142 THE RAVEN 



the name of " Badbury Rings." There, from time 

 immemorial, so tradition said, a pair of ravens had 

 reared their young, and many attempts had been 

 made without success to reach their eyrie. The 

 trees selected were too big in girth to swarm, and 

 the lower branches, for forty feet upward, had dis- 

 appeared. The raven, I knew, was the earliest of all 

 birds to breed, earlier, by some weeks, than the rook 

 and the heron, which are the next to follow it. 



It was the 24th of February, and the snow lay 

 thick on the ground. When school was over at 

 noon, I applied for leave to go to Badbury Rings. 

 My good master, the Rev. J, Penny, after a decent 

 show of objection "the snow was so deep that 

 we could never get there," u the tree so hard that 

 we should never be able to climb it," " the season 

 so backward that no sensible raven would be 

 thinking of laying her eggs yet" gave me the 

 necessary permission. I was accompanied by 

 J. H. Taylor, now of Trinity College, Cambridge. 

 We bought a hammer and a packet of the largest 

 nails we could get, some sixty in number, and some 

 ten inches long, and we set out on our expedition ; 

 but, what with the weight of the nails and hammer, 

 and the depth of the snow, and our losing our way, 

 for a time, near the half-way village of Spetisbury, 



