44 THE MOONLIGHT LECTURE 



rush of a motor-car or the hoot with which it 

 passes the cross-roads, and this gives a pleasant 

 sensation of being within reach of the active world, 

 though unmolested by it. 



It seems incredible to think that only on the 

 other side of a narrow silver stretch of sea, which 

 alone protects our land, a bombardment is taking 

 place more prolonged and deadlier than any battles 

 that have ever been before in the whole world's 

 history. The issue, whatever it may be, must 

 mean vast changes to us all, and yet but yesterday 

 a Sussex labourer, in speaking of the war, ex- 

 claimed with satisfaction, " Well ! at all events, 

 the Germans have not yet got into France ! " He 

 is by no means an ignorant man. He can read and 

 write, he talks politics, and does his spadework 

 well, but such is the slowness of dear Sussex that 

 the geography of Europe conveys nothing to the 

 labourer. He possesses also to a considerable de- 

 gree that refreshingly optimistic conviction, which 

 no reverses will shake, that his own country must 

 eventually win in the struggle. 



Why is it that fresh ideas are so reluctantly 

 considered and that even progress in agricultural 

 development moves but tardily here ? 



Perhaps it can be accounted for by the fact that, 

 some few hundred years ago, the Weald was still 

 an almost impenetrable forest, and the tradition of 

 it lingers yet with village children, who in some 

 parts direct us to what they call " the forest," 

 which we find to be gorse and heather-grown 

 common land devoid of trees. Certain it is that 

 the great open stretches of downs, free of dwellings 



