THE ROUND OF THE SEASON 137 



Old snow-drifts usually lie under the crags of Cross 

 Fell right into June. 



As the long winter passes, and the days lengthen, 

 the shepherds begin to turn their flocks up into the 

 walled-in pastures of the lower fell sides. They are 

 chary of turning them right up on to the higher 

 bleak tops too soon, for fear of losing them in the 

 occasional late spring snowstorms. 



The man who happens to have been born in a 

 land of fells and mountain becks knows intuitively 

 that the seasons of the shepherd run in parallel lines 

 to those of the fisherman. 



When the autumn days grow short and chill, and 

 the trout begin to leave the Eden to go up the 

 becks, the sheep begin to come down from the high 

 pastures. When the days lengthen into spring the 

 trout move down again with every little flood, and 

 the old ewes of the sheep flocks, wintering in the 

 valley, get restless, and long once more for their old 

 haunts among the heather. 



Landmarks stand out prominently in this valley 

 of my story, and they are both weather breeders 

 and weather tellers. It is customary there to asso- 

 ciate places and conditions with one- another: e.g., 

 when the weather is bad in the early autumn the 

 local people say, " It's Brough Hill weather." 

 Brough Hill is the place of the great local horse 



