54 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



mostly lurking about in very small bands, and 

 never a seagull for a wonder — we were there with 

 the place all to ourselves. Down in the hollows 

 of the valleys, punch-bowls, or combes, where are 

 here and there *' deans " with a prefix (as Stang, 

 Pang, Oving, and Rottingdean), were now and 

 then furze-wattled folds for the ewes, whose bells' 

 tinkle mounted tunefully from the hill spurs to the 

 ridges. An unusual yet welcome sight presented 

 itself here and there — viz., Scotch cattle helping 

 dress with life some of the ranges' sides and not 

 before they were wanted, to get the long self-saved 

 grass off, and make a chance for the coming young 

 growth. 



That grey, pearly, only slightly opaque, mist 

 seldom absent from the chalk country magnified 

 distance and proportions magically, bringing about 

 romantic, almost grand, effects, so that if you 

 knew no better you might fancy yourself in a land 

 of mighty mountains instead of mere downs. 

 Between the crests, peeps at the sea relieved the 

 (alleged) sameness of slope piled on slope. Here 

 and there the beach and fur spinnies bulked far 

 more important to the eye than their real size 

 warranted. Stanmer Park shaped a great forest, 

 and the Dyke a big settlement miles and miles 

 away. From Lewes Race Stand over the way 

 the land climbed and climbed till DItchling Borstal 

 was almost in the clouds with Mount Harry's 

 comparatively mild eminence, a peak or pike 

 carrying quite minor distinction. Across the 

 Ouse's estuary, the sears on Seaford's golf hill 

 almost blazed as the bright white light caught it. 

 Newhaven harbour's masts and funnels, not 

 forgetting its giant spidery shear legs, was to all 

 appearance nearer twenty than half a dozen miles 



