My operations were not without their amusing side. All new-comers to our village, I may add, are regarded with, suspicion and treated with reserve, and I fear my rig-out—of the trampish type—did not raise me very high in the public opinion. My out-goings and in-comings were watched with no little interest, and when my occupation was discovered, certain elderly wiseacres visited me at the scene of my self-appointed labours and shook their heads gravely over their pint pots that night. The general conclusion seemed to be that I was harmless, but not quite all there"!
As the work progressed the hole grew bigger and bigger, and I began to grow frightened at the prospect of putting it all back again, At times as I struggled up the steep borstall leading to my site, the thought thrilled me that I might dig up an inscription about Balbus the Wall-Builder; but so far this pleasure has been denied me.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.