66 By Stream and Sea. 



we are to have no speeches, but I have been ten minutes or 

 more preparing one, and I mean to let it off." 



After Hazel Manor we resume our drive, first to the 

 Charterhouse Mines, where we have a number of Roman- 

 remains to inspect, an amphitheatre to visit, and two more 

 brief lectures from the prebendary to hear, with much 

 scaling of stone fences to vary the proceedings. If time 

 did not press we might linger here to advantage, and look 

 about us at the lead mines. The Romans appear to have 

 discovered that the Mendips were rich in lead, lying near 

 the surface, and it is found worth while even now to re-smelt 

 the scoriae. Amongst the curiously valuable remains taken 

 from time to time out of the old workings are some Roman 

 coins of the very earliest times, but not a Saxon example 

 has ever been discovered. Evening, however, steals upon 

 us apace, and, bringing our inspections to a close, we start 

 once more, and for our final stage. We have to see the 

 Cheddar Cliffs, over which Edward the Martyr, hunting on 

 the moorland, narrowly escaped the fate of deer and dogs, 

 which terminated a right royal chase by dashing headlong 

 over a precipice. 



If the Cheddar Pass were in the centre of some far-off 

 land Englishmen would probably be much better acquainted 

 with it than they are. Of our own party of six-and-twenty, 

 two-thirds admit that they know little or nothing about 

 Cheddar, except in connection with cheeses of that name. 

 To be strictly accurate, it should be added that a very few 

 confessed to a vague idea that there were some cliffs some- 

 where thereabouts, very fine in their way. We all, how- 

 ever, formed decidedly definite opinions of Cheddar before 

 we had done with it — words could not express our admira- 

 tion of the unique .pass. But this is anticipating. 



The descent from the elevated plain is fairly steep, but 



