Passing the side track towards Axen Farm we continued towards Bell Flower Plot, about 1,200m northwest of Quarry Cross. Here the path descends through a tree-lined gully for about 250m at the bottom of which is a gate to North End Farm on the left and a hedgerow leading to a corner of Doctor's Copse on the right. In the very muddy conditions the 10^o slope through Bell Flower Plot was quite tricky to traverse and at this point most of our party opted to return to Symondsbury via the track to Axen Farm and Broadoak Road. Two of us pressed on.

Figure 4: Rock Face in Shute's Lane

Figure 5: Bell Flower Plot

Figure 6: Burrow

In the winter bare branches arch over the relatively little-used path through Bell Flower Plot; in a summer evening it must be a dappled and mysterious tunnel flanked by lush vegetation and ferns. The banks on either side are soft, with burrows among the tree roots. Geoffrey Household describes the location of the Rogue's lair as follows:

The deep sandstone cutting, its hedges grown together across the top, is still there; anyone who wishes can dive under the sentinel thorns at the entrance and push his way through and come out in a cross hedge that runs along the foot of the hills. But who would wish? Where there is light, the nettles grow as high as a man's shoulder; where there is not, the lane is choked by dead wood. The interior of the double hedge is of no conceivable use to the two farmers whose boundary fence it is, and nobody but an adventurous child would want to explore it.

..... I cut steps up the western bank and up the inner side of a young elm; it had a top-heavy branch hanging low over the hedge and within reach of the ground on the farther side.

From the bottom of Bell Flower Plot the path continues along the hedgerow separating two fields before entering another tree-lined section leading uphill towards Denhay Cross. Here the conditions underfoot deteriotated sufficiently to prevent us from reaching the next junction and we gave up the quest, returning to Symondsbury for a pint and a delicious and much appreciated lunch at the Ilchester Arms.

Figure 7: Bell Flower Plot and its immediate surroundings

[Google Earth image with superimposed labels]

Conclusions

Bell Flower Plot meets the main topographical requirements but the banks flanking the track through it are really not high enough to make it entirely convincing as the site of the Rogue Male's lair. Shute's Lane - up to 6m deep in places - and some stretches of Hell Lane have higher banks but, to my mind, are in the wrong place. The most likely explanation is that the lair's location is an imaginative amalgam of Bell Flower Plot's location with a deep holloway such as Shute's Lane or Broadoak Road in much the same way that Arthur Ransome's lake and its surroundings in Swallows and Amazons and Swallowdale combine aspects of Windermere, Coniston Water and the adjacent Lakeland fells.

'Sunken Labyrinth' in Christina Hardyment's recent fascinating book 'Novel Crime Scenes' [ISBN 978 1 85124 641 0, Bodleian Library Publishing, University of Oxford, 2026] summarises and expands on this hypothesis. She writes:

"... I went on up Shute [sic] Lane and northwards along a high ridge to another hedge, with fine views east and west. The hedge thickened as I came to the crest of the hill and I could only see eastwards. The track began to descend into Bell Flower Plot, ... I retraced my steps to a gate leading to the west side of the hedge and walked north again. Peering through branches and brambles, I realized that it was concealing a completely inaccessible holloway, perfectly located between the two farms that are described in the book. Lacking machete and protective clothing, I flunked going further: ..."

Where was X shot?