4 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



last a moderate sightseer for a twelvemonth. 

 You can hardly ask for a brand that is not pro- 

 ducible in the scope of a look round commanding 

 range from far out to sea on the south, right over 

 to the Surrey ridges on the north ; from East 

 Sussex on the one hand to well into Hampshire 

 and Dorset. Very hard to beat is this part of 

 the South Downs by reason of its being so well 

 wooded, as they may not be farther east, because 

 of exposure to the south-westers. I am not sure 

 that they can be beaten. You see, they have 

 pretty much all that can be claimed for the best 

 of the inland ranges — Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire 

 in the south, or the Wolds of the north — and the 

 look-out over the sea as well, a very pleasant one 

 with the fine grain crops on the belt of land that 

 stretches under the hills' southern face right away 

 from Portsmouth to Brighton, where it ends by 

 reason of the chalk hills coming down to the sea. 

 Over this belt the dews are heavy, and drought 

 is not felt as it is further inland, a circumstance 

 which accounts for the going being good at train- 

 ing quarters within this zone when further inland 

 it may be desperately hard. Better wheat land 

 you will scarcely find in the south of England, 

 nor, I should say, much better wheat crops on an 

 average. (Farmers in the Chichester district 

 used to race for the distinction of first getting 

 into the market a loaf made from flour ground 

 from the current season's harvest, and, if they 

 landed by Goodwood Week, thought they had 

 done pretty well.) 



As for the harvests nature provides free gratis 

 for nothing, there are lashings and lavers of them 

 in the Duke's country, go high go low. Our 

 small friends' winter store is served up with 



