17 AUGUST 1912, Page 17

[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."] StE,—A cerrespondent of

yours, in the Speetatorof August 10 th speaks of the view of the Severn Valley, seen from Cleeve Hill, above Cheltenham, as one of the finest in England. Few, I should think, would differ from his opinion. But in describing that view be makes a strange mistake. " Bounded to the right," he says, " by the clearly cut outline of the Malvern range, which, being of mountain limestone, has the genuine mountain form." The picturesque outline of the Malvern Hills arises from their being composed throughout of igneous rock, syenite mingled with quartz and mica, their origin having been volcanic, as a submarine reef, in a remote Silurian age. This has been fully explained in "The History of the Malverns," lately published, to which I refer your