the original meaning of The Cossicles? Then there were
Zacker's Hook, the Conigers,[3] Cheesecake, Hawkes, Rials, Purley,
Strongbowls, Thrupp, Laines, Sannetts, Gaston, Wexils, Wernils,
Glacemere, several Hams, Haddons, and Weddingtons, Slades, and so on,
and a Truelocks. These were quickly put down; scores of still more
singular names might be collected in every parish. It is the meadows
and pastures which usually bear these designations; the ploughed
fields are often only known by their acreage, as the Ten Acre Piece,
or the Twelve Acres. Some of them are undoubtedly the personal names
of former owners. But in others ancient customs, allusions to
traditions, fragments of history, or of languages now extinct, may
survive.

[3] See Notes.

There was a meadow where deep trenches could be traced, green now, but
clearly once a moat, but there was not even a tradition about it. On
the Downs overlooking the Idovers was an earthwork or entrenchment, of
which no one knew anything. Hilary believed there was an old book--a
history of Overboro' town--which might perhaps contain some
information, but where it could be found he did not know. After some
consideration, however, he thought there might be a copy at the Crown,
once an old posting-inn, at Overboro': that was about the only place
where I should be likely to find it. So one warm summer day I walked
into Overboro', following a path over the Downs, whose short sward
affords the best walking in the world.

At the Crown, now no more an inn but an hotel, the archway was blocked
up with two hand-trucks piled with trunks and portmanteaus, the
property of commercial gentlemen and just about to be conveyed to the
station. What with the ostler and the 'boots' and the errand-boys, all
hanging about for their fees, it was a push to enter; and the waiters
within seemed to equally occupy the passage, fetching the dust-coats
and walking-sticks and flourishing coat-brushes. Seeing a door marked
'Coffee-room,' I took refuge, and having ordered luncheon began to
consider how I should open my subject with the landlord, who was
clearly as much up to the requirements of modern life as if his house
had been by a London terminus. Time-tables in gilt-stamped covers
strewed the tables; wine lists stood on edge; a card of the local
omnibus to the station was stuck up where all could see it; the daily
papers hung over the arm of a cosy chair; the furniture was new; the
whole place, it must