ly the upper part of the cliffs continue to be eaten
away, above the level where the springs ran out. So gradually the Chine,
instead of being deep and narrow, would become broad and shallow; and
instead of hollowing itself rapidly after every shower of rain, as you
saw the Chine at Bournemouth doing, would hollow itself out slowly, as
this glen is doing now. And one thing more would happen,--when the sea
ceased to gnaw at the foot of the cliffs outside, and to carry away every
stone and grain of sand which fell from them, the cliffs would very soon
cease to be cliffs; the rain and the frost would still crumble them down,
but the dirt that fell would lie at their feet, and gradually make a
slope of dry land, far out where the shallow sea had been; and their
tops, instead of being steep as now, would become smooth and rounded; and
so at last, instead of two sharp walls of cliff at the Chine's mouth, you
might have--just what you have here at the mouth of this glen,--our Mount
and the Warren Hill,--long slopes with sheets of drifted gravel and sand
at their feet, stretching down into what was once an icy sea, and is now
the Vale of Blackwater. And this I really believe Madam How has done
simply by lifting Hartford Bridge Flat a few more feet out of the sea,
and leaving the rest to her trusty tool, the water in the sky.

That is my guess: and I think it is a good guess, because I have asked
Madam How a hundred different questions about it in the last ten years,
and she always answered them in the same way, saying, "Water, water, you
stupid man." But I do not want you merely to depend on what I say. If
you want to understand Madam How, you must ask her questions yourself,
and make up your mind yourself like a man, instead of taking things at
hearsay or second-hand, like the vulgar. Mind, by "the vulgar" I do not
mean poor people: I mean ignorant and uneducated people, who do not use
their brains rightly, though they may be fine ladies, kings, or popes.
The Bible says, "Prove all things: hold fast that which is good." So do
you prove my guess, and if it proves good, hold it fast.

And how can I do that?

First, by direct experiment, as it is called. In plain English--go home
and make a little Hartford Bridge Flat in the stable-yard; and then ask
Mrs. How if she will not make a glen in it like this glen here. We will
go home and try that. We will make a great flat cake of clay, and put
upon it a cap of sand; and th