52 Source of a Brook. 



nearing the hills ; and here the way widens ont — first 

 fifty, then a hundred 3'ards across — green sward 

 dotted with furze and some brake fern, and bunches 

 of tough dry grass. Above on the summit is another 

 ancient camp, and below two more turf-grown tumuli, 

 low and shaped like an inverted bowl. Many more 

 have been ploughed down, doubtless, in the course 

 of the years : sometimes still, as the share ti'avels 

 through the soil there is a sudden jerk, and a scrap- 

 ing sound of iron against stone. 



The ploughman eagerly tears away the earth, and 

 moves the stone to find a thin jar, as he thinks — in 

 fact, a funeral urn. Like all uneducated people, in 

 the far East as well as in the West, he is imbued 

 with the idea of finding hidden treasure, and breaks 

 the urn in pieces to discover — nothing ; it is empty. 

 He will carry the fragments home to the farm, when, 

 after a moment's curiosity, they will be thrown aside 

 with potsherds, and finally used to mend the floor of 

 the cowpen. The track winds away yet further, over 

 hill after hill ; but a summer's day is not long enough 

 to trace it to the end. 



In the narrow valley far below the frowning ram- 

 parts of the ancient fort that has been more specially 

 described a beautiful spring breaks forth. Three 

 irregularly circular green spots, brighter in color than 

 the dry herbage around, mark the outlets of the 

 crevices in the earth through which the clear water 

 finds its wa}^ to the surface. Three tiny threads 

 of water, each accompanied b}' its riband of verdant 

 grasses, meander downwards some few yards, and 

 then unite and form a little stream. Then the water 

 in its channel first becomes visible, ghstening in the 



