NATURE NEAR LONDON 



On returning homewards towards Eastbourne 

 stay awhile by the tumulus on the slope. There 

 are others hidden among the furze ; butterflies 

 flutter over them, and the bees hum round by 

 day; by night the night-hawk passes, coming up 

 from the fields and even skirting the sheds and 

 houses below. The rains beat on them, and the 

 storm drives the dead leaves over their low green 

 domes ; the waves boom on the shore far down. 



How many times has the morning star shone 

 yonder in the East ? All the mystery of the 

 sun and of the stars centres around these lowly 

 mounds. 



But the glory of these glorious Downs is the 

 breeze. The air in the valleys immediately be- 

 neath them is pure and pleasant ; but the least 

 climb, even a hundred feet, puts you on a plane 

 with the atmosphere itself, uninterrupted by so 

 much as the treetops. It is air without admix- 

 ture. If it comes from the south, the waves re- 

 fine it ; if inland, the wheat and flowers and grass 

 distil it. The great headland and the whole rib 

 of the promontory is wind-swept and washed with 

 air ; the billows of the atmosphere roll over it. 



The sun searches out every crevice amongst the 

 grass, nor is there the smallest fragment of surface 

 which is not sweetened by air and light. Under- 

 neath, the chalk itself is pure, and the turf thus 

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