Page:Moonfleet - John Meade Falkner.pdf/15



HE village of Moonfleet lies half a mile from the sea, on the right or west bank of the Fleet stream. This rivulet, which is so narrow as it passes the houses that I have known a good jumper clear it without a pole, broadens out into salt marshes below the village, and loses itself at last in a lake of brackish water. The lake is good for nothing except sea-fowl, herons, and oysters, and forms such a place as they call in the Indies a lagoon—being shut off from the open Channel by a monstrous great beach or dyke of pebbles, of which I shall speak more hereafter. When I was a child I thought that this place was called Moonfleet because on a still night, whether in summer, or in winter frosts, the moon shone very brightly on the lagoon; but learned afterwards that 'twas but short for "Mohunefleet," from the Mohunes, a great family who were once lords of all these parts.