148 



THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



toil and rheumatism, he sat there in smock-frock and 

 gaiters, as typical a countryman as ever on London 

 stage brought the scent of the hay across the footlights. 

 That smock of his, the " round frock ' of Sussex 

 parlance, was worked about the yoke of it, fore and 

 aft, with many and curious devices, whose patterns, 

 though he, and she who worked them, knew it not, 

 derived from centuries of tradition and precept, had 

 been handed down from Saxon times, aye, and before 



THE SWITCHBACK ROAD, EARLSWOOD COMMON. 



them, to the present day, when, their significance lost, 

 they excite merely a mild wonder at their oddity and 

 complication. 



He was, it seemed, a " hedger and ditcher," and his 

 leathern gauntlets and billhook lay beside him on the 

 ale-house bench. 



" I've worked at this sort o' thing," said he, in 

 conversation, " for the last twenty year. Hard work ? 

 yes, onaccountable hard, and small pay for't too. 



