18 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



appear in these his favourite haunts, and his mo- 

 notonous " churr '' be prolonged during the still 

 summer evenings. 



After leavinc^ this wild tract, and striking the 

 high road between Pulborough and Ai'undel, the 

 view that suddenly burst upon me was singularly 

 beautiful. The great alluvial plain, watered by 

 the Arun, lay spread beneath. Far to the right, 

 on the opposite side of the river, were the old 

 ruins of Amberley Castle, its dark, grey walls 

 standing in bold relief from the smooth Downs, 

 which, bounding this side of the picture as far as 

 the eye could reach, seemed at last to mingle, 

 cloud-like, with the distant horizon, and the hol- 

 low valleys that lay between them were filled 

 with a soft, half transparent mist, the effect of 

 which, with the summits of the hills bathed in 

 sunshine, it would be impossible for the pen to 

 describe, and Copley Fielding alone could depict 

 with the pencil. 



But how diff'erent was the appearance of the 

 intervening plain sixty years since. Those wide 

 meadows, clothed with long, rank grass, where 

 herds of black cattle now lazily chew the cud, 

 were then covered with dense woods, where the 

 adventurous sportsman delighted to contend with 

 the tangled brushwood, and wade, knee-deep, 

 through the marshy jungles that extended for 



