20 The 'Bourne: 



In Slimmer it is a broad winding trench with low 

 green banks, along whose bed 3'ou may stroll dr^'- 

 shod, with the yellow corn on either hand reaching 

 above your head. A few sedges here and there, and 

 that peculiar whitened appearance left when water 

 has passed over vegetation, betoken that once there 

 was a stream. It is like the watercourses and rivers 

 of the East, which are the roads of the traveller till 

 the storm comes, and, lo ! in the morning is a rush- 

 ing flood. Near the village some water is to be seen 

 in the pond which has been deepened out to hold it, 

 and which is, too, kept up here by a spring. 



In winter the bourne often has the appearance of 

 a broad brook : you ma}' observe where the current 

 has arranged the small flints washed in from the 

 fields by the rain. As the villages are on the lesser 

 ' bournes,' so the towns are placed on the banks of 

 the rivers these fall into. There may generally be 

 found a row of villages and hamlets on the last slope 

 of the downs, where the hills sink finally awa}^ into 

 the plain and vale, so that if any one went along the 

 edge of the hills he would naturally think the district 

 well populated. But if instead of following the edge 

 he penetrated into the interior he would find the 

 precise contrary to be the case. Just at the edge 

 there is water, the ' heads ' of the innumerable 

 streams that make the vale so verdant. In the 

 days when wealth consisted chiefly in flocks and 

 herds, men would naturally settle where there were 

 ' water-brooks.' 



When at last the drought ceases, and the rain 

 does come, it often pours with tropical vehemence ; 

 so that the soil of the fields upon the slopes is car- 



