SUMMER IN SOMERSET. 273 
put last, and must never be omitted; thus, instead of 
saying ‘I bought this at Taunton,’ it is correct to say ‘I 
bought this to Taunton.’ There are models under glass 
cases in places of entertainment with a notice to say 
that if a penny be inserted the machine willgo. Audrey 
the Little would not speak, but when a penny was put 
in her hand she began to move, and made off for home 
with the treasure. The road turned and turned, but 
whichever way the Barle was always under us, and the 
red rock rose high at the side. This rock fractures 
aslant if worked, vast flakes come out, and the cleavage 
is so natural that until closely approached a quarry 
appears a cliff. Stone got out in squares, or cut down 
straight, leaves an artificial wall ; these rocks cannot be 
made to look artificial, and if painted a quarry would be 
certainly quite indistinguishable from a natural precipice. 
Entering a little town (Dulverton) the road is jammed 
tight between cottages: so narrow is the lane that foot 
passengers huddle up in doorways to avoid the touch of 
the wheels, and the windows of the houscs are protected 
by iron bars like cages lest the splash-boards should 
crack the glass. Nowhere in :closest-built London is 
there such a lane—one would imagine land to be dear 
indeed. The farm labourers, filing homewards after 
their day’s work, each carry poles of oak or fagots on 
their shoulders for their hearths, generally oak branches ; 
it is their perquisite. The oak somehow takes root 
among the interstices of the stones of this rocky land. 
Past the houses the rush! rush! of the brown Barle 
rises again in the still evening air. 
From the Devon border I drifted like a leaf detached 
from a tree, across to a deep coombe in the Quantock 
Hills. The vast hollow is made for repose and lotus-eating; 
its very shape, like ahammock, indicates idleness. There 
T 
