Just below the pitch of the hill whereon they were, lay Silver-stead,
the town of the Dale. Hitherto it had been an unfenced place; but
Folk-might pointed to where on the western side a new white wall was
rising, and on which, young as the day yet was, men were busy laying
the stones and spreading the mortar. Fair seemed that town to Face-
of-god: the houses were all builded of stone, and some of the
biggest were roofed with lead, which also as well as silver was dug
out of the mountains at the eastern end of the Dale. The market-
place was clear to see from where they stood, though there were
houses on all sides of it, so wide it was. From their standing-place
it was but three furlongs to this heart of Silver-dale; and Face-of-
god could see brightly-clad men moving about in it already. High
above their heads he beheld two great clots of scarlet and yellow
raised on poles and pitched in front of a great stone-built hall
roofed with lead, which stood amidmost of the west end of the Place,
and betwixt those poles he saw on a mound with long slopes at its
sides somewhat of white stone, and amidmost of the whole Place a
great stack of faggot-wood built up four-square.
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