WEST OF THE ADUR 219 



side of this blossoming marsh, in the middle of the 

 green churchyard, sheltered and concealed by ancient 

 trees, stands the small old church, one of the prettiest 

 to be seen in the district. The stream is a part of 

 the West Rother, that same pretty little river which 

 Michael Drayton some three centuries ago spoke of 

 as running wild in the woods, where it, or she, lived, 

 and being no comfort to the aged hill who was her 

 father. Drayton was all for personifying the prin- 

 cipal features in the landscape — hills, valleys, woods, 

 marshes, rivers, and what not. Male and female made 

 he them, and of all ages, connected with each other 

 by human ties of all kinds ; and when he gets into a 

 broken country like this it becomes difficult to follow 

 him, and to know what the pother is all about ; for 

 his characters are always quarrelUng among them- 

 selves and threatening in lofty rhymes to " do " for 

 each other. 



Going to the top of the hill above Cocking I sat 

 down against a hedge, which sheltered me from the 

 wind, and looked upon the scene spread out before 

 me. At the foot of the bare down ran a low thorn 

 hedge, dividing it from the yellow stubble fields be- 

 yond. At each end of the hedge there were masses 

 of high trees, fir and beech, and among the trees on 

 one side a farm-house and buildings were seen. Be- 

 yond the bare down and fields and village, the flat, 

 wooded district of the weald spread out before me, 

 with the little red-coloured town of Midhurst in the 



