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128 KIPLING'S SUSSEX
that dew-ponds were also constructed by the Flint Men.
" I don't know nothing about foreigners, but my father made dunnamany ship-ponds on the Downs. He didn't need no books to guide him. There's no profit to doing things out of books. He was just about clever with ship-ponds. But it has queered many a man to make 'em."
" How's a dew pond made ? " said the innkeeper.
" It's a tedious job," replied the shepherd. " You first choose your spot, and then you dig your pond, and line it out with a layer o' mortar. Then you put a load of flints in an' stamp 'em well down. Then you crowd more mortar on, and same way, you lay more flints. Then you stamp in a mixture of sea-sand and clay. The mixture is beaten in, starting from the centre by a circle, and trampling rings around it till at last the edge of the pond is reached."
" But what is the source of the water supply ? " I questioned. "Is it the dew which really feeds the pond ? "
" There you be ! My old father used to say that too," rumbled the shepherd, folding his brown arms. " You don't have to go out of your road to see that dew don't keep up ship-ponds. |
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