212 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



sect tribes of human kind " that have dwelt upon these 

 green downs since the coming of man — Saxon, and 

 Dane, and Roman, and Briton, and the earlier races 

 that were slain by the Celt, and the earlier still, and 

 others and still others further back in time. All the 

 events of long thousands of years, all the thousands 

 of " generations of deciduous men," called back and 

 seen passing in procession before that clear cold im- 

 mortal mind. Dark and pale races, speaking strange 

 tongues ; love and hate and all passions, heard and 

 seen in music and laughter and cries, and agitated 

 speech, and faces ashen white and burning red, and 

 wide fixed eyes ; tumults and wars upon wars, the 

 shock of furious battle, the shouts of victory that 

 frightened nature. And thereafter peace ; toil and rest, 

 and day and night; a young mother sitting on the 

 summit of some high hill, looking out upon the vast 

 range, the illimitable green world, the distant grey and 

 silver sea, all the world sleeping in a peaceful sunshine 

 and no cloud on all the sky ; — a young mother fond- 

 ling her first-born and laughing in pure gladness of 

 heart. And then the fading out of earth of that 

 golden sunshine, and the grey chill evening of fear and 

 flight ; men drunk with blood, still thirsting for blood, 

 their mouths frothing, their eyes ablaze, streaming 

 over the hills, untiring as wolves on the track of the 

 fugitives. The slayers in their turn are slain by 

 death ; in long quiet years there is a slow recovery 

 of lost good, increase of people, and little children 



