WILD LIFE ON THE SUSSEX DOWNS 



the stream at this point looks most tempting for 

 sea-trout and even an occasional salmon. I know that 

 sea-trout are sometimes taken in the neighbouring 

 river, the Avon, which flows to the sea by Lewes and 

 Newhaven, but I am not aware of any modern fisher- 

 man having landed a Cuckmere sea-trout. Probably 

 the stream is too easy-going and placid — too midland- 

 looking — to attract game fish of this species. 



Within the limits of this chapter it is impossible to 

 attempt more than the mere outline of so vast a subject. 

 Even a stout volume would be no more than sufficient 

 to do justice to the wild life of the South Downs. I 

 must pass over the bats, the lizards, mice, voles, and 

 other small mammals, as well as scores of birds, many 

 of them of much more than fleeting interest. As for 

 the wild flowers, who that has wandered upon the 

 downs can ever forget them ? They need many 

 chapters, or articles to themselves. Nature is wonder- 

 fully bountiful of flower life amid the smooth, short 

 turf and broken spaces of these ancient hills. I have 

 sat on a June day on these pleasant heights and within 

 a radius of five yards have noted fragrant patches of 

 young wild thyme, the greater and lesser tormentil, 

 *'eggs and bacon," or as some call it, "Lady's 

 slipper," the small down buttercup, viper's bugloss, 

 with its lovely blue, milkwort, marjoram, a veronica, 

 with tiny flowers of a tender lavender, the cowslip, the 

 speedwell of the "darling blue," creamy meadow- 

 sweet tinged with the most tender pink, the rich yellow 

 St. John's wort, and the wild burnet rose of the downs, 

 trailing its broad white blossom over a neighbouring 

 patch of gorse, which, itself, still showed bloom here 

 and there. That is, surely, a goodly list for so small 

 a space ! In spring the tiny draba, with its white 

 blooms gleaming like frost-rime upon every mound, is 



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