v WOODS AND FIELDS 195 



On the Downs indeed things change slowly, 

 and in parts of Sussex the strong slow oxen 

 still draw the waggons laden with warm hay 

 or golden wheat sheaves, or drag the wooden 

 plough along the slopes of the Downs, just as 

 they did a thousand years ago. 



I love the open Down most, but without 

 hedges England would not be England. 

 Hedges are everywhere full of beauty and 

 interest, and nowhere more so than at the 

 foot of the Downs, when they are in great 

 part composed of wild Guelder Roses and rich 

 dark Yews, decked with festoons of Travel- 

 ler's Joy, the wild Bryonies, and garlands of 

 Wild Roses covered with thousands of white 

 or delicate pink flowers, each with a centre of 

 gold. 



At the foot of the Downs spring clear spark- 

 ling streams ; rain from heaven purified still 

 further by being filtered through a thousand 

 feet of chalk ; fringed with purple Loosestrife 

 and Willowherb, starred with white Water 

 Ranunculuses, or rich Watercress, while every 

 now and then a brown water rat rustles in 

 the grasses at the edge, and splashes into 



