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side. That was once a town called Epsom. There are no houses there, and
the bricks have been used for a sheep pen. Go on, and another heap on
the edge of the root-land is Leatherhead; and then the hill turns away
along the border of a valley, and there are woods of beech. Keep along
the crest. You will come to quite wild places. In some parts, in spite
of all the weeding that is done, ferns and bluebells and other such
useless plants are growing still. And through it all underneath the
wind-wheels runs a straight lane paved with stones, a roadway of the
Romans two thousand years old. Go to the right of that, down into the
valley and follow it along by the banks of the river. You come presently
to a street of houses, many with the roofs still sound upon them. There
you may find shelter."
They thanked him.
"But it's a quiet place. There is no light after dark there, and I have
heard tell of robbers. It is lonely. Nothing happens there. The
phonographs of the story-tellers, the kinematograph entertainments, the
news machines--none of them are to be found there. If you are hungry
there is no food, if you are ill no doctor ..." He stopped.
"
We shall try it," said Denton, moving to go on. Then a thought struck
him, and he made an agreement with the shepherd, and learnt where they
might find him, to buy and bring them anything of which they stood in
need, out of the city.
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