three hours after noon
So when they had stumbled on another two hours , and their horses were much spent and they themselves not a little weary , they laid them down to sleep , after they had eaten such meat as they had with them , in a place where was a little grass for the horses to bite ; for all the road hitherto had been mere grim stones and big rocks , walled on either side by stony screes , above which rose steep and beetling crags . In the dawn they arose again , and made no ado till they were in the saddle , and rode till they came to the crest of the pass , and came out thence after a while on to the swelling flank of a huge mountain -LRB- as it might be the side of the mountain of Plinlimmon in Wales -RRB- , which was grassed and nought craggy , but utterly treeless . Now the sergeant led them somewhat athwart the said mountain till they began to go down , and saw below them a country of little hills much covered with wood , and in a while , and ere it was noon , they were among the said woods , which were grown mostly with big trees , as oak here and beech there , and the going was good for them . SO came they , three hours after noon , to where was a clearing in the woodland , and a long narrow plain some furlong over lay before them , with a river running along it , and the wood rose on the other side high and thick , so that the said plain looked even as a wide green highway leading from somewhence to somewhither . At the edge hereof their way-leader , the sergeant , bade draw rein , and said : Lords , we are now in the lands of the Red Hold , and therein is mickle peril and dread to any save stout hearts as ye be ; but meseems we are so steaded , that whatever may come out of the Black Valley of the Greywethers to the Red Hold , ye now may scarce miss . Yonder along this plain to the north lies the way to the said Hold , and any man coming from the head of the valley is sure to come by the way we have come , and will pass us not many yards at the worst from where we now be . On the other hand , if any come to the Hold from the mouth of the Black Valley , then along this green road must they needs pass under your very eyes .