Whilst digging up a hitherto uncultivated bit of garden near the Mendips, a gardener came across the mutilated skeletons of a woman and baby. A comb still decorated the woman's coal-black hair. At the inquest afterwards held upon the skeletons, it was suggested that the woman and her baby were probably refugees from the battle of Sedgemoor.

[Pg 33]

[Pg 33]

Bitterness Casteth Out Love

Over the hill where the white road sweeps,

And the dead fern holds the snow,

Love flew by, and the black night sky

Shadowed the vales below.

Down in the creek, where the ice-pools gleam

And the trees stand gaunt and bare,

I crouched me down, and the sullen frown

Of earth entombed me there.

"Ah," mocked the ice-pool, hard and clear,

"Man with the frozen soul;

Love sailed by, on a cloud-bound sky,

With the tears that sorrow stole."

"Gone," said the fern, "from your frost-bound touch;

Gone from your winter's heart.

Love flew by, like the tattered sigh

Bitterness tore apart."

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