120 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



ing hair crowned with ivy ; and had sat down in 

 some dim room among her people, just when the smi 

 was going down behind the great downs, and pom*ed 

 its red Hght on her flushed beautiful young face. 



It pleased the girl to be told that she was like 

 a Roman-British maid who had lived at that spot 

 seventeen centuries ago ; but she could not say that 

 she had any but peasant's blood in her veins. Her 

 parents and grandparents, and their families as far 

 back as she knew, were all of the working-class, and 

 their home was the Sussex Downs. But the family 

 memory seldom goes back far enough— it is rare for 

 it to extend farther than three generations back. We 

 see that racial characters are practically everlasting, 

 that they are never wholly swamped. Families of 

 distinct races may go on mixing and remixing their 

 blood for scores of generations ; yet children ever and 

 anon will continue to be born that seem not the 

 offspring of their parents, or of any near progenitors ; 

 but in them the ancient type that was obscured and 

 appeared about to be lost for ever is suddenly re- 

 stored, distinct in all its lineaments. It is as if a 

 cask of soured and turbid liquor, in some day of 

 strange atmospheric conditions, had suddenly run 

 clear again, and had again the lost fragrance and 

 flavour, and sparkle and brilliant colour : and this 

 is a miracle of nature, an eternal mystery, and is 

 like a re-incarnation and a resurrection. 



As with racial characters, so it is, although in a 



