308 THE MAGPIE 



being one of the last refuges of the raven in Dorset, 

 there are a large number of deep circular pits, 

 dispersed at intervals over its surface, without an 

 angle in the whole, and tapering down to a compara- 

 tively narrow point. They are not the work of human 

 hands ; but geologists are not yet agreed as to their 

 exact cause. One of them, Culpepper's Bowl, is 

 large enough to conceal an ambuscade of a thousand 

 men, and deep enough to hide from view the well- 

 grown oaks or mountain-ashes which grow within it. 

 Some of these pits lie concealed "under the green- 

 wood tree " ; all of them are " far from the madding 

 crowd " ; and are still, in their little way, sanctuaries 

 of wild life. The shelving banks of sand and peat 

 are clothed, in summer, with bracken which often 

 out-tops the head, and are honeycombed with 

 rabbit burrows. At the bottom of one of the 

 pits, a fox may often be found taking his siesta, 

 after his night-long wanderings, safe from the 

 "view-halloo," and with his favourite prey close 

 by and ready for his mouth ; while, at the 

 bottom of a neighbouring pit, I have often 

 disturbed a roe-deer, a truant from Yellowham 

 Wood, where, as in most of the larger covers in 

 Dorset, they are to be found in numbers ; for Dorset, 

 alone of English counties, can boast of the 



