Hill Wells. 23 



piled up above the plain is added, the difficulty be- 

 comes extreme. 



On walking round the entrenchment at the bottom 

 of the fosse, and keeping an eye upon the herbage 

 the best of all guides one spot may be noticed where 

 there grows a little of that ' rowetty ' grass seen in 

 the damp furrows of the meadows. But there is no 

 sign whatever of a basin or excavation to catch and 

 contain this slight moisture slight indeed, for the 

 earth is as hard and impenetrable here as elsewhere, 

 and this faint moisture is evidently caused by the 

 rainfall draining down the slope of the rampart. 

 Looking next outside the works for the source of such 

 a supply, a spring will be found in a deep coombe, or 

 bottom, about eight hundred yards say, half a mile 

 from the nearest part of the fosse, reckoning in a 

 straight line. Then, in bringing up water from this 

 spring, which may be supposed to have been done in 

 skins, a double ascent had to be made : first up on to 

 the level plateau, here very^ narrow, next up the steep 

 down itself. Those only who have had experience of 

 the immense labor of watering cattle on the hills can 

 estimate the work this must have been. An idea is 

 obtained of the value of an elevated position in early 

 warfare, when men for the sake of its advantage were 

 found willing to submit to such toil. 



That, however, is not all foraging parties fetch- 

 ing water must have been liable to be cut off from the 

 main body ; there were no cannon then to cover a 

 sortie, and if the eneny were in sufficient force and 

 took possession of the spring, they could compel an 

 engagement, or drive the besieged to surrender rather 

 than endure the tortures of thirst. So that a study of 



