Kipling's rock

I had this legend from the Rock which rises behind the laurestine bush and the loquat tree, in the winter garden. Shortly after the end of the first crusade, so the Rock told me, there came to Vernet, wearied by war and seeking a quiet life, two English knights - Sir Brian and Sir Gilbert, the one round and reddish, the other long and dark; the one limping from an inveterate sciatica, the other bowed in his saddle by as ancient a lumbago.


This extract is from Rudyard Kipling's story, 'Why snow falls at Vernet - a legend of St Saturnia.'  The sun finally came out so I walked up to the belvedere above the village which was one of Kipling's favourite walks.  The walk passes Kipling's rock.