Battle-field in the Park. 63 



nature, is somewhat superstitious, and regards this 

 place as ' unkid ' — i.e. weird, uncanny. One particu- 

 lar green ' drive ' into the wood opening on the park 

 had always been believed to be a part of a military 

 track used many ages ago, but long since ploughed 

 up for the greater part of its length, and only pre- 

 served here by the accident of passing through a 

 wood. At last some labourers grubbing trees near 

 the mouth of the drive came upon a number of human 

 skeletons, close beneath the surface, and in their con- 

 fused arrangement presenting every sign of hasty in- 

 terment, as if after battle. Since then the keeper 

 avoids the spot ; nor will he, hardy as he is, go near 

 it at night ; not even in the summer moonlight, when 

 the night is merely a prolongation of the day. 



There is nothing unusual in such a discovery : 

 skeletons are found in all manner of places. I re- 

 collect seeing one dug out from the bank of a brook 

 within two feet of the stream. The place was per- 

 haps in the olden time covered with forest (traces of 

 forest are to be found everywhere, as in the names of 

 hamlets), and therefore more concealed than at pre- 

 sent. Or, possibly, the stream, in the slow passage 

 of centuries, may have worn its way far from its 

 original bed. 



It is strange to think of, yet it is true enough, 



