WINTER IN WEST DOWNLAND 279 



faction to have a Flora of the downs on his book- 

 shelves for reference; and that was what he had 

 looked for, instead of this — well — this sort of thing. 



As a fact, there are several printed Usts of the 

 downland plants to be had by those who want them ; 

 and doubtless there are scores of men and women who 

 would be only too delighted to compile more such 

 lists — as many Usts, manuals, floras, in fact, as the 

 publishers and the public would like to buy. Had I 

 written a book of that kind, instead of " this sort of 

 thing," I should not have been able to say anything 

 about the smells of Chichester, material and moral, 

 which are in no way related to flowers. 



It cannot be said of other downland towns that 

 they are inodorous, or sweet, or flowery; they are not 

 that : we all know of loud smells, the metaphor being 

 common, and coming down to Brighton with senses 

 purified and sharpened by the mountain air one is 

 hailed and assailed by perfect trumpet-blasts from 

 the innumerable fried-fish shops that flourish in that 

 watering-place. The smells of the cathedral town are 

 not of this pronounced and vulgar description ; they 

 are subtle, mysterious, but unhappily they cling longer 

 to the mind. 



No ; it was better in the end, or before the end, 

 to escape from that atmosphere out into the fresh 

 world; to be blown through and through by the 

 winter gale, until that efliuvium, and all memory of 

 it, had been blown out of my nostrils and soul; to 



