`` Where goeth me this track ? '' `` Let us even try , '' said Matcham . A few yards further , the path came to the top of a ridge and began to go down abruptly into a cup-shaped hollow . At the foot , out of a thick wood of flowering hawthorn , two or three roofless gables , blackened as if by fire , and a single tall chimney marked the ruins of a house . `` What may this be ? '' whispered Matcham . `` Nay , by the mass , I know not , '' answered Dick . `` I am all at sea . Let us go warily . '' With beating hearts , they descended through the hawthorns . Here and there , they passed signs of recent cultivation ; fruit trees and pot herbs ran wild among the thicket ; a sun-dial had fallen in the grass ; it seemed they were treading what once had been a garden . Yet a little farther and they came forth before the ruins of the house . It had been a pleasant mansion and a strong . A dry ditch was dug deep about it ; but it was now choked with masonry , and bridged by a fallen rafter . The two farther walls still stood , the sun shining through their empty windows ; but the remainder of the building had collapsed , and now lay in a great cairn of ruin , grimed with fire . Already in the interior a few plants were springing green among the chinks . `` Now I bethink me , '' whispered Dick , `` this must be Grimstone . It was a hold of one Simon Malmesbury ; Sir Daniel was his bane ! 'T was Bennet Hatch that burned it , now five years agone . In sooth , 't was pity , for it was a fair house . ''
Down in the hollow , where no wind blew , it was both warm and still ; and Matcham , laying one hand upon XXXXX 's arm , held up a warning finger .
't Daniel Dick Grimstone Hatch Matcham bane chinks hawthorn years