CHAPTER X 



SUMMER SUSSEX 



Far up on the Downs the air of day and night is 

 flavoured by honeysuckle and new hay. It is good to 

 walk, it is good to lie still; the rain is good and so is the 

 sun; and whether the windy or the quiet air be the better 

 let us leave to a December judgment to decide. One day 

 the rain falls and there is no wind, and all the movement 

 is in the chaos of the dark sky; and thus is made the 

 celestial fairness of an earth that is brighter than the 

 heavens; for the green and lilac of the grasses and the 

 yellow of the goat's-beard flowers glow, and the ripening 

 corn is airy light. But next day the sun is early hot. 

 The wet hay steams and is sweet. The beams pour into 

 a southward coombe of the hills and the dense yew is 

 warm as a fruit- wall, so that the utmost of fragrance is 

 extracted from the marjoram and thyme and fanned by the 

 coming and going of butterflies; and in contrast with this 

 gold and purple heat on flower and wing, through the 

 blue sky and along the hill-top moist clouds are trooping, 

 of the grey colour of melting snow. The great shadows 

 of the clouds brood long over the hay, and in the darker 

 hollows the wind rustles the dripping thickets until mid- 

 day. On another morning after night rain the blue sky 

 is rippled and crimped with high, thin white clouds by 

 several opposing breezes. Vast forces seem but now to 

 have ceased their feud. The battle is over, and there are 

 all the signs of it plain to be seen; but they have laid 

 down their arms, and peace is broad and white in the sky, 



1 80 



