WINTER IN WEST DOWNLAND 293 



neighbourhood of West Dean, the charm of this part 

 of the downland country if anything increases ; until, 

 at Up Park and South Harting, when we are on the 

 border of Hampshire, and can no further go, we are 

 in the midst of the most beautiful scenery of the West 

 Sussex Downs. 



At this point there are more woods and copses 

 resembling in character those described, composed of 

 yew, thorn, hoUy, juniper, and furze; but the large 

 woods are mostly beech. In a former chapter I have 

 described a singular and very pretty effect produced 

 by fallen beech leaves blown in drifts against the 

 juniper scrub on an open down. At Up Park again 

 I saw another pretty scene caused by beech leaves 

 carried to a distance by the wind. On the lower slope 

 of a large smooth round down, covered with frozen 

 snow, there was a beech wood, through which a violent 

 north-east wind was blowing, lifting myriads of fallen 

 leaves and driving them over the smooth hill. The 

 scene reminded me of a great migration of butterflies, 

 a phenomenon which I had witnessed on two occasions 

 in a distant country. The travelling insects flew close 

 to the surface, and their bright-red fluttering wings 

 showed well against the green of the spring grass that 

 covered the plain ; but these innumerable fallen leaves, 

 red and russet-gold, in the winter sunshine, chased by 

 the wind over that wide expanse of snow, produced an 

 effect even more novel and beautiful. 



The village of South Harting itself is not im- 



