1842] Down 77 



he struck loudly against the ground, producing a rhythmical 

 click which is with all of us a very distinct recollection." 1 



The village of Down was a quarter of a mile to the north 

 of our house. It was a pleasant little village of one street. 

 The church was built of flints with shingled roof and spire, 

 and with fine old yews growing in the churchyard. I quote 

 here these passages from an account of Down written by 

 my father : 



1843. May 15th. The first peculiarity which strikes a 

 stranger unaccustomed to a hilly chalk country is the valleys, 

 with their steep rounded bottoms, not furrowed with the 

 smallest rivulet. . . . Their sides near the summits gener- 

 ally become suddenly more abrupt, and are fringed with 

 narrow strips, or, as they are here called, " shaws " of wood, 

 sometimes merely by hedge-rows run wild. . . . 



In most countries the roads and footpaths ascend along 

 the bottoms of valleys, but here this is scarcely ever the 

 case. All the villages and most of the ancient houses are 

 on the platform or narrow strips of flat land between the 

 parallel valleys. Is this owing to the summits having 

 existed from the most ancient times as open downs and the 

 valleys having been filled up with brushwood ? I have no 

 evidence of this, but it is certain that most of the farm- 

 houses on the flat land are very ancient. . . . 



Nearly all the land is ploughed, and is often left fallow, 

 which gives the country a naked, red look, or not unfre- 

 quently white, from a covering of chalk laid on by the 

 farmer. Nobody seems at all aware on what principle fresh 

 chalk laid on land abounding with lime does it any good. 

 This, however, is said to have been the practice of the country 

 ever since the period of the Romans, and at present the 

 many white pits on the hill sides, which so frequently 

 afford a picturesque contrast with the overhanging yew- 

 trees, are all quarried for this purpose. 



The number of different kinds of bushes in the hedge- 

 rows, entwined by traveller's joy and the bryonies, is con- 

 spicuous compared with the hedges of the northern counties. 



March 25th [1844 ?]. The first period of vegetation, and 

 the banks are clothed with pale-blue violets to an extent 

 I have never seen equalled, and with primroses. A few 

 days later some of the copses were beautifully enlivened 

 by Ranunculus auricomus, wood anemones, and a white 

 Stellaria. Again, subsequently, large areas were brilliantly 



1 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, pp. 109, 115. 



