VI 

 THE SUSSEX CORN BELT 



OUR road continued eastward over the lower slopes of 

 the chalk across the fine cornland near Blandford, 

 which is reputed to be about the earliest district to 

 harvest in the south of England, until near Wimborne 

 we exchanged the chalk for the Bagshot Sands and 

 left the good farming behind. 



The old story that the Conqueror made a waste of 

 the New Forest has long been discredited ; the Lower 

 Tertiaries on which the Forest and its environs are 

 situated give rise to the poorest of soils, the cultiva- 

 tion of which was even less possible in the old days, 

 before extraneous sources of manure were available. 

 But from Ringwood to Stony Cross is one of the 

 most glorious of rides when the bell-heather lights up 

 the black heath and the packs of forest ponies come 

 trotting across the road ; all the more beautiful on 

 that occasion when the afternoon sunlight struck in 

 shafts through the dark clouds which the west wind 

 was massing up from the Channel, with little promise 

 of the settled fine weather that every one was wanting 

 to ripen off the corn and bring in the harvest. Poor 

 as the soil is, the outskirts of the Forest show the 

 innate land hunger of our people ; just because the 

 land has been obtainable in small pieces all kinds of 

 little holdings, with weird bungalows and suburban 



33 



