viii PREFACE 



do not so much down to the Weald. We like to look out from 

 our southward-facing hills and see right across the Weald to 

 the long, dim, blue-hazy line of the South Downs, and to know 

 that beyond this is the sea, and then France, and the rest 

 of the world. 



But we wander a long way east and west in the pleasant 

 country of the sandy hills, from the still wild lands south 

 of Dorking on the east, right away to Woolmer Forest and 

 Gilbert White's country in the west. 



When I was a child all this tract of country was undis- 

 covered ; now, alas ! it is overrun. 



It is impossible to grudge others the enjoyment of its 

 delights, and yet one cannot but regret, that the fact of its 

 being now thickly populated and much built over, has neces- 

 sarily robbed it of its older charms of peace and retirement. 



Formerly, within a mile or two of one's home, it was a rare 

 thing to see a stranger, and people's lives went leisurely. 

 Now, the strain and throng and unceasing restlessness that 

 have been induced by all kinds of competition, and by ease 

 of communication, have invaded this quiet corner of the 

 land. In the older days, London might have been at a dis- 

 tance of two hundred miles. Now one never can forget that 

 it is at little more than an hour's journey. 



Common things of daily use, articles of furniture and 

 ordinary household gear, that I remember in every cottage 

 and farmhouse, have passed into the dealers' hands, and are 

 now sold as curiosities and antiquities. Cottages, whose furni- 

 ture and appointments had come through several generations, 

 are now furnished with cheap pretentious articles, got up 

 with veneer and varnish and shoddy material. The floor is 

 covered witli oilcloth, the walls have a paper of shocking 



