FINE LANDSCAPE. 17 



prosody. But if I did not advance in know- 

 ledge of the classics, I learned, either from 

 him or through the innate love of nature I 

 possessed, how to appreciate the beauties of 

 that salubrious valley, which, surrounded on 

 all sides by what appears to be stupendous 

 hills, seems marked out by nature for the en- 

 joyment of ease and retirement. Often, from 

 the top of Sheet or Ram's Hill, would I 

 stop to observe the fantastic forms the 

 South Downs take on their range towards 

 the east, wondering whether the great Caesar 

 passed with his legions through any part of 

 this district, on his march in pursuit of the 

 flying Britons; next looked with that de- 

 light brilliant objects always inspire on the 

 glittering little lake at their base saw the 

 white, chalky road winding through the 

 hills in an opposite direction, skirting the 

 little village of Buriton, where is now stand- 

 ing the house in which the historian Gibbon 

 commenced his immortal work ; then, cross- 

 ing the brook, I have walked through the 

 VOL. I. C 



