xxii WAYFARING NOTIONS 



heard approaching their front door. A stable of 

 his own he never had, greatly as he would have 

 enjoyed it with his extensive knowledge and 

 appreciation of good horses. As it was, he used 

 to take delight in visiting training quarters and 

 *' paying calls," as he put it, on the grand 

 creatures in their quarters. 



His knowledge of English country, on and 

 off the road, I take to be unrivalled — certainly 

 unique among men so cribbed and confined by 

 the exigencies of their work as he was. Delight 

 in '' seeing the land " was born in him, and never 

 flagged. Our lately developed cult of the country 

 found him already its past master, practising 

 it instinctively, habitually, for love. He was 

 passionately fond of the South Downs, and 

 stands alone as a word-painter and interpreter of 

 that curiously neglected and fascinating chalk 

 range. It is doubtful if any other man could be 

 found with such appreciation and intimate know- 

 ledge of the Downs, though born and bred 

 among them. How many would, for the pleasure 

 of it, start from Plumpton at four o'clock on a 

 December afternoon to make across the hills to 

 Palmer.'^ How many know "the high ridges 

 behind Lavant where the yew-trees grow ? " or 

 would take a "nice little walk " from Lewes to 

 Telscombe, and then on, say, to Newhaven — and 

 this with never a halt to ask the way (though 



