20 A PHILOSOPHER WITH NATURE 



represents a corner of the earth where the Celt 

 has struggled for ages with his compeers, where he 

 has met the Roman, and mingled with the Saxon 

 and his kindred, and left a rich compost which has 

 wonderfully fermented and fertilized the world. 

 But the tide of history has flowed round rather than 

 over these plains. Yonder on the horizon where 

 the limestone hills climb upward, the Romans came 

 to the lead mines and the road ran west and east 

 to meet the Roman fosse which crossed the country 

 to the ancient Aquae Solis the modern city of Bath. 

 On the slopes of the hills the Roman villas rose and 

 flourished. But when the soldiers of the second 

 legion under the Emperor Claudius looked out 

 from the heights over this country they saw only a 

 swamp and the waters of an inland lake with the 

 Tor which is now Glastonbury rising at one end. 

 The inland lake has gone, and the swamp has been 

 partly reclaimed. But it has become a land of 

 water-courses overgrown with tall bushes, and deep 

 rhines, which carry the drainage to the sea. It is 

 for this reason a country in which wild nature 

 has remained in large part unchanged for cen- 

 turies. 



In the still warm air the rooks sail overhead carry- 

 ing in their throats to their young the food which 

 they have gathered in the open country. The 

 distant cawing of the birds at the nests in the elms 

 round the hamlets far at the foot of the hills just 

 reaches the ears and suggests an infinite tranquillity. 

 In the nearer stillness the subdued krack, krack 

 of a moor-hen in one of the water-leads comes on 

 the air mingled with the twittering notes of the 

 swallows as they skim the surface. Down the wind 



