and all its motley races back to the dawn of Christianity. And there was stillness, as if the height were hushed in the clearer view or quickened sense of holy sublimities which the loud and noisy levels of earth's daily bustle, toil, and turmoil cannot feel. No wonder that, in the days of old when religious men essayed to get nearer to God and His fellowship by climbing the silent mountains for prayer, some long-bearded devotee of sequestered meditation should have pitched his sanctum on this lofty and solemn hill. Such a recluse was Nicholas de Denton, who in the reign of Henry III fixed his abode here; and that sovereign was so impressed with the spiritual influence which the hermit would imbibe and diffuse at this great altitude, that, in order to afford him "greater leisure for holy exercise, and to support him during his life, so long as he should be a hermit on the aforesaid mountain," the sheriff of Shropshire was ordered to supply him with six quarters of corn from the Pendleston Mill, near Bridgnorth. Doubtless it was the understanding that the hermit should pay toll on this corn in daily supplication for his sovereign.
The Wrekin is not only a remarkable eminence for the eye but also for the ear; especially just as the sun is sinking to the rim of the horizon. From all hills, both great and small, voices, that would not be heard at noon, come up to you
