twice heard the of a falling bird far behind but these i never as sport our expedition was a failure moonlight and a clear sky were needed both of which were absent but in its in the sense of infinite winged life rushing past us in the last view of that desolate as the darkness embraced it it was a perfect and unique experience i am old enough to be no longer very anxious for a bag therefore i enjoyed that s expedition with its one more than many a day s when the slain carefully raised for the occasion might be counted by hundreds at length it grew pitch dark so that it was for us to find each other in the gloom still more difficult was our homeward journey by the appropriate light of which glowed before us lying low upon the sky first came the this of antiquity which shows how careful its inhabitants now so long dead once were about their roads in is some eight feet wide and built of large blocks of stone on either side of it lie the waters of the swamp several feet deep in places much of this massive raised has been destroyed by floods or other accidents of time so that here and there one must leap firom block to block or into the pools between now stepping stones by would make a good title for a novel but are in fact an awkward path and very glad was i when with the of a who seemed to be able to see in the dark i had the last of them after these stepping stones we over a mile or two of mud about six inches deep then came some patches of ground with in them and another long stretch of mud this time covered with water struggling to its edge we found ourselves on a path strewn with and fell down in deep but invisible next followed ck stroll through a large patch of standing which was wet and reached almost to our a winter pilgrimage where we were exposed to the attentions of the or dogs which in are such a nuisance at last however about nine o clock we saw the welcome lights of home i confess that i was glad to reach its shelter thoroughly tired out as i was and absolutely wringing wet with perspiration a fruit of the labours of that interminable walk little of this sort teach us that we are not so young as once we were still i enjoyed our duck hunt my nephew fired by the sight or rather the sound of more wild fowl than he had ever of announced his intention of being back at the place by the first streak of dawn to catch the birds as they passed from the out to sea i congratulated him upon his superb energy but declined to share the adventure in the depths of my experience as in a magic crystal exactly what would happen it did happen about an hour after we had finished breakfast on the morning two hot and weary young men appeared carrying guns and but nothing else they had risen a little too late the duck were up before them and they reached the distant ridge just in time to see the last flock of vanishing the rains had departed for the present and the day was lovely with so clear an air that every little peak and of the mountains seemed close at hand it was with great regret that on so fair a morning we bade farewell to our hosts and started for i should have liked to stay longer at the place has many charms not the least of which is its solitude the tower where according to ancient tradition was stifled by is an odd place for yet thither on our arrival we were escorted through the ancient gates of indeed the feast was spread exactly where the poor victim lived and died is if ever she existed beyond the echoes of romance in the days which is said to be built upon the site of the ancient was a port now its harbour is choked and principally because of the heat within the walls such population as remains to the place lives about a mile away in a new town called v how am i to describe this beautiful monument i an attempt to set out its details would fill chapters so i must leave them to the fancy of the reader the whole place ib a ruin everywhere are the gaunt of churches the foundation walls of long fallen houses and around grim solid the vast circle of the what buildings are here millions of square yards of them almost every stone except where the have still bearing its s mark walls thirty feet thick great sally ports still black with the smoke of fragments of broken lying about in the ancient ash heaps water gates magazines gun straight and enormous gathering halls now used as arched of splendid the solid roof stones cut upon the bend running out to sea commanding the harbour mouth every defence and work known to warlike art then round them all in places through the solid rock the mighty ditch sixty feet or more in depth it was an this and in the end it fell to the power of the greatest of all hunger and not through the of the known as the and his vast army the came and conquered how i will describe presently and from that hour the glory of a winter pilgrimage departed to begin with no christian was allowed to live within the gates even the visitor of distinction must not ride or drive there but walk humbly as became a representative of a conquered faith where the sets his foot there the grass will not grow but here the saying is reversed the grass grows 