Common Beetles of our Countryside 



out more and more through the heather in little shelves 

 and ridges, we reach the summit, possibly the highest 

 point for miles round. Behind and below us lie the 

 involved slopes and undulations of the brown moors, 

 and far beneath in the valley we can just see here and 

 there among its trees the glimmer of the main river; 

 on the other side the peaks of loftier mountains cut 

 the distant sky-line, and as we approach the top we 

 may notice traces of a broad depression surrounding 

 the heaps of tumbled stones that form the actual 

 summit. This was in fact once an entrenchment, and 

 these scattered stones the remains of some fortified 

 stronghold in the long-forgotten tribal feuds of Kelt 

 or Cymry. Such ruins crown the summits of many 

 of these Welsh Border Hills, their history, builders 

 and purpose lost ages ago, but in the word Ccw 

 and our hill is probably Car something or another, 

 familiar in such Cymric names as Caernarvon, or 

 Caergwyle, or in the Irish Cahir, we have the dim 

 echo 



" Of old, unhappy, far off things ) 



And battles long ago " 



but now the only sound that breaks the silence of the 

 hills is the distant whistle of the golden plover or 

 the wail of the curlew on the moorland somewhere 

 beneath us. 



Here, then, among these relics of forgotten days, we 

 may enjoy our frugal lunch and comfortable pipe, 

 and then begin again to poke about among the stones 

 that surround us. No doubt we shall meet again 



50 



