34 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



of villages and hamlets on the last slope of the downs, 

 where the hills sink finally away into the plain and 

 vale, so that if any one went along the edge of the 

 hills he would naturally think the district well popu- 

 lated. But if instead of following the edge he pene- 

 trated into the interior he would find the precise 

 contrary to be the case. Just at the edge there is 

 water the " heads " of the innumerable streams that 

 make the vale so verdant. In the days when wealth 

 consisted chiefly in flocks and herds, men would natu- 

 rally settle where there were " water-brooks.' 1 



When at last the drought ceases, and the rain does 

 come, it pours often with tropical vehemence ; so that 

 the soil of the fields upon the slopes is carried away 

 into the brooks, and the furrows are filled up level 

 with the sand washed out from the clods, the lighter 

 particles of earth floating suspended in the stream, 

 the heavier sand remaining behind. Then sometimes, 

 as the slow labourer lingers over the ground, with eyes 

 ever bent downwards, he spies a faint glitter, and 

 picks up an antique coin in his horny fingers : coins 

 are generally found after a shower, on the same prin- 

 ciple that the gold-seekers wash away the auriferous 

 soil in the " cradle," and lay bare the yellow atoms. 

 Such coins, too, are sometimes of the same precious 

 metal, ancient and rude. Sometimes the edge of the 

 hoe clinks against a coin, thus at last discovered after 

 so many centuries, yet which for years must have 

 lain so near the surface as to have been turned over 

 and over again by the ploughshare, though unnoticed. 



