IHON REDLE THATE SVM TIM DID BE THEN: LAIRD OF THE WALTON GON IS HE OVT OF THES VAL OF MESRE HIS BONS LIES VNDER THES STON -------------------------------------------- WE MVST BELEVE BE GODS MERSE INTO THES WORLD GAVE HES SON THEN FOR TO REDEM AL CHRESNTE SO CHRIST HAES HES SOVL WOVN -------------------------------------------- AL FAETHFVL PEOPLE MAY BE FAEN WHEN DATH COMES THAT NON CA FLE THE BODE KEPT THE SOVL IN PAEN THROVGH CHRIST IS SET AT LEBERTE -------------------------------------------- AMONG BLESSED COMPANE TO REMANE TO SLEP IN CHRISTE NOWE IS GON YET STEL BELEVES TO HAV AGAE THROVGH CHRIST A IOYFVL RESVRRECCION -------------------------------------------- AL FRENDES MAY BE GLAD TO HAER WHEN HIS SOVL FROM PAEN DID GO OVT OF THES WORLD AS DOETH APPER IN THE YEER OF OVR LORD A · 1562 XX The farm-house sounds kept coming up to me as I sat on the hill painting, till at last everything seemed to be asleep, even the farm-carts, which were turned with their shafts up in a row in the yard. One evening, while I was sitting here, there was a wonderful effect of rainbow-coloured clouds above the sun. I never saw anything like it before. {150} These clouds were in rays, radiating upwards from the sun as a centre, and they were just like wisps of rainbow. I can't describe them in any other way. They would form and then vanish, and form again, and one spot immediately above the sun always seemed more brilliant than all the rest. The most modern version of "John Ridley" showed me the chives which are supposed to date back to Roman times, and which look like patches of fine grey grass growing on the flat rocks on the hillside below the mile-castle. I should never have found them without help. I pulled some up, and ate some of the tiny onion-like roots with my bread-and-cheese lunch, just to see how they must have tasted to the Roman sentries, who probably ate them on the same spot when they were off duty. I had finished my sketch of Walltown, and it was still in my painting-case when I was sitting working late one evening on Sewingshields Crags. The case lay on the grass by my side. When it was time to go home, I strapped it up tight as usual. Next morning, when I looked at the sketch, there was a large, round, dry yellow patch spread out over it! A slug had walked into my painting-case, and in strapping it up I had compressed it on the middle of the picture. I removed it carefully with a pen-knife, and every scrap of colour came with it. The (probable) birthplace of the slug and the actual {151} scene of its death are two of the pictures which are not included in this book.