MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE. 57 



work, and sank some shafts, the ganger of the railway being with 

 me. Whilst we were in the midst of the work, a lady and gentleman 

 rode up and anxiously enquired what we were all about ; and whilst 

 I was turning over in my mind how I could give a reply in the fewest 

 words, the ganger cut in and said, " We are trying to strike ile !" 



There is much native humour in our village, and native genius 

 too, though the scanty supply of words the labourer knows presents 

 a formidable barrier across his road to knowledge. But although 

 such fine words as primeval and employe may at present be absent 

 from the labourers' vocabulary, the schoolmaster is abroad ; the 

 County Council is instructing us, and the time apparently is coming 

 when the ploughboy, as he turns the furrow, instead of enjoying 

 that happy state of mind " thinking about nothing," will work out 

 square roots and attempt to solve the problem, '' Why the pebbles 

 he throws out of the boulder clay are water-worn, and how they got 

 there ; " but it will be painful work, for nature never intended the 

 brain and body to work hard together. 



During the deep ploughing lately going on at Kingham Hill, a 

 large skeleton was unearthed, which, judging from the rusty weapons 

 lying near, savants pronounced to be that of a Roman soldier, thus 

 fulfilling a prophecy uttered nearly two thousand years ago : — 



Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum jinibus illis 

 Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro, 

 Exesa inveniet scabra rubigine pila, 

 A ut gravibus rastris, galeas pulsabit inanes, 

 Grandiaque effossis, mirabitur ossa sepulcris.* 



About the same time that the skeleton was found, some workmen 

 turned out of the blue lias clay close by, the bones of a huge 

 fish-lizard, which could easily have snapped up any human warrior 

 coming in its way. Had these bones been found in the dark ages, or 



* " The time shall come when the farmer, who occupies the land there, shall find rusty weapons, and shall 

 wonder at the size of the bones turned up by the ploughshare." My friend, Mr. George Phillips, owns a good 

 deal of the land on Kingham Hill, and the Poet writes : — 



'■'Erg^o inter sese paribus concurrcre teiis, 

 Romanas acies ittrutn vidtre Philipii." 



