42 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



to swell the ranks of the denizens of the 

 cities. 



It was at Amesbury, a few miles farther 

 down the vale, that Cobbett wrote up his notes 

 after he had changed his wet clothes at 

 the inn on 29th August 1826. Once a 

 quiet village, Amesbury has now sprawled 

 into a joyless, motor-haunted town, and I soon 

 left this close petrol-perfumed atmosphere to 

 take to the open thyme-scented Plain. 



As I stepped out on to the open Plain, so 

 generous of space and so niggard of homes, an 

 airship, the wonder of the new world, hovered 

 over the mystery of the old — Stonehenge. 

 Though man has equipped himself with wings, 

 Hodge, isolated, with bent back and toil- 

 smitten hand, still works with prehistoric 

 implements on land that is not his, at a wage 

 of 12s. a week. Yet it is on his labour that 

 the world of Science and the Avhole fabric of 

 our Civilisation ultimately rests. 



