18 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



Very early this morning, on going to the beach, 1 

 found the birds back on their little feeding-ground, 

 just uncovered by the sea ; and close by, sitting on a 

 groin, was an old man, a carter with his cart and two 

 horses beside him, patiently waiting for the water to 

 get a little lower before taking up a load of sand in 

 his cart. He was a handsome old man, of the type I 

 have so often admired on the Sussex downs, with a 

 strong large frame, noble aquiline features, and an 

 intelligent expression. He told me that he had seen a 

 kingfisher flying along the coast, just over the water : 

 its shining blue colour had startled him as it flashed 

 by, for it was a rare sight at that spot. I had watched 

 one, probably the same bird, two or three days before, 

 fishing from a groin in a rough sea. The old man 

 got down from his seat and, picking up a very big 

 bunch of ribbon seaweed, shook out the water and 

 sand and gave half of it to one horse and half to the 

 other. They ate it greedily, as if it had been the 

 most fragrant new-mown hay. I had seen New Forest 

 ponies browsing on furze, deftly cutting off the big 

 prickly blossoming sprays with their uncovered chisel- 

 like teeth, and calmly chewing them up apparently 

 without hurt to their tender mouths ; but to see horses 

 contentedly champing seaweed was new to me. Some 

 horses liked it and some refused to eat it, he told me. 

 It was supposed to be good for them to eat it in modera- 

 tion ; his own opinion was that horses that ate seaweed 

 were stronger and kept their health better than others. 



