CHAPTER IX 



SUMMER HEAT 



When the downs are most enjoyable — July in the wooded lowland 

 — The bliss of summer — Children's delight in heat — Misery 

 of cold — Piers Plowman — Langland's philosophy — The hap- 

 piest man in Sussex — A protection from the sun — Heat not 

 oppressive on the hills — Birds on Mount Harry — A cup of 

 cold water — Drawing water in a hat — Advantages of a tweed 

 hat — An unsympathetic woman — Beauty of kindness. 



The downs to my mind are most enjoyable during 

 the eight or ten hottest weeks of the year ; not only 

 because of the greater intensity of life and colour at 

 that season, but also because the heat of the sun, 

 always less oppressive than on the country below, and 

 endurable even at its greatest, as we had it in the 

 exceptionally hot and dry season of 1899, is at most 

 times a positive pleasure. Midsummer down on the 

 level country makes us shade-lovers ; here where the 

 air is more elastic we can rejoice to be in a shadeless 

 land. And the charm of the downs at this season, if 

 by chance rain has fallen to refresh and make them 

 blossom, is never more appreciated than when the 

 visitor goes to them direct from the wooded district 

 of the weald. During the last half of July the wood- 

 land atmosphere weighs somewhat heavily on the 



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