An Illusion 31 



was also thick and dark. I walked slowly along with, a 

 gun, on the inner side of a great hedge which hid the hills, 

 waiting every now and then behind a projecting bush for 

 a rabbit to come out — a couple being wanted. In heavy 

 rain, such as had lasted all day, they generally remain 

 within their 'buries ' — or if one slips out, he usually keeps 

 on the bank, sheltered by stoles and trees, and nibbling a 

 little of the grass that grows there and is comparatively 

 dry. But as evening approaches and the rain ceases, 

 they naturally come forth to break a long fast, and may 

 then be shot. 



Some little time passed thus, when, in sauntering 

 along, I came to a gap in the hedge, and glanced through 

 it in the direction of the downs, there partly visible. The 

 idea at once occurred to me that the part of the hills seen 

 through the gap was remarkably high — very much higher 

 and more mountainous than any I had ever visited ; and 

 actually, in the abstraction of the moment, half-intent on 

 the rabbits and half perhaps thinking of other things, I 

 resolved to explore that section more thoroughly. Yet, 

 after walking a few yards further, somehow it seemed 

 singular that the great elevation of this down should 

 never previously have been so apparent. In short, grow- 

 ing curious in the matter, I returned to the gap and looked 

 again. 



There was no mistake : there was the down rising up 

 against the sky — a huge dusky mountainous hill, exactly 

 the same in outline as I remembered it, quite familiar, and 

 yet entirely strange. There was the old barn near the foot 

 of the slope ; above it the black line of a low hedge and 

 mound ; on the summit the same old clump of trees ; and 

 lastly, a tall column of black smoke rising upwards, as if 

 from a steam plough at work. It was all just the same, 



