CHAPTER III 



THE LIVING GARMENT 



The South Downs most agreeable in the hot season — Beauty of the 

 bindweed — Black oxen — The old Sussex breed of cattle — Black 

 oxen in poetry — Suggestion for group of statuary — Black and 

 gold in nature — Turf of the downs — Result of breaking up 

 the turf — A new flora — Variety of colonising plants — Beauty 

 of the chance-made gardens of the downs — Flowers in barren 

 places — Forget-me-not — Viper's bugloss — Effects of blue 

 flowers in masses — A shepherd boy in sainfoin — Field scabi- 

 ous — - Fertile spots — Dropwort and heath — • Hai ebells — 

 Brilliant colour and intensity of life — Minute flowers of the 

 turf — Old Gerarde— Eyebright : its obscure habits — The dwarf 

 thistle. 



The South Downs, in their cultivated parts, are seen 

 at their best in July and August, when the unreaped 

 corn turns from green to red gold : whether the tint 

 be yellow or red, it strikes one as more intense than 

 on the lower levels. Then, too, among the ripe corn, 

 along the ragged fringes of the field, and close to the 

 dusty path, the bindweed, adorned with its deUcate 

 rose-coloured blossoms, runs riot; and twining in and 

 out among the dry, bright stalks, its green, string-like 

 wandering stem has something of the appearance of 

 an exceedingly attenuated tree-snake. Why is it that 

 this most graceful weed, seen in the wheat, invariably 

 gives me the idea of a sentient being delighting in its 



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