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Places in Middle-earth

The Hill

Type: Mountains, Hills, Promontories

Region: Bree/The Shire

Other Names Hobbiton Hill

Location: The hill at the end of Hill Lane, into which Bag End was built. This hill also contained the Party Field and Tree, as well as Bagshot Row.

Description: Bilbo's last birthday party was held on this hill, in the Party Field, where there was also an open air kitchen. After the Ring War, when Saruman occupied the Shire, Bagshot Row was used as a sand and gravel quarry , the Party Field was covered in hillocks and huts were built there up to Bag End. The Party Tree was also destroyed at this time.

"One morning the hobbits woke to find the large field, south of Bilbo's front door, covered with ropes and poles for tents and pavilions. A special entrance was cut into the bank leading to the road, and wide steps and a large white gate were built there. The three hobbit-families of Bagshot Row, adjoining the field, were intensely interested and generally envied. Old Gaffer Gamgee stopped even pretending to work in his garden.
"The tents began to go up. There was a specially large pavilion, so big that the tree that grew in the field was right inside it, and stood proudly near one end, at the head of the chief table. Lanterns were hung on all its branches. More promising still (to the hobbits' mind): an enormous open-air kitchen was erected in the north corner of the field. A draught of cooks, from every inn and eating-house for miles around, arrived to supplement the dwarves and other odd folk that were quartered at Bag End. Excitement rose to its height."
From The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 1, A Long-expected Party

"As they crossed the bridge and looked up the Hill they gasped. Even Sam’s vision in the Mirror had not prepared him for what they saw. The Old Grange on the west side had been knocked down, and its place taken by rows of tarred sheds. All the chestnuts were gone. The banks and hedgerows were broken. Great waggons were standing in disorder in a field beaten bare of grass. Bagshot Row was a yawning sand and gravel quarry. Bag End up beyond could not be seen for a clutter of large huts.
"‘They’ve cut it down!’ cried Sam. ‘They’ve cut down the Party Tree!’ He pointed to where the tree. had stood under which Bilbo had made his Farewell Speech. It was lying lopped and dead in the field. As if this was the last straw Sam burst into tears."
From The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 8, The Scouring of the Shire

"One of the first things done in Hobbiton, before even the removal of the new mill, was the clearing of the Hill and Bag End, and the restoration of Bagshot Row. The front of the new sand-pit was all levelled and made into a large sheltered garden, and new holes were dug in the southward face, back into the Hill, and they were lined with brick. The Gaffer was restored to Number Three; and he said often and did not care who heard it: ‘It’s an ill wind as blows nobody no good, as I always say. And All’s well as ends Better!’"
From The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 9, The Grey Havens

Contributors: docmon, 29 Oct 05

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