Malvern Hills

“ Near the middle of England, where the Malvern Hills rise abruptly to a height of nearly 1,400 feet above the sea, is the double-peaked rugged Raggedstone hill about which several strange old legends centre. A restless spirit is said to haunt the bleaker portions of the summit, but a stranger legend is that of the Shadow Curse, called down upon this hill by a monk of Little Malvern in the olden time. ”

“ It is a land of rolling pastures, rising in higher folds to the westwards, until they swell into the Malvern Hills. There are no towns, but numerous villages, each with its grey Norman church. You have left the brick of the southern and eastern counties behind you, and everything is stone—stone for the walls, and lichened slabs of stone for the roofs. ”

“ Beyond a few paradise ducks feeding on the burnt patches, or an occasional family of wild pigs, we met with no animal life. Quail used to be abundant, but the run fires were fast destroying them. We had before us the nearing view of the Malvern Hills, the sloping pine forests and scrub, with the long, undulating spurs running back to the foot of great snow-clad peaks. ”

“ The subject cannot be said to lack charm. Border lands, marshes, passes are always romantic. No bagman can cross the Tweed without emotion. The wanderer on the Malvern Hills soon learns to turn his eyes from the dull eastward plain to where they can be feasted on the dim outlines of wild Wales. ”

“ Great Malvern occupies a fine position in the centre of the Chase of Malvern, on the slopes of the hills, and those who can walk find the latter very attractive, as the air is bracing and the view very fine. ”

“ The hamlet of Malvern Wells, in the parish of Hanley Castle, is about two miles from Great Malvern; its situation is not quite so elevated, nor are the contiguous hills quite so high, but its local peculiarities are of the same character as those of Great Malvern: the water is equally, even if not more pure, and claims a longer period of celebrity. There are many delightful walks on the hills in the vicinity, and its quiet retirement, even in the height of the season, is preferred by many persons to the more bustling scenes at this time in Great Malvern. ”

“ Worcester to Hereford.—To Malvern splendid; between Malvern and Ledbury ascent 1 in 9, descent 1 in 11 in crossing the Malvern Hills, then very good road to Hereford, with only trifling hills.
PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE Buildwas Abbey.—A beautiful ruin. ”

“ The priory was the nucleus about which gathered the town, or, properly speaking, the towns, for there are a series of them, all well-known watering-places. Great Malvern has North Malvern alongside it and Malvern Link on the lower hills, while to the southward are Malvern Wells and Little Malvern, with West Malvern over on the Hereford side of the ridge. They are aggregations of pretty villas, and the many invalids who seek their relief are drawn about in Bath-chairs by little donkeys. ”

“ I am therefore of opinion, that the fragmented appearance arises from a disposition in the rock to split into small irregular pieces with decomposed surfaces, a peculiarity I have already noticed as being common to most of the unstratified rocks of the Malvern hills.
§29. In a lower part of the hill, and close by the high road, there is a very loosely aggregated red and white quartzose sandstone, accompanied with patches of reddish-brown clay, containing fragments of a granitic rock, and of the sandstone itself. The situation of this sandstone is remarkable ”

“ Becoming a notorious haunt of criminals, the tract was disafforested by Charles I., with the exception of a portion known as the King’s Chase, part of which is included in the present common-land formed under the Malvern Hills Act of 1884. ”

“ The Fundamental Crystalline and Volcanic Rocks of the Malverns, the Wrekin, And Charnwood Forest.
The rocks which undoubtedly occupy the lowest place in the geological formations of the Birmingham district are those crystalline and partly schistose masses which form the core of the Malvern Hills; and certain well-marked volcanic rocks which occur at the Wrekin and Nuneaton, and which appear to have their equivalents in the great igneous series of Charnwood Forest. ”

“ High ground, of an elevation from 500 to 800 ft., separates the various valleys, while on the eastern boundary rise the Malvern Hills, reaching 1194 ft. in the Herefordshire Beacon, and 1395 ft. in the Worcestershire Beacon, and on the boundary with Brecknockshire the Black Mountains exceed 2000 ft. The scenery of the Wye, with its wooded and often precipitous banks, is famous, the most noteworthy point in this county being about Symond’s Yat, on the Gloucestershire border below Ross. ”

“ Torlesse, when snow began to fall; as it continued day and night, I thought it prudent to start at once, and return to my home in the Malvern Hills before it became too deep to travel. Reaching the River Kowai, and descending its steep terrace bank, I found, near a small empty hut, some tents occupied by a surveying party, with Dr. Haast, lately come from Germany to take the post of Government Geologist in Canterbury. They advised me to stay the night with them, as snow was falling heavily and it was unlikely that I could complete my journey before darkness set in. ”

“ Around the western and northern edge of the Old Red Sandstone plain the underlying Silurian rocks (and even the Cambrian and Archaean in places) have been bent up so that their edges form hills of singular abruptness and beauty. Of these are the Malvern Hills, east of Hereford, and in particular the hills of Shropshire. Wenlock Edge, running from south-west to north-east, is an escarpment of Silurian limestone, while the broad upland of Long Mynd, nearly parallel to it on the north, is a mass of Archaean rock. ”

“ This accordingly has been done from the south end of the Malvern hills to Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, and the sub-formations have been found always to maintain the same order of superposition, although occasionally one or more members may be absent. In general they are easily distinguishable from each other, except when the Upper and Lower Red and Mottled sandstones chance to be brought together by faults. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Telford spanned the Severn with an arch of stone 150 feet in diameter, and below Gloucester the railway runs on a viaduct across the meadows, Alney Island, and the river. The valley now is becoming very wide, and seems to hint that before long the Severn will broaden into an estuary. The river begins to swing in huge curves through the level meadows. The tidal wave, called “the bore,” sometimes [Pg 123] attains a considerable height, and is one of its “wonders.” The Malvern Hills have receded into the background, and their place is taken by May Hill, famous among geologists ”

