Chapters (15)
"Petronella, is it not? Ah, yes! Peter, to be sure! If you would all like to hear I can tell you something of this country. Do you realize that here on the hills around this little town the oldest men in Britain lived and fought? Did you know that only a few miles away one of the mighty roads the Romans made still runs, straight as a rule, as it did when their legions marched this way?... And have any of you heard of Offa's Dyke?..."
First he told them that it was his job to be interested in history, old buildings and historical remains, and that he had come to Clun to explore some of the prehistoric burial places which had recently been discovered in the hills.
"Tell us about that dyke," Dickie said. "We know something about dykes. Is it full of water?"
"Not this one, Richard. This is a very special dyke built twelve hundred years ago by wise King Offa. It is a wall of earth with a deep ditch on the western - that is the Welsh - side, running for one hundred and fifty miles north from Chepstow between the Severn and the Dee."
"Can you walk along it or in it now? And who was King Offa?" Mary asked.
"You can walk along it some of the way to-day. Not far from here there is a long stretch for you to explore. Offa was a king of the Mercians, and Mercia was the kingdom which you would call the Midlands. He had the dyke built to mark the boundary between his kingdom and the marauding Welsh."
Mary, who was sitting on the hearthrug with Mackie's head in her lap, suddenly knelt upright.
"Do you mean to tell us that we can acksherly walk along that dyke the king made?"
"Of course you can. There's a stretch of it but a mile or two away."
"Did you hear him, Dickie? We'll go and do that tomorrow... And are there any castles near?"
"All the border country is castle country, Mary," Mr Cantor said as he got up. "Now I must go and unpack, and thank you all for looking after me so well..."
Tom was the first to speak when they were alone.
"What a rum old chap... Fancy us coming all this way just to have a holiday with him."
"I think you're very unfair," Penny replied. "I think he's nice, and he's interesting."
"Well Mary and me don't care so much 'bout what happened a billion years ago," said Dickie. "We want something to happen now!"
"That's true, twin," Mary said dreamily, looking into the fire. "We came yesterday and we haven't had a real adventure yet - unless you call Mr Cantor an adventure... Oh, Dickie! I s'pose you noticed he was very rude to us when he first came in?"
Dickie nodded brightly. "I'm remembering that, twin!"