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When Rosamund's son and heir was come of age, the Lady Ausmandine of Ben Bison made gift to him of a residence in a grotto upon her mountain. This natural cave had previously been finished to serve as baths for the Brugh, as it houses a clear hot spring. By the time the grotto was gifted to Almond, the more sumptuous new baths at Ben Bison had been completed, and the grotto was no longer in regular use save as a quiet retreat. Its opening onto the north-west slope of the mountain is not easily seen from below, where it is fronted by a shrine to Pan.
Warmed throughout by the heat of the spring, the grotto comprises three chambers. The anteroom connects both of the others and opens onto the mountainside. Of the remaining chambers, the higher and larger contains the hot spring, which flows out in a shallow channel that fals in a cascade beside the stone stair leading up from the antechamber, and so out through the mouth of the cave to water the shrine. The smaller chamber, nearly circular, is on the same level as the antechamber, and is furnished with a few chests and with a rope-frame matress piled with featherbeads and furs as a sleeping chamber. Irridescent glass globes of 19th century nocker manufacture provide diffuse, soft light in each chamber, and can be dimmed or brightened with a word, but are quite fragile. |
Enter the Grotto or return to the Shrine to Pan