The ‘ Bourne. 2% 
the pond which has been deepened out to hold it, and 
which is, too, kept up here by a spring. 
In winter the bourne often has the appearance of 
a broad brook: you may observe where the current 
has arranged the small flints washed in from the 
fields by the rain. As the villages are on the lesser 
‘bournes,’ so the towns are placed on the banks of the 
rivers these fall into. There may generally be found 
a row of villages and hamlets on the last slope of the 
downs, where the hills sink finally away into the plain 
and vale, so that if anyone went along the edge of 
the hills he would naturally think the district well 
populated. But if instead of following the edge he 
penetrated into the interior he would find the precise 
contrary to be the case. Just at the edge there is 
water, the ‘heads’ of the innumerable streams that 
make the vale so verdant. In the days when wealth 
consisted chiefly in flocks and herds, men would 
naturally settle where there were ‘ water-brooks.’ 
When at last the drought ceases, and the rain 
does come, it often pours with tropical vehemence ; 
so that the soil of the fields upon the slopes is carried 
away into the brooks, and the furrows are filled up 
level with the sand washed out from the clods, the 
lighter particles of earth floating suspended in the 
stream, the heavier sand remaining behind. Then, 
sometimes, as the slow labourer lingers over the 
ground, with eyes ever bent downwards, he spies a 
faint glitter, and picks up an antique coin in his 
