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THE SUSSEX DOWNS 209
has written on the subject of the " good people " of the Downs :
" Mark yon little T-shaped cuttings on the slope below us ? Those are the snares set by the shepherds for tne delicious wheat-ear, our English ortolan. The fairies still haunt this spot, and hold their midnight revels upon it, as yon dark rings testify. The common folk hereabouts term the good people ' Pharisees ' and style these emerald circles ' hagtracks.' Why, we care not to enquire. Enough for us the fairies are not altogether gone. A smooth soft carpet here is spread out for Oberon and Titania and their attendant elves, to dance upon by moonlight; and there is no lack of mushrooms to form tables for Puck's banquet."
Gilbert White, in his " Natural History of Selborne," refers to the sheep of the Downs :
" To the west of the Adur River all such animals have horns, smooth white faces, and white legs, but east of that river all flocks were poll sheep, or hornless, moreover, they had black faces with a white tuft of wool on their foreheads, speckled and spotted legs, so that you might almost think that the flocks of Laban were pasturing on one side of the stream and the variegated breed of his son-in-law Jacob on the other."
And then there are the flowers ; mostly on the
Downs they are small. We find the creeping
yellow rock-rose ; clovers, red and white ; wild
thyme and birds-foot, trefoil—the last two are
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