BRIGHTON TO NEWHAVEN 55 



away, with lakes and lakes of flood-water flanking 

 the bank-full river, now, for the most part, of one 

 tide only — a perpetual ebb dominated by the force 

 of land water. Greater than ever I saw it before 

 appeared the gulf across the brooklands, over- 

 looked by the tall sentinels, Mount Caburn and 

 Firle Beacon. Splashes of red on the lowlands 

 told you of the buckthorn's twigs, a rosy-apple 

 lake colour ; minor tones of woolly eflect in grey 

 and brown spoke of tall trees risking frost's attacks 

 after the fashion of an imprudent mortal tempting 

 Providence by shedding his overcoat on the faith 

 of a midday winter sun. You knew that away 

 on the " brooks' " borders the lords and ladies 

 were peeping lettuce tree green to the general's 

 olive leaf tone ; the guelder roses' flat-headed 

 bunches of blooms, in evidence for weeks and 

 weeks, were ready for an early call ; the primroses, 

 starting in the warmer bands between the downs' 

 feet and the rim of the weald and the birds house- 

 hunting for eligible building sites ; you needed no 

 prompting to note the blazing lichen gilding slate 

 roofs, tile roofs, flint walls, all wrought wood that 

 faced southwards, and live woods, too, even 

 setting up instant contrast with the gamboge of 

 the hawthorns — a tone the May's own monopoly 

 in vegetable nature or art. 



Lots and lots of '' details " good to forgather 

 with were on view or to be had on the ask-for-it- 

 and-see-you-get-it system, and nobody, not a soul 

 except me, the birds, and bunnies, who kept 

 mortal close, there to draw on them for satisfac- 

 tion. Ought not somebody in the Parliament 

 House to make laws so that such waste might be 

 prevented, even if the force had to be called out 

 to collar His Majesty's lieges by the scruff of the 



