/A 777.fi- WEALD 8 1 
miles away, it may be, but that is not considered any 
distance in this district. 
' How far am I from the next village ? ' I once 
asked. 
' You are close on it,' was the answer ; ' 'tis about 
two miles, or a little over.' 
From the top of the bridge to the bed of the 
trickling stream below will be from ten to fifteen feet. 
It is the natural channel that the water has cut for it- 
self through layers of clay and slabstone. The marks 
on the water-posts reach up nearly to the belly of a 
cart-horse. This is the safe-distance mark. A white 
bar projects for all to see, and when this is covered no 
one attempts to put a horse through the stream. 
It is very pleasant to look over one of these small 
bridges of one arch only, in midsummer, and to watch 
the trout shoot over a shallow, with hardly enough 
water to cover his back-fins, into some hole beyond it. 
But it is a different matter when summer has gone ; 
for I have seen the bridges covered, and only the tops 
of the white posts showing above water, and a rushing 
torrent, both wide and deep, passing through the 
woodlands, making the tops of the young trees bend 
and sway with its force, and sending the kingfishers, 
which are numerous here, and other shy things, close 
to the roadside. I have seen kingfishers perched 
G 
