Sewingshields is said to mean "wellings by the seugh (or ditch);" but Camden calls it "Seaven-shale," so it may have merely meant "Seven cottages."
All the 10 miles from Sewingshields to Carvoran the Wall runs along the tops of "basaltic columns," huge pillars of volcanic rock crystallized in hexagonal formation, and making a great natural barrier. The course of the Wall is mainly in a westerly direction, but it also has a general tendency towards the south. Carvoran is just 3 miles farther south than Sewingshields.
THE BASALT CLIFFS ABOVE CRAG LOUGH,
ALONG THE TOP OF WHICH THE WALL RUNS.
HOT BANK CRAGS ARE SEEN IN THE DISTANCE
A steep pass leads down to the plain shortly after we cross the stile from the Sewingshields plantation. This is called Cat Gate. When I was staying in this neighbourhood the farmer told me it was the only point where the Sewingshields Crags could be ascended or descended. I did not dispute it, but I smiled to myself, for during my wanderings I had many times gone up and down the Crags at other points. I used to love to sit half-way down the Crags and watch the rabbits, who got so used to me that I believe they only thought of me as a queer kind of a rock. When I was sketching I used to see hundreds of rabbits sitting about, one on every projecting rock below me. The Crags swarm with them. One evening an old father rabbit showed his unconcern at my presence by sitting up a few feet off, scratching his front abstractedly with his fore-paws while he looked at me, as much as to say, "I know what you are." Just then I gave an unfortunate sneeze, and it seemed to set all the crags in motion. The thump, thump, of the parental hind-legs, warning their subterranean families of danger, sounded on every side. It is a great proof of family affection that these older rabbits will stop in the danger-zone and thump, as they do, thus losing precious time that might be occupied in flight. The first time I saw this process, I thought my friend the rabbit had been seized with a sudden nervous affection, but I soon found it was only obeying a universal instinct; and even hutched rabbits, after generations of domesticity, and with their families safe by their sides, will carry on the tradition, and thump on the floor of their hutches, to give warning of danger.
Once at the top of Cat Gate I found a pocket-book, almost hidden in the heather. I picked it up, and could see it contained a sheaf of Treasury notes. An hour or so later I saw a young man coming slowly along at the foot of the Crags, looking distractedly from side to side. I stood up, and shouted, "Catch!" and you should have seen the way his expression changed as the pocket-book went hurtling through the air! In these almost pathless regions it is a serious matter to lose anything of value.
But to return to our rabbits. The rabbits are turned into a source of revenue by the farmers. They increase so rapidly that their numbers have to be kept in check. Sometimes a farmer will sell the "rabbiting" on his farm for the season, for £50 or so, just as the "shooting" is let. Then the rabbit-catcher makes what he can out of it. At other times the farmer will pay the rabbit-catcher so much for every couple caught, and then sell them at a profit. I have known fifty-seven couple to be caught by one man in a day on Sewingshields Crags. You need to look well to your walking when the rabbit-catcher is abroad, for of course he makes his loops of wire as invisible as possible, and you would certainly be brought to the ground if you put your foot in one of them. I was very glad that I never came across a rabbit in a trap, though I used to see hundreds of traps. A shepherd told me that once he saw a pathetic sight: a rabbit in a trap, still feeding her young ones. Missing her, they had crept up out of the burrow, and had traced her to the trap. He set her free at once, for she was not hurt.
This has been a long delay on our walk, but it is so hot that to sit and watch the rabbits will have done us all good.