Two miles out of town, reckoning from our Lord’s mill on the greater stream, lies Garstang Hill, and sharply over against it is Hart Hill. Both these lie to the north-west, and they are very steep and very difficult to climb. Moreover, they are covered with dense wood, much bogland lying in the low-lying places, and it is said that many wolves lurk there, whence in winter-time they have been known to come down to the sheep-cotes in the village. Therefore, folk go there but little, unless it be to gather wood (for the land is waste and common), and even for this they go seldom, unless good fuel cannot be got nearer town. But on the low-lying slopes the swineherds sometimes drive their herds in autumn, when the acorns lie thick under the oaks. Between Hart Hill and Garstang lies a long narrow valley, and the ground of that valley is very fertile. Here Thomas the Freeman dwelt once, although none dwell there now. Thomas’s father, and his father, and his father’s father, had lived there as long as man could tell, and they held first from King Alfred, the wise king, whose words are, even now, common in men’s mouths. They paid to Earl Ranulf yearly at the Manor House the value of twenty sheep besides a trained hawk, and they took Ranulf to be their Lord. It is barely twenty years since Thomas the Freeman held there a good hide of good land, on which he drove a great plough, beside having fair meadow-land down by the brook. And in harvest-time he has paid ten men a penny a day to gather in corn, and given them meat and drink as well. But now the place lies all waste and desolate, and the whinberry and blackberry grow thereon, and trees have taken root there, so that the waste has almost won it back to itself.