CHAPTER PAGE I. LEO’S HILL 1 II. NEVILTON 9 III. OLYMPIAN CONSPIRACY 21 IV. REPRISALS FROM BELOW 33 V. FRANCIS TAXATER 53 VI. THE PARIAHS 80 VII. IDYLLIC PLEASURES 109 VIII. THE MYTHOLOGY OF SACRIFICE 134 IX. THE MYTHOLOGY OF POWER 156 X. THE ORCHARD 184 XI. ART AND NATURE 212 XII. AUBER LAKE 247 XIII. LACRIMA 276 XIV. UNDER-CURRENTS 317 XV. MORTIMER ROMER 355 XVI. HULLAWAY 386 XVII. SAGITTARIUS 430 XVIII. VOICES BY THE WAY 460 XIX. PLANETARY INTERVENTION 489 XX. VOX POPULI 519 XXI. CÆSAR’S QUARRY 536 XXII. A ROYAL WATERING-PLACE 572 XXIII. AVE ATQUE VALE! 595 XXIV. THE GRANARY 621 XXV. METAMORPHOSIS 650 XXVI. VARIOUS ENCOUNTERS 667 XXVII. VENNIE SELDOM 679 XXVIII. LODMOOR 696 XXIX. THE GOAT AND BOY 714 WOOD AND STONE CHAPTER I LEO’S HILL Midway between Glastonbury and Bridport, at the point where the eastern plains of Somersetshire merge into the western valleys of Dorsetshire, stands a prominent and noticeable hill; a hill resembling the figure of a crouching lion. East of the hill, nestling at the base of a cone-shaped eminence overgrown with trees and topped by a thin Thyrsus-like tower, lies the village of Nevilton. Were it not for the neighbourhood of the more massive promontory this conical protuberance would itself have stood out as an emphatic landmark; but Leo’s Hill detracts from its emphasis, as it detracts from the emphasis of all other deviations from the sea-level, between Yeoborough and the foot of the Quantocks. It was on the apex of Nevilton Mount that the Holy Rood of Waltham was first found; but with whatever spiritual influence this event may have endowed the gentler summit, it is not to it, but to Leo’s Hill, that the lives and destinies of the people of Nevilton have come to gravitate. One might indeed without difficulty conceive of a strange supernatural conflict going on between the consecrated repository of Christian tradition guarding its little flock, and the impious heathen fortress to which day by day that flock is driven, to seek their material sustenance.