IN THE SUSSEX DUKERIES 21 



should you chance tx) fare to the quaint old town ? 

 Well, that being your inclination, you might as 

 well inquire of a native for the bathing-place's 

 "marks." What sort of cheerful direction will 

 you receive ? Very plain and encouraging, You 

 go through the wood till you see the post put up 

 '' where the butler was drowned." 



Branch off to Lavington, home of several 

 Wilberforces, and a cure once held by Manning. 

 As a matter of fact, my first pilgrimage to the 

 beautiful little hamlet, near where is Mr Buchanan's 

 new stud, was on account of Cardinal Manning's 

 association with the locality one should on no 

 account miss exploiting, for it is very lovely. I 

 have a lively recollection of a longish journey from 

 Shillinglee Park, and a remarkably short bill for a 

 very fine meal of rabbit-pie baked hot-pot fashion, 

 cold fat pork, and lashings of beer. What the 

 precise sum was I forget, but I do recollect the 

 lot's coming to under sixpence and there being an 

 odd farthing in it, also the landlord's refusal to 

 take more. I know I calculated that if bed was 

 assessed on the same moderate platform as board 

 I could live for about ;^i5 a year and spare a 

 quarter of that for washing. 



Or pull up one of the chalk lanes, where are 

 hangers in place of East Sussex bostals, on roads 

 studded with pyrites, commonly called thunder- 

 bolts, plain to see after rain has washed the chalk 

 surface clean, just as you may pick out specks of 

 gold in some Australian towns. Wild, desolate 

 country some would call the land you strike on 

 the highlands. It is homely to me, though dis- 

 figured through digging out fiints, thus making 

 perilous walking for the unwary. Here you are 

 with a view hard to beat wherever you strike on 



