CHAPTER II 



CHARM OF THE DOWNS 



Scope and limits of this work — A general description of the downs 

 — Agreeable sensations ; an inquiry into their causes — Gilbert 

 White's speculations — The pleasures of the downs due to a 

 variety of causes — Their shapely human-like curves — Connec- 

 tion between the senses of sight and touch — Effects of flowing 

 outlines — Instinctive delight in wide horizons — The desire 

 to fly — Effect of a series of dome-like forms — The joy of 

 mountains. 



When I stated, perhaps ignorantly, in the last chapter 

 that nothing had been done by writers of note or of 

 genius for Sussex, the statement did not include works 

 of a purely scientific description. There is no lack of 

 hat kind of literature ; the geology especially of the 

 great range of chalk hills that distinguish this county, 

 and of the Weald, has been treated at very consider- 

 able length. 



I am not concerned with this aspect of the subject 

 — the framework or skeleton of downland and the 

 wonderful story of its creation ; but only with its 

 smooth surface from the aesthetic point of view, and 

 with the living garment of the downs, its animal and 

 vegetable forms, from the point of view of the lover of 

 nature and, in a moderate degree, of the field natu- 

 ralist. These impressions of the downs — of their 



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