Chapter 3

TUTOR.—True. Vipers frequent those turfy, boggy grounds pretty much, and I have known several turf-cutters bitten by them.

WILLIAM.—They are very venomous, are they not?

TUTOR.—Enough so to make their wounds painful and dangerous, though they seldom prove fatal.

WILLIAM.—Well, I then took my course up to the windmill on the mount. I climbed up the steps of the mill, in order to get a better view of the country round. What an extensive prospect! I counted fifteen church steeples; I saw several gentlemen’s houses peeping out from the midst of green woods and plantations; and I could trace the windings of the river all along the low grounds, till it was lost behind a ridge of hills. But I will tell you what I mean to do, if you will give me leave.

TUTOR.—What is that?

WILLIAM.—I will go again and take with me Carey’s county map, by which I shall probably be able to make out most of the places.

TUTOR.—You shall have it; and I will go with you, and take my pocket spying-glass.

WILLIAM.—I shall be very glad of that. Well, a thought struck me, that, as the hill is called Camp-Mount, there might probably be some remains of ditches and mounds with which I have read that camps were surrounded. And I really believe I discovered something of that sort running one side of the mount.

TUTOR.—Very likely you might. I know antiquaries have described such remains as existing there, which some suppose to be Roman, others Danish. We will examine them when we go.

WILLIAM.—From the hill I went straight down to the meadows below, and walked on the side of a brook that runs into the river. It was all bordered with reeds and tall flowering-plants (S. 16, N. 10), quite different from those I had seen on the heath. As I was getting down the bank to reach one of them, I heard something plunge into the water near me. It was a large water-rat, and I saw it swim over to the other side, and go into its hole. There were a great many large dragon-flies all about the stream. I caught one of the finest, and have him here in a leaf. But how I longed to catch a bird that I saw hovering over the water, and every now and then darting into it! It was all over a mixture of the most beautiful green and blue, with some orange colour. It was somewhat less than a thrush, and had a large head and bill, and a short tail.

= live in.

+Gegenden.+

= venomous enough.

= thereupon I went.

I had a fine view of the country round, +ich konnte die Umgegend gut überblicken+.

+herrschaftliche Häuser.+

+Parkanlagen.+

+der sich schlängelnde Lauf+, as Nom.; low grounds = meadows.

+Hügelrücken+, m.

= will do. Supply ‘+dazu+’ after ‘leave’.

+Was denn?+

+Bezirkskarte+; by which = by (+mit+) the help of which; ‘to make out’, here +bestimmen+, w. v. tr.; places, +Ortschaften+.

Well — mounds. This passage may be construed thus: ‘Now, since (+Da nun+) the hill is called Camp-Mount, a thought struck me that there are (+sich befinden+) probably some remains of ditches and mounds (+Erdwall+, m.)’. I have read = as I have read.

+etwas derartiges+; running one side = on the one side.

= That is quite (+gerne+) possible.

to be — Danish, +daß sie römischen, andere aber, daß sie dänischen Ursprungs sind+.

+sich ergießen.+

= The brook; bordered = overgrown, +bewachsen+.

+hinuntersteigen+; to reach = to pluck.

= creep. Read S. 78, N. 14, B.

+Es waren dort+, after which place the words ‘all — stream’, +am Bache+.

+umherfliegen+; every — then, +dann und wann+; ‘to dart’, here +hinunterschießen+; into it = into the same.

It — colour = His plumage (+Gefieder+) consisted of (+aus+) a mixture of the finest green and blue with a small addition (+Zusatz+, m.) of orange colour (+Orangengelb+).

Section 204.

THE TWO SCHOOLBOYS, OR EYES AND NO EYES.