198 TRENCH GARDENS 



been excavated and shaped upon the downs even 

 in those earliest days of all, when fear of wolves 

 was greater than the fear of other men, remains to 

 us who come long after. Here short, dense turf 

 quickly spreads over each raised barrier of earth, 

 over the level platforms that were built for men to 

 stand on and hurl projectiles down upon the bodies 

 of rapacious animals, over the raised walks where 

 Roman sentries paced at night, and above the 

 hollows and cup -like forms that alone remain to 

 show where in those days of long ago dew-ponds 

 provided water. " Shepherds' steps " are what the 

 platforms now are called, and indeed they form 

 snug resting-places whence those solitary, silent 

 men can look down upon their flocks as they graze 

 below. 



During the anxious dark nights that all grow 

 accustomed to just now, when the wind drops and 

 maybe foreign aircraft hover hawklike above our 

 heads, it is well for active bands of newly-trained 

 soldiers to grow familiar with each good hiding- 

 place. I became suddenly aware of this, whilst 

 walking one afternoon along a level space near the 

 highest part of Mount Caburn. I had passed the 

 spot where the Fairy Rings, with their half-moons 

 of dark tufted grass, always attract attention, and 

 was looking towards a gap in a distant line of hills, 

 through which the sea with its fishing boats and the 

 smoke of steamers can be seen, when suddenly I 

 perceived five khaki soldier hats above the edge of 

 the deep turf-covered dyke that surrounds the old 

 British fort. My first instinct was to walk on 

 without appearing to notice, for I suspected some 



