108 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



regarded as most unnatural, his words as flat treason 

 to tlieir order. They did not consider, or did not know, 

 that their order in another larger sense was not his; 

 that they were distant children of those who came with 

 Ella to these purple shores, abandoned by Rome ; that 

 they had not so greatly degenerated in fourteen cen- 

 turies as not to be able to drink any dark-eyed and 

 pale-faced young man into the deepest depths of 

 intoxication, or the grave, without themselves experi- 

 encing a qualm, physical or mental. 



Putting aside the subject of drink, perhaps the two 

 greatest faults of this people (and too much beer may 

 be the reason of both) is that they are not very thrifty 

 and not very pure. In some of the villages illegitimate 

 children are as plentiful as blackberries. But alto- 

 gether, the good qualities are more and greater than 

 the vices, or " amiable weaknesses " ; and no person can 

 help admiring their rock-hke stability of character, 

 their sturdy independence of spirit, and, with it, patient 

 contentment with a life of unremitting toil ; and, 

 finally, their intense individuality. You will recognise 

 even in the children these strong enduring qualities, 

 which make the Sussexian peasant a man " self-centered 

 as the trees and animals are." Here is an account of 

 a conversation I had with a little fellow, under nine, 

 at a village on the northern border of the downs. At 

 sunset on a misty autumn evening I set out to walk to 

 a spot about three miles from the village. The children 

 had just been released from school, and I overtook a 



