WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 37 



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

 bottom, about 800 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 labour 

 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 fetching 

 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 enemy 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 these English hills widely different as are the con- 

 ditions of time and place may throw a strong light 

 upon many an incident of ancient history. There are 

 no traces remaining of any covered way or hollow 

 dike leading down the slope in the direction of the 

 spring ; but some such traces do seem to exhibit 

 themselves in two places at the rear of the earth- 

 work along the ridge of the hill, and down the steepest 

 and shortest ascent. The first does not come up to 

 the entrenchment, being separated by a wide interval ; 



