fox is said to have taken refuge on one of these
precarious ledges, and finding his way stopped in front, he tried to
turn, and in doing so fell and was killed.

At the base of the perpendicular face of the cliff the Aire flows from
a very slightly arched recess in the rock. It is a really remarkable
stream in making its debut without the slightest fuss, for it is large
enough at its very birth to be called a small river. Its modesty is a
great loss to Yorkshire, for if, instead of gathering strength in the
hidden places in the limestone fells, it were to keep to more rational
methods, it would flow to the edge of the Cover, and there precipitate
itself in majestic fashion into a great pool below.

CHAPTER XVIII

SETTLE AND THE INGLETON FELLS

The track across the moor from Malham Cove to Settle cannot be
recommended to anyone at night, owing to the extreme difficulty of
keeping to the path without a very great familiarity with every yard of
the way, so that when I merely suggested taking that route one wintry
night the villagers protested vigorously. I therefore took the road
that goes up from Kirby Malham, having borrowed a large hurricane lamp
from the "Buck" Inn at Malham. Long before I reached the open moor I
was enveloped in a mist that would have made the track quite invisible
even where it was most plainly marked, and I blessed the good folk at
Malham who had advised me to take the road rather than run the risks of
the pot-holes that are a feature of the limestone fells. The little
town of Settle has a most distinctive feature in the possession of
Castleberg, a steep limestone hill, densely wooded except at the very
top, that rises sharply just behind the market-place. Before the trees
were planted there seems to have been a sundial on the side of the
hill, the precipitous scar on the top forming the gnomon. No one
remembers this curious feature, although a print showing the numbers
fixed upon the slope was published in 1778. The market-place has lost
its curious old tolbooth, and in its place stands a town hall of good
Tudor design. Departed also is much of the charm of the old Shambles
that occupy a central position in the square. The lower story, with big
arches forming a sort of piazza in front of the butcher's and other
shops, still remains in its old state, but the upper portion has been
restored in the fullest sense of that comprehensive term.

In the steep street that we came down on enteri