328 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
verily I wish, could it be without injury to others, that 
the sand of the desert would rise and roll over and 
obliterate the place for ever and ever. 
I need not wish, for I have been conversing again 
with learned folk about this place, and they begin to 
draw my view to certain considerations. These very 
learned men point out to me a number of objections, for 
the question they sceptically put is this: are you quite 
certain that such a village ever existed? In the first 
place, they say, you have only got one other witness be- 
side yourself, and she is aged, and has defective sight ; 
and really we don’t know what to say to accepting such 
evidence unsupported. Secondly, John Brown cannot 
be found to bear testimony. Thirdly, there are no ghosts 
there ; that can be demonstrated. It renders a case un- 
substantial to introduce these flimsy spirits. J ourthly, 
the map is lost, and it might be asked was there ever 
such a map? Fifthly, the people are all gone. Sixthly, 
no one ever saw any particular sparkle on the brook 
there, and the clouds appear to be of the same common- 
place order that go about everywhere. Seventhly, no 
one can find these footpaths, which probably led no- 
where ; and as for the little old man with silver buckles 
on his shoes, it is a story only fit for some one in his 
dotage. You can’t expect grave and considerate men 
to take your story as it stands; they must consult the 
Ordnance Survey and Domesday Book ; and the fact is, 
you have not got the shadow of a foundation on which 
to carry your case into court. I may resent this, but I 
cannot deny that the argument is very black against me, 
‘and I begin to think that my senses have deceived me. 
It is as they say. No one else seems to have seen the 
sparkle on the brook, or heard the music at the hatch, or 
to have felt back through the centuries ; and when I try 
