Or retrace your steps, and after passing the Abbey bounds, mount the steep Tor and stand by the Tower which alone escaped the shattering force of earthquake. From this summit the view of the landscape is far and good. Scarcely can you realise that once the salt waves lapped this steep eminence, but the sand and shells mixed and embedded in the soil have graven that event more legibly than the pen of man could have inscribed it. It is sunset--sunset over the Avalonian isle. The day has been calm and grey, and the end is to be calm, autumnal, subdued. There is one long quivering stretch of cardinal in the west, but elsewhere the sky is wonderfully sombre, yet exquisitely soft and pearly clear. The furthermost limit of the vale fast becomes invisible, fading imperceptibly, apparently merging into the sky as it becomes a pure deep blue. Here and there a purple peak of the range of hills running seaward rises sharply and pierces the thin gauzy clouds which the wind brings up. The white road gleams below, wholly deserted, yet fancy may conjure up spectres gliding at nightfall along the once hallowed way to the shrine. On this steep hill, alone, cloud-high, you feel that the silence is mystical, and wonder if the sleeping city with its ghosts and traditions is like the fabled cities of enchanters which rise at night without foundation and dissolve like mist in the earliest light of morning. INDEX (_Mainly of persons and places_) Aberystwyth, relics near, 11 Akeman Street, 123 Almesbury (Amesbury), 175-80 Alnwick, 44 Ambrosius, 15 Aneurin, his testimony to Arthur, 9 Arderydd, 66, 71, 82 Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 30, 35, 80 ARTHUR (Artus, Arcturus), King-- his widespread fame, 2, 3; Saxon opponents of, 4; an allegorical figure, 6, 27, 61; Caxton on his identity, 9; bardic chroniclers, 9-18, 62; Geoffrey’s history of, 18; the elemental hero, 29, 33, 149; his domain, 31, 38, 39, 46-59, 64; Scotch references, 52, 68; his birth, 90; his coronation, 115; his Round Table, 130-58; as warrior, 149; as national hero, 150, 151; his battle at Badon, 155-6; in Italy, 157; his marriage, 160; at Camelot, 159 _et seq._; battle at Slaughter Bridge, 200; his death-wound, 205; his tomb, 207-9; in Avalon, 238-47; supposed remains, 241, 249 Arviragus, King, 223 Astolat, 55 Aurelius Ambrosius, 71, 74 Avalon (Avilion), 43, 51; described 216 _et seq._ _See_ “Glastonbury” Badbury Rings, 153 Badon (Mons Badonicus), 4, 13, 51, 152-6 Bagdemagus, Sir, 77 Balin, Sir, 84, 129, 167 Bamborough Castle, 44 Barham Down, 156, 204 Bath, 152 Battles, King Arthur’s, 4, 29, 62, 125, 151; the last at Camelford, 198, 200-1, 204, 208; with Melvas, 240 Bedivere, Sir, 205 _n._, 211, 213, 251 Belenus, 123 Blackmore, poet, 30 Blaise (Bleys), 83 Borron, Robert de, 188, 230