It had been made for the convenience of communication between the upper and lower farms, and for hauling timber; the gates at each end being kept locked.

In one place the lane descended the steepest part of the wooded hill, and in frosty weather it was not easy even to walk down it there.

Sarsen stones, gathered out of the way of the plough in the arable fields, had been thrown down in it at various times with the object of making a firm bottom.
Rounded and smooth and very hard, these stones, irregularly placed, with gaps and intervals, when slippery with hoar frost were most difficult to walk on.

Once or twice men out hunting had been known to gallop down this hill: the extreme of headlong bravado; for if there was any frost it was sure to linger in that shady lane, and a slip of the iron-shod hoof could scarcely fail to result in a broken neck.

It was like riding down a long steep flight of steps.
Aaron one day was engaged with his ferret and nets in the Pitching, just at the bottom of the hill, where there grew a quantity of brake-fern as tall as the shoulder.