that exposed height. On either hand hills succeeded to
hills, and behind I knew they extended farther than the eye could
reach. Immediately beneath in front there was a plain, at its extreme
boundary a wood, and beyond that the horizon was lost in the summer
haze. Wheat, barley, and oats--barley and wheat and beans, completely
occupied the plain. It was one vast expanse of cereals, without a sign
of human life; for the reaper had not yet commenced, and the bailiffs'
cottages were hidden among the ricks. There was an utter silence at
noonday; nothing but yellowing wheat beneath, the ramparts of the
hills around, and the sun above.

But, though out of sight, there was a farmhouse behind a small copse
and clump of elms full of rooks' nests, a short way from the foot of
the Down. This was The Idovers, once the residence of old Jonathan; it
was the last farm before reaching the hill district proper, and from
the slope here all the fields of which it consisted were visible. The
house was small, for in those days farmers did not look to live in
villas, and till within the last few years even the parlour floor was
of stone flags. Rushes used to be strewn in the halls of palaces in
ancient times, and seventy years ago old Jonathan grew his own
carpets.

The softest and best of the bean straw grown on the farm was selected
and scattered on the floor of the sitting-rooms as warm and dry to the
feet, and that was all the carpet in the house. Just before
sheep-shearing time, too, Jonathan used to have the nettles cut that
flourished round the back of the sheds, and strewn on the floor of the
barn. The nettles shrivelled up dry, and the wool did not stick to
them, but could be gathered easily.

With his own hands he would carry out a quart of beans to the
pigs---just a quart at a time and no more, that they might eat every
one and that none might be wasted. So, too, he would carry them a few
acorns in his coat-pocket, and watch the relish with which the swine
devoured their favourite food. He saved every bit of crooked wood that
was found about the place; for at that date iron was expensive, and
wood that had grown crooked and was therefore strong as well as curved
was useful for a hundred purposes. Fastened to a wall, for instance,
it did for a hook upon which to hang things. If an apple-tree died in
the orchard it was cut out to form part of a plough and saved till
wanted.

Jonathan's hard head withstood even the whirl of the