THISTLE-DOWN 7 



not entertaining enough for those who read for pleasure 

 only, nor suflSciently scientific and crammed with facts 

 for readers who thirst after knowledge. 



Now I am beginning to find out that there does 

 not appear to be any book about the South Downs 

 although that district certainly is and has always 

 been regarded as one of England's " observables." It 

 is true that a portion of Louis Jennings' Rambles 

 among the Hills treats of the Sussex range, and 

 is excellent reading ; but this little work does not 

 satisfy me, since the author misses that which to 

 many of us is the most interesting part of the subject 

 — namely, the wild life of the district. His libellous 

 remarks on that worthy little beast, the mole, are proof 

 that he was no naturalist, and could not touch on such 

 subjects without going astray. 



Curiously enough, Sussex, or any part of it, can 

 hardly be said to exist in literature ; or if it has any 

 place there and in our hearts it is a mean one, far, 

 far below that of most counties. Let me, however, say 

 in parenthesis that I am not a great reader, and 

 know few books, that on this subject I therefore 

 speak as a fool, or, at all events, an ignorant person. 

 But so far as I know, this county, so near to the 

 metropolis, so important geographically with its long 

 coast line of over seventy miles on the Channel, the 

 " threshold of England," as it has been called, the 

 landing-place of the Conqueror and eternal grave of 

 Saxon dominion, has produced no genius to stamp 



