CHAPTER III.
FIRST SIGHT OF THE DOWNS The Sussex hills--Gilbert White's praise--Britons, Romans, Saxons--Charles the Second's ride through Sussex.
Between Midhurst and Chichester, our next centre, rise the Downs, to a height of between seven hundred and eight hundred feet.

Although we shall often be crossing them again before we leave the county, I should like to speak of them a little in this place.
The Downs are the symbol of Sussex.

The sea, the Weald, the heather hills of her great forest district, she shares with other counties, but the Downs are her own.

Wiltshire, Berkshire, Kent and Hampshire, it is true, have also their turf-covered chalk hills, but the Sussex Downs are vaster, more remarkable, and more beautiful than these, with more individuality and charm.

At first they have been known to disappoint the traveller, but one has only to live among them or near them, within the influence of their varying moods, and they surely conquer.