“ In this we are perpetually getting blue distances from the slightest elevation, which are rendered more decidedly so by their contrast with warm corn or plowed fields in the foreground. Such is the greater part of England. The view from the hills of Malvern is a good example. In districts of this kind, all is change; one year's crop has no memory of its predecessor; all is activity, prosperity, and usefulness: nothing is left to the imagination; there is no obscurity, no poetry, no nonsense: the colors of the landscape are bright and varied ”

“ Parkinson's Observations on 324 Gneiss, in the Island of Guernsey, 9-in the Malvern Hills 302 Granite, different situations of, in Cornwall, 109, 116, 141, 144, 148, 150, 154-in the Malvern Hills, 285, and particular nature of it, 286—Contact of the, with the incumbent rocks in the vicinity of Dublin 271 page Granite Veins, in the Isle of Sercq, 18—in Jersey, 21—in Dartmoor, 119—at St. ”

“ 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 ”

“ But ah, the sod what thousands meet!—
⁠Does Malvern Wood
Bethink itself, and muse and brood?
⁠We elms of Malvern Hill
⁠Remember every thing;
⁠But sap the twig will fill:
⁠Wag the world how it will,
⁠Leaves must be green in Spring. ”

“ It is fifty-five miles south-west of Little Rock, but to reach it the traveller must leave the Iron Mountain road at Malvern for a ride over a branch line of some twenty miles. Unfortunately this is a narrow-gauge road, and however ill a person may be, a change of cars must be made at Malvern. This is a serious annoyance, and it is a wonder that the main railways and the hotel and bath keepers have not united to rid themselves of the monopoly of the narrow-gauge road.
The valley of the Springs is over seven hundred feet above the sea; the country is rough and broken ”

“ The first stratified rock that is exposed in turning round the End-hill from Great Malvern, is a coarse-grained sandstone of a purplish-brown colour, composed of rounded and angular fragments of quartz and felspar, but chiefly of the former, few of them exceeding the size of a pea. This rock is loosely aggregated, particularly in those parts where the fragments are largest, as the ferro-argillaceous cement is in very small quantity, and even appears to be itself composed of minute grains. It occurs in strata seldom exceeding a foot in thickness, in a vertical position, and bearing N. and S. ”

“ There are here several hydropathic establishments, and beautiful pleasure gardens. Malvern College, founded in 1862, is an important English public school. A museum is attached to it. Mineral waters are manufactured. At Malvern Wells, 21/2 m. S., are the principal medicinal springs, also the celebrated Holy Well, the water of which is of perfect purity. There are extensive fishponds and hatcheries; and golf-links. The Great Western railway has a station, and the Midland one at Hanley Road. ”

“ Do your best to-day—do your best."
"We'll mind you, Marse Robert, we'll mind you!" cried the troops, and went by shouting.
Somewhere down the Quaker Road the word "Malvern Hill" seemed to drop from the skies. "Malvern Hill. Malvern Hill. They're all massed on Malvern Hill. Three hundred and forty guns. And on the James the gunboats. Malvern Hill. Malvern Hill. Malvern Hill."
A man in line with Edward described the place. "My last year at William and Mary I spent Christmas at Westover. We hunted over all Malvern Hill. It rises one hundred and fifty feet, and the top's a mile across. ”

“ The winding James flows by Deep Bottom and Turkey Bend, and one elongated neck of land after another, passing the noted battlefield of Malvern Hill, which ended General McClellan's disastrous "Seven Days" of battles and retreat from the Chickahominy swamps in 1862. The great ridge of Malvern Hill stretches away from the river towards the northwest, and in that final battle which checked the Confederate pursuit it was a vast amphitheatre terraced with tier upon tier of artillery, the gunboats in the river joining in the Union defense. ”

“ He can let his fancy roam up and down the vague past, with nothing, except the possible surrender of Caractacus to the Romans, very definitely important to hinder it, from the dawn of time to the year 1842, when the Priessnitz system of water-cure chose Malvern the capital of English hydropathy. The Wells of Malvern had always been famous for their healing properties, and now modern faith added itself to ancient superstition, and from the centre of belief thus established, a hydropathic religion spread throughout England. ”

“ That night the sharp shooters spent in bivouac near the ground on which they were to fight the next day. At dawn on the 1st of July the men were aroused, and proceeding to the front were ordered into line as skirmishers, their line covering the extreme left of the Union army directly in front of the main approach to the position. Malvern Hill, so called, is a hill only as it is viewed from the southern or [Pg 51] western side; to the north and east the ground is only slightly descending from the highest elevation. ”

“ Some threw up their arms and fell, or, crashing to earth with a wounded horse, disentangled themselves and stumbled on through the iron rain. The sun drew close to the vast and melancholy forests across the river. Through a rift in the smoke, there came a long and crimson shaft. It reddened the river, then struck across the shallows to Malvern Hill, suffused with a bloody tinge wood and field and the marshes by the creeks, then splintered against the hilltop and made a hundred guns to gleam. The wind heightened, lifting the smoke and driving it northward. ”

“ When the history of the War for the Union comes to be written at a later day, and when the petty jealousies and misunderstandings are discarded which now embarrass all contemporary records,—it is scarcely to be doubted that the battle of Malvern Hill will be set down as the most terrible conflict ever known on this continent; the most splendid artillery duel of any country or any age; a crowning test of indomitable bravery on the part of both loyalists and rebels ”