The forest was about
sixteen miles in circumference, and in the centre was a point from which
eight roads diverged. We had walked about a mile on our way when we came
to some men working on the roads, who knew the country well, and
strongly advised us not to cross the forest, but to walk over the downs
instead. We decided to follow their advice, for the difficulty that
first occurred to us was that when we got to the eight roads there might
be no one there to direct us on our further way; and we quite saw the
force of the remark of one of the men when he said it was far better to
get lost on the down, where we could see for miles, than amongst the
bushes and trees in the forest. They could only give us general
information about the best way to get to Stonehenge, for it was a long
way off, but when we got to the downs we must keep the big hill well to
the left, and we should find plenty of roads leading across them. We
travelled as directed, and found that the "big hill" was the Inkpen
Beacon, over a thousand feet above sea-level, and the highest chalk down
cliff in England; while the "plenty of roads" were more in the nature of
unfenced tracks; still, we were fortunate in finding one leading in the
right direction for Stonehenge and almost straight.
Pages:
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884