– CYCLOGEOGRAPHY –

At this spot Mr. Dean of Imber was attacked and Robbed by Four Highwaymen, in the evening of October 21st 1839. After a spirited pursuit of three hours one of the Felons BENJAMIN COLCLOUGH fell Dead on Chitterne Down. THOMAS SAUNDERS, GEORGE WATERS & RICHARD HARRIS, were eventually Captured and convicted at the ensuing Quarter Sessions at Devizes, and Transported for the term of Fifteen Years. This Monument is erected by Public Subscription as a warning to those who presumptuously think to escape the punishment God has threatened against Thieves and Robbers.

Outside Steeple Ashton, I found a sparrowhawk freshly killed by a car. I put it in my pocket, hoping to find a more fitting grave than this roadside verge outside a caravan park. Stopping for lunch at a muddy fishing lake, I buried the bird under some ivy. Carp fishermen sat around the pond, using their Easter Sunday wisely, whistling to each other and catching nothing while I was there. Bullrushes bent in the wind.

The fourth day was colder, overcast. I rode back up the Avon along the side of a valley, along a canal towpath that ran parallel to the railway and to the river. It was lined with canal boats from many of which wood smoke was just emerging. Unfriendly joggers passed me. My cold hands were juddered by the bad surface of the track until I hit the good roads again, before at-

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