reat gathering of people, and so
real did they seem that she believed in the reality of it all, and so
beautiful did they appear to her that she was reluctant to leave, and
begged to be taken back to see it all again. Unfortunately it is not
true. A full and careful inquiry has been made into the story, of
which there are several versions, and its origin traced to a little
story-telling Wiltshire boy who had read or heard of the white-robed
priests of the ancient days at "The Stones," and who just to astonish
other little boys naughtily pretended that he had seen it all himself!

Chapter Twenty-Three: Following a River

The stream invites us to follow: the impulse is so common that it might
be set down as an instinct; and certainly there is no more fascinating
pastime than to keep company with a river from its source to the sea.
Unfortunately this is not easy in a country where running waters have
been enclosed, which should be as free as the rain and sunshine to all,
and were once free, when England was England still, before landowners
annexed them, even as they annexed or stole the commons and shut up the
footpaths and made it an offence for a man to go aside from the road to
feel God's grass under his feet. Well, they have also got the road now,
and cover and blind and choke us with its dust and insolently hoot-hoot
at us. Out of the way, miserable crawlers, if you don't want to be
smashed!

Sometimes the way is cut off by huge thorny hedges and fences of barbed
wire--man's devilish improvement on the bramble--brought down to the
water's edge. The river-follower must force his way through these
obstacles, in most cases greatly to the detriment of his clothes and
temper; or, should they prove impassable, he must undress and go into
the water. Worst of all is the thought that he is a trespasser. The
pheasants crow loudly lest he should forget it. Occasionally, too, in
these private places he encounters men in velveteens with guns under
their arms, and other men in tweeds and knickerbockers, with or without
guns, and they all stare at him with amazement in their eyes, like
disturbed cattle in a pasture; and sometimes they challenge him. But
I must say that, although I have been sharply spoken to on several
occasions, always, after a few words, I have been permitted to keep on
my way. And on that way I intend to keep until I have no more strength
to climb over fences and force my way through hedges, but like a