LEWES AND ITS COUNTRY 97 



qualified to make a census of man, woman, child, 

 man-servant and maid-servant, with a shrewd 

 guess at the strangers within the gates, the oxen 

 and other stock, and a certain knowledge of all 

 regular carriers' and callers' '' days," fairs, markets, 

 and cross-roads, where lifts might be reckoned on 

 with certainty. For two pins, or one, or none at 

 all, only a congenial soul putting me up to play- 

 ing truant, I would have forsaken Lewes racing 

 summarily and ''offed" it somewhere, say to the 

 sheep fair towards the Falmer-road, where im- 

 memorial shepherds and prehistoric dogs congre- 

 gate, and wealthy dealers and farmers haggle for 

 dear life over twopence-halfpenny on a five 

 hundred pounds turnover. The air was all 

 against walking, in that it made you want to run, 

 and, so to speak, throw rheumatismi and stiff 

 knees, twinges in the easterly breeze, and short- 

 ness of puff to the metaphorical dogs, and start 

 away at a good round, sound trot. 



Whichever way you went you could not be 

 wrong in poor old Home's country, its uplands 

 free, and the low cut up into all manner of patterns 

 by frequent footpaths, occupation roads, quite 

 public lanes, and parish or council roads. Within 

 easy range you might pick half a dozen distinct 

 tracts of country, strongly individual in character 

 — neighbours, but distinct in type as are families 

 of humans, from the great grey-green chalk 

 ranges through the zone where the chalk and the 

 clay meet, with changed vegetation to match the 

 blend, the oak begins to grow sturdily, and the 

 water to gather readily. Farther out crop up 

 sandy Surrey-and-Birket-Foster heath and fir 

 belts, with wide, windy commons, made for 

 squatters and geese and donkeys, with white 



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