46 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



advantage of, having seen terraces where not the 

 faintest trace of cultivation was visible. It is not 

 always easy either to distinguish between the genuine 

 enclosures of ancient days and the trenches left after 

 the decay of comparatively modern fir plantations, 

 which it is usual to surround with a low mound and 

 ditch. Long after the fir trees have died out the 

 green mound remains ; but there are rules by which 

 the two, with a little care, may be distinguished. 



The ancient field, in the first place, is generally 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 unnecessary and 

 nut 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 nothing. 

 There is a ploughed field here right upon the ridge of 

 the down, close to the ancient earthwork, where in 



