freestone, a material found very extensively in the neighbourhood.
Highley was an old Saxon manor, which, with Chetton, belonged to the
widow of Leofric--Godiva, of Coventry celebrity. Kinlet, four miles
distant, occupies a picturesque eminence of a horse-shoe form; the church
is an ancient structure, containing noble altar tombs, one of which has a
rich canopy, with the figure of a knight and lady kneeling.



HAMPTON'S LOADE.


Lode was a Saxon term for ford, and the name here, as elsewhere, denotes
an ancient passage of the Severn. In this case, it was one by which the
inhabitants of Highley, Billingsley, and Chelmarsh formerly passed to
Quatt and Alveley. A ferry has long been substituted, but the old load
still winds along the hillside, past an old stone cross, in the direction
of Alveley, an old Saxon manor. The tall grey tower of the old church is
seen from the line, occupying a high position on the right. The building
is an ancient and interesting structure, with many Norman features, and
is greatly admired by antiquarians. Judging from the materials used in
older portions of the building, the first church would appear to have
been built of travertine. Above Hampton's Loade, the wooded heights of
Dudmaston and of Quatford, with the red towers of Quatford Castle, come
into view; but a deviation of the line, and a deep cutting through the
Knoll Sands, prevent more than a passing glimpse. _Quat_ is an old
British word for wood, and refers to a wide stretch of woodland once
included in the great Morfe Forest; and _ford_ to an adjoining passage of
the river--one, half a mile higher up, being still called _Danes' Ford_.
On a bluff headland, rising perpendicularly 100 feet above the Severn,