CHAPTER VI 

 THE SHEPHERD OF THE DOWNS 



The shepherd as a picturesque figure — His beat qualities racial — 

 The Saxon type predominant in downland — The peasant's 

 good looks — A great beer-drinker — Scene in a village public- 

 house — Bad and good qualities of the peasant — Character in 

 a small boy — Beauty of person — A labourer's family — A pet 

 lamb and the Salvation Army — A Sussex maid — Persistence of 

 type — The Culpepper family— The shepherd's good looks — 

 Contented minds — A talk with a shepherd. 



That solitary cloaked figure on the vast round hill, 

 standing motionless, crook in hand, and rough-haired 

 dog at heel, sharply seen against the clear pale sky, 

 is one of those rare human forms in this land, which 

 do not ever seem out of place in the landscape. It 

 is undoubtedly a form to attract and fascinate the 

 eye. But behind the seeing eyes are the differing 

 busy minds. There are those, for instance, who are 

 interested solely in the image, the semblance ; who 

 are not, like the fox in the fable, concerned as to what 

 is inside of a pretty head, but who look on living faces 

 and forms as on carvings and sculptures in a gallery. 

 Then, again, there are those who perpetually crave to 

 get at the human heart in any human figure ; who 

 will go on pushing down or peeping behind screen 

 after screen, and are never satisfied until they have 



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