222 ON SURREY HILLS. 



CHAPTER VII. 



A FOREST-FIRE. 



I HAVE mentioned the forest-fires. An account of 

 the largest of these which I witnessed may not be 

 uninteresting. 



" The weather keeps very hot," I remarked to a 

 woodman, as I passed down a glade one evening 

 after a ramble over the moor. 



"Yes, it is hot. There's bin a good spell on it 

 now, nigh on to a couple of months. All under foot 

 is dry as tinder. The top on it, I mean ; it don't 

 meddle with the root part o' things ; for all these 

 hills is chock-full of water, up to their very tops. 

 But there ; you knows all about that. I see ye 

 roamin' about many a time, and wonders what ye 

 find." 



