182 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



memories were tenacious, and preserved local history- 

 much better than does the less intimate book-learning 

 of the reading classes. But now that every plough- 

 boy reads his " penny horrible," and every gaffer 

 devours his Sunday paper, they have no memories 

 for " such truck," and local traditions are fading. 



Ifield ironworks became extinct at an earlv date, 

 but from a very arbitrary cause. During the conflicts 

 of the Civil War the property of Royalists was destroyed 

 by the Puritan soldiery wherever possible : and after 

 the taking of Arundel Castle in 1643, a detachment of 

 troops under Sir William Waller wantonly wrecked the 

 works then situated here, since when they do not 

 appear to have been at any time revived. 



It is a pretty spot to-day, and extremely quiet. 



From here Crawley is reached through Gossop's 

 Green. 



XXII 



The way into Crawley along the main road, passing 

 the modern hamlet of Lowfield Heath, is uneventful. 

 The church, the White Lion," and a few attendant 

 houses stand on one side of the road, and on the other, 

 by the farm or mansion styled Heath House, a sedgy 

 piece of ground alone remains to show what the heath 

 was like before enclosure. Much of the land is now 

 under cultivation as a nursery for shrubs, and a bee- 

 farm attracts the wayfarers' attention nearer Crawley, 

 where another hamlet has sprung up. A mean little 

 house called " Casa querca " — by which I suppose the 

 author means Oak House — is " refinement," as 

 imagined in the suburbs, and excites the passing sneer, 

 " Is not the English language good enough ? ' If the 

 Italians will only oblige, and call their own ' Bella 

 Vistas " " Pretty View," and so forth, while we 

 continue the reverse process here, we shall effect a 

 fair exchange, and find at last an Old England over-sea. 



