WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 63 



from the sea. The eagles of old Rome, perhaps, were 

 borne along it, and yet earlier the chariots of the 

 Britons may have used it traces of all have been 

 found ; so that for fifteen centuries this track of the 

 primitive peoples has maintained its existence through 

 the strange changes of the times, till now in the 

 season the cumbrous steam-ploughing engines jolt and 

 strain and pant over the uneven turf. 



To-day, entering the ancient way, eight miles or so 

 from the great earthwork, hitherto the central post 

 of observation, I turn my face once more towards its 

 distant rampart, just visible, showing over the hills 

 a line drawn against the sky. Here, whence I start, 

 is another such a camp, with mound and fosse ; be- 

 yond the one I have more closely described some 

 four miles is still a third, all connected by the same 

 green track running along the ridges of the downs 

 and entirely independent of the roads of modern 

 days. They form a chain of forts on the edge of the 

 downland overlooking the vale. At starting the 

 track is but just distinguishable from the general 

 sward of the hill : the ruts are overgrown with grass ; 

 but the tough " tussocky " kind, in which the hares 

 hide, avoids the path, and by its edge marks the way. 

 Soon the ground sinks, and then the cornfields ap- 

 proach, extending on either hand barley, already 

 bending under the weight of the awn, swaying with 

 every gentle breath of air, stronger oats and wheat, 

 broad squares of swede and turnip and dark-green 

 mangold. 



