midnight
Hampstead Heath , Wimbledon , even Richmond and Bushey have known me at their most secret hour . Such experiences as I have had of the preternatural will find their place in this book , but not their chronological place , for the simple reason that , as I kept no diary , I can not remember in what order of time they befell me . But it was on the southern slope of Parliament Hill that I came again upon the fairy-woman of Gaylord 's Rents . I was there at midnight , a mild radiant night of late April . There were sheep at graze there , for though it was darkish under the three-quarter moon , I was used to the dark , and could see them , a woolly mass , quietly feeding close together . I saw no shepherd anywhere ; but I remember that his dog sat on his haunches apart , watching them . He was prick-eared , bright-eyed ; he grinned and panted intensely .