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"He described the Downs fronting the paleness of the earliest dawn and
then their arch and curve and dip against the pearly grey of the
half-glow; and then among their hollows, lo, the illumination of the
east all around, and up and away, and a gallop for miles along the
turfy, thymy, rolling billows, land to left, sea to light below you....
Compare you the Alps with them? If you could jump on the back of an
eagle, you might. The Alps have height. But the Downs have swiftness.
Those long stretching lines of the Downs are greyhounds in full career.
To look at them is to set the blood racing! Speed is on the Downs,
glorious motion, odorous air of sea and herb, exquisite as the Isles of
Greece." (Geo. Meredith: _Beauchamp's Career_.)
The most delightful close springy turf covers the Downs with a velvet
mantle, forming