SUGAR-LOAF HILL AND HOLY WELL. 17 



even been said that this was the sepulchre of the 



British prince. Who knows '? 



" I cannot say how the truth may be, 

 I say the tale as 'twas said to me." 



But they are pleasant things to chat about, these olcl 

 legends. I give you this for what it is worth. 

 Anyhow, it is very delightful to look around us from 

 such a vantage ground, the Farm, the Eailway and 

 the Town in the foreground, and beyond, " the white 

 sails of ships " on the left the old cliffs of the 

 Warren, to which we mean to devote another ramble, 

 and here, down the steep slope on the right is a 

 curiously shaped recess in the escarpment, the lower 

 portion of which is covered by the quiet waters of 

 Holy Well, fed by two or three streams issuing from 

 the base of the chalk. Why " Holy " Well I cannot 

 say, we must again fall back on tradition ; it is also 

 " Lady Well," and about a mile from it over the 

 brow is " Lady Wood," but whether any connexion 

 exists or ever has existed between the two is all un- 

 known. We might indeed, give full and free scope 

 to our imagination without incurring any severe 

 criticism. The hand of man is evident all around, 

 the artificial bankings and smoothings of the surface, 

 the made road now covered with grass leading up to 

 the top, speak plainly enough of his work. May we 

 not think of an old Religious House standing here, 

 whose inmates drank of the cool clear waters of these 

 springs in the clays when Christianity was less of a 

 " civilized heathenism " and more of a grand reality 

 in the world than it is now ; when men instead of 

 sayinrj " I believe, "fdt it, lived it, and acted it out 

 when " their religion " as Carlyle says " wastf/f great 



c 



