"Bury Fields our place is called, but 'tis three miles or more from Clun. We've been rearing sheep on those hills since William the Conqueror's time, maybe. We don't go to Clun so often really. The Castle - Bishop's Castle is its real name - and Knighton are bigger towns for shopping and the like."

"But what's Clun like?" Penny demanded. "I've tried and tried to imagine it but I can't..."

Denton scratched his head and then pointed out of the window as the train slowed down.

"I'll try in a minute... This is Wellington and you're in Shropshire now. See that smooth-looking mountain? That's the Wrekin and every Shropshire man knows that... Now you want to know what Clun is like... Funny, but it's difficult to explain something you takes for granted, but I should know I s'pose for I've seen it and been told about it often enough.

"First of all, then, Clun is just a little town that seems to ha' been forgotten although 'tis said that it stands on one of the old coaching roads from Wales into England..."

"But the castle?" Penny interrupted. "How old is it? Can you go in it? Has it got secret passages?"

"Steady! Not so fast! 'Tis funny, but I don't mind ever being told a lot about the castle and though I've seen it all my life I reckon I must take it for granted. I believe 'twas built in Stephen's reign... It's just bits o' the keep that you can see standing on the hill now... But you'll soon see that for yourselves. Then we've got a river called Clun and a fine old bridge over it though 'tis much too narrow now."

He took his pipe from his mouth and looked out of the window for a long minute.

"But you can't explain it," he said at last. "Reckon you've got to feel it. 'Tis not the town but the hills and the country round about where I live that make the place something to remember... They say some o' the first men in England lived in the hills round Clun, and you can pick up the flint arrowheads they made to-day... There are hills all round Clun, and this is the country I know for 'tis mine and where our sheep are bred... Once it was all forest... From the tops o' our hills you can see other hills - the Long Mynd over Stretton way, the Stiperstones and over to the south the Black Mountain, in Wales."

He paused again, and after a little Penny said, "Tell us about your farm... And may we come and see you?"

Alan smiled, and the faraway look that had been in his eyes when he talked about the hills round his home disappeared.