IN THE WEALD 71 
road on to the green stripe, and you at once sink in 
wet ground ankle-deep. The fields that rise above 
the road, in most cases, either on one side or the other, 
are dry, very dry, for it is a clay soil here. The 
tangle is as luxuriant as that of the swamps. Tussock 
or hummock grass, great clumps of it, and sheaves of 
tall rushes, grow close to the edge of these roads, 
which were made over what was simply at one time, 
within my knowledge, an impassable swamp in winter. 
Thousands of faggots have helped to form the founda- 
tion of some of them. If you look at the cattle that 
at times graze on the green stripes, attended by one 
of the farm lads, you will see mud to above their 
knees. Their weight breaks through the thin dry- 
crust on top. If any portion of the cultivated lands 
here were neglected, they would in a year or two go 
back to wild land again. A sturdy race are those 
dwellers on the Weald, and they need be. Puny folk 
could not do their work. Why certain political agi- 
tators should, for their own purposes, attempt to make 
this stalwart class of men, with their sturdy indepen- 
dence, and loyalty to their employers we will not 
say wasters pose as a ' down-trodden ' or oppressed 
class, is only known to themselves. 
The hearts of the farming class are in the right 
place ; and we know that all their sympathies are 
*F 4 
