What this mound, which may perhaps have covered half an acre of
ground, was, nobody had any idea. Some learned folk write it down a
Saxon tumulus, a presumption to which its ancient name, "Dead Man's
Mount," seemed to give colour. Other folk, however, yet more learned,
declared it to be an ancient British dwelling, and pointed
triumphantly to a hollow at the top, wherein the ancient Britishers
were supposed to have moved, lived, and had their being--which must,
urged the opposing party, have been a very damp one. Thereon the late
Mrs. Massey, who was a British dwellingite, proceeded to show with
much triumph /how/ they had lived in the hole by building a huge
mushroom-shaped roof over it, and thereby turning it into a summer-
house, which, owing to unexpected difficulties in the construction of
the roof, cost a great deal of money. But as the roof was slated, and
as it was found necessary to pave the hollow with tiles and cut
surface drains in it, the result did not clearly prove its use as a
dwelling place before the Roman conquest. Nor did it make a very good
summer house. Indeed it now served as a store place for the gardener's
tools and for rubbish generally.
CHAPTER II
THE COLONEL MEETS THE SQUIRE
As Colonel Quaritch was contemplating these various views and
reflecting that on the whole he had done well to come and live at
Honham Cottage, he was suddenly startled by a loud voice saluting him
from about twenty yards distance with such peculiar vigour that he
fairly jumped.
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