gallii flourishes abundantly on this high land, as it does throughout the county where the height is some 500 feet above the sea, except in the Cotswold district. 34