WILTSHIRE LANDSCAPE. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE SOUTH DOWNS. WILTSHIRE LANDSCAPE. CHALK AND FLINT. IRRIGA 

 TION. THE COST AND PROFIT OF WATER-MEADOWS. SEWERAGE WATER. 

 IRRIGATION IN OLD TIMES. 



SOON after leaving Warminster, began a very different 

 style of landscape from what I have before seen : long 

 ranges and large groups of high hills with gentle and grace 

 fully undulating slopes ; broad and deep dells between and 

 within them, through w T hich flow in tortuous channels streamlets 

 of exceedingly pure, sparkling water. These hills are bare of 

 trees, except rarely a close body of them, covering a space of 

 perhaps an acre, and evidently planted by man. Within the 

 shelter of these you will sometimes see that there is a large 

 farm-house with a small range of stables. The valleys are 

 cultivated, but the hills in greater part are covered, without 

 the slightest variety, except what arises from the changing 

 contour of the ground, with short, wiry grass, standing thinly, 

 but sufficiently close to give the appearance, at a little dis 

 tance from the eye, of a smooth, velvetty, green surface. 

 Among the first of the hills I observed, at a high elevation, 

 long angular ramparts and earth-works, all greened over. 

 &quot;Within them and at the summit of the hill were several ex 

 tensive tumuli, evidently artificial, (though I find nothing 

 about it in the books,) and on the top of one of these was a 

 shepherd and dog and a large flock of sheep, clear and coldly 

 distinct, and appearing of gigantic size against the leaden 



