Bindon Hill 229 



he has prepared for you a smooth track of soft elastic 

 sward, which carries you up till all your real labour 

 is over ; and then, when you are getting hot and tired, 

 he has ready for you without fail a cool breeze — a 

 breeze like a happy conversation with a friend you 

 prize, in which you can lie down in solitude and yet 

 not be alone. This is so on most days from May till 

 October ; on every day, that is, which you would 

 naturally choose for a walk along these noble hills. 



Bindon's individuality, then, is chiefly to be ex- 

 plained by his isolation, and I am much inclined to 

 think that the animal life in which he abounds 

 is in a measure isolated too. And this is made 

 all the more likely, as I fancy, by the fact that 

 Bindon has a lowland territory which is all his own, 

 quite distinct from his turfy uplands. Within his 

 mighty embrace, on the side towards the sea, there 

 Kes at his feet a space of land a mile long, and in 

 its broadest part a third of a mile wide, which is 

 completely shut in by the sea beyond it, by the 

 precipitous cliffs of Bindon's two extremities, and by 

 his own steep slopes rising from, the whole length 

 of it to the northward. It is cultivated, but care- 

 lessly ; for it is naturally exposed to the salt breezes, 

 and the farmer to whom it belongs can only reach 

 it by a rough chalky track which crosses Bindon 

 at an angle like a pipeclayed shoulder-belt. His 

 great waggons cannot be taken over this, but you 



