metimes necessary to grasp
the bunches of grass; for it would have been impossible to recover from
a slip till, bruised and shaken, you rolled to the bottom, and perhaps
into the little streamlet flowing through the hollow.

The summit was of small extent, but the view beautiful. A low fence of
withy had long since decayed, nothing but a few rotten stakes remaining
at the very verge of the precipice. Steep as it was, there were some
ledges that the rabbits frequented, making their homes in mid-air.
Further along, the slope, a little less perpendicular, was covered with
nut-tree bushes, where you could scramble down by holding to the boughs.
There was a tradition of a fox-hunter, in the excitement of the chase,
forcing his horse to descend through these bushes and actually reaching
the level meadows below in safety.

Impossible as it seemed, yet when the hounds were in full cry beneath it
was easy to understand that in the eagerness of the moment a horseman at
the top might feel tempted to join the stirring scene at any risk: for
the fox frequently ran just below, making along the line of coverts; and
from that narrow perch on the cliff the whole field came into sight at
once. There was Reynard slipping ahead, and two or more fields behind
the foremost of the pack, while the rest, rushing after, made the hills
resound with their chiding. The leaders taking the hedges, the main
squadron splashing through a marshy place, the outsiders straining to
come up, and the last man behind, who rode harder than any--all could be
seen at the same time.

It was a lovely spot, too, for dreaming on a summer's day, reclining on
the turf, with the harebells swinging in the faint breeze. The extreme
solitude was its charm: no lanes or tracks other than those purely
pastoral came near. There were woods on either hand; in the fir
plantations the jays chattered unceasingly. The broad landscape
stretched out to the illimitable distance, till the power of the eye
failed and could trace it no farther. But if the gaze was lifted it
looked into blue space--the azure heaven not only overhead, but, as it
seemed, all around.

Dickon was always to and fro the mansion here, and took me with him. His
object was ostensibly business: now it was a horse to buy, now a fat
bullock or sheep; now it was an acre or two of wood that was to be cut.
The people of the mansion were so much from home that their existence
was almost forgotten, and they were spoken