CHAPTER VIII. 



A MOORLAND LEGEND. 



REARIEST of all the spots upon dreary Quickmoor 

 is the small town of Kingsford. Indeed it is not so 

 much a town as a settlement, and its sombre 

 character arises from the fact that it is a convict settlement. 

 The surrounding prospects, to the rambler who has any sort 

 of love for the beauties of Nature, cannot fail to please, 

 though they are utterly destitute of the softer graces of an 

 English landscape. The scenery is famous for its wildness, 

 for its solitary expanses, for its rugged alternations of grassy 

 waste and hills crowned with frowning blocks of granite. 



The Government, searching for a region as far removed 

 as possible from the busy haunts of cheerful men, fixed 

 upon Quickmoor, creating a double solitude, and calling it 

 a convict establishment. Hither were brought criminals 

 born, criminals bred, criminals by accident, criminals by 

 election ; criminals doomed never more to mingle with their 

 fellow-men ; criminals sentenced to varying terms of punish- 

 ment; criminals who, coming forth repentant, should, spite 

 of the difficulties which an imperfect penal and social system 

 built up in their path, strive to lead a better life, and 



