32 A Ploughed Field. 



very much smaller ; and there are usually three or 

 four or more in close proximity, divided by the faint 

 green ridges, sometimes roughly resembling in ground- 

 plan the squares of a chess-board. The mound that 

 once enclosed a fir-plantation is much higher, and 

 would be noticed by the most casual observer. It 

 encircles a wide area, often irregular in shape, oval 

 or circular, and does not present the regular internal 

 divisions of the other which, indeed, would be un- 

 necessary and out of place in a copse. 



It has become the fashion of recent years to break 

 up the sward of the downs, to pare off the turf and 

 burn it, and scatter the ashes over the soil newly 

 turned up by the plough ; the idea being mainly to 

 keep more sheep by the aid of turnips and green 

 crops than could be grazed upon the grass. In 

 places it answers in many others not ; after two or 

 three crops the yield sometimes falls to next to noth- 

 ing. There is a ploughed field here right upon the 

 ridge of the down, close to the ancient earthwork, 

 where in dry summers I have seen ripening oats 

 barely a foot high, and barley equally short. With 

 all the resources of modern agriculture, artificial man- 

 ure, deeper ploughing, and more complete cleaning, 

 such results do not seem altogether commensurate with 

 the labor bestowed. Of course it is not alwaj's so, 

 else the enterprise would be at once abandoned, 

 But when I come to think of the ancient tillage in 

 the terraces upon the barren slopes, I find it difficult 

 to see how with their rude implements the men of 

 those times could have procured any sustenance from 

 their soil, unless I suppose the conditions different. 



If there was forest all around, to condense the 



