. A west country pilgrimage . castramentations of old time. So unchanging appeared thisplace that little imagination was needed to bring back the pastand revive a vanished century when the legions flashed wherenow the great trees frowned and a hive of men, loosed froma hundred galleys, swarmed hither to dig the ditches andpile these venerable earthworks for a stronghold. Thus the place lay in the lap of that tenebrous hour andwaited for the warm rain to loose its fountains of sap andbrush the loneliness with waking and welcoming green. Itendured and hoped and seemed to turn blind eyes from the
. A west country pilgrimage . castramentations of old time. So unchanging appeared thisplace that little imagination was needed to bring back the pastand revive a vanished century when the legions flashed wherenow the great trees frowned and a hive of men, loosed froma hundred galleys, swarmed hither to dig the ditches andpile these venerable earthworks for a stronghold. Thus the place lay in the lap of that tenebrous hour andwaited for the warm rain to loose its fountains of sap andbrush the loneliness with waking and welcoming green. Itendured and hoped and seemed to turn blind eyes from thepond and bog upward to question the gathering clouds. Nigh me, a persistent and inquiring thrush clamoured 18 from a pine. I could see his amber, speckled bosom shaking with his song. Why did he do it? Why did he do it ? Why did he?He had asked the question a thousand times; and then a dark bird, that flapped high and heavy through the grey air, answered him. God knows ! God knows 1 croaked the carrion crow. 19 DAWLISH WARREN. s ?¥? * * There is a spit of land that runs across the estuary of theExe, and as the centuries pass, the sea plays pranks with few hundred years ago the tideway opened to the West,not far from the red cliffs that tower there, and then Exmouthand the Warren were one; but now it is at Exmouth that thelong sands are separated from the shore and, past that littleport, the ships go up the river, while the eastern end of theWarren joins the mainland. So it has stood within mansmemory; but now, as though tired of this arrangement,wind and sea are modifying the place again, for the one hasfound a new path in the midst, and the other has blown atthe sand dunes until their heads are reduced by many feetfrom their old altitude. These sands are many-coloured, for over the yellow stapleprevails a delicate and changing harmony of various tones,now rose, now blue, as though a million minute shining par-ticles were reflecting the light of the sky and bringing it to
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