SWALLOWS AND CHURCHES 189 



churches of this district: they are small in small 

 villages, built of stone or flint, with low square 

 towers surmounted by small shingled spires. Wood 

 and stone have the same grey colour of age and 

 weather, and the exposed wood has the appearance 

 of being perdurable as the stone. It is indeed long- 

 lasting, the shingles being made of hard butt oak 

 and pinned with oak wood, or fastened with copper 

 nails. In long, excessively dry summers, like that 

 of 1899, the shingles shrink and grow loose, and 

 rattle in the hot violent winds so loudly that a person 

 up in the belfry might imagine that their time had 

 nearly come, that a mightier blast will by-and-by 

 tear them off, to whirl them away like thistle-down 

 and scatter them wide over the country. Such a 

 fear would be idle ; they rattle but keep their hold 

 until the rain comes to soak and tighten them in 

 their places ; and they will still be there in all weathers 

 when we that see them and think about their muta- 

 tions shall no longer be sensible to summer's heat 

 and winter's wet and cold. 



I forget who it was who said of some peaceful 

 village churchyard that it made one in love with 

 death to be in such a place. That is a feeling which 

 may be experienced in some of the villages here 

 Wilmington, Berwick, and West Firle, for instance. 

 Ditchling churchyard is too high above the surround- 

 ing level, and unshaded with trees, to allow of such 

 a fancy. Often during a long walk over the downs 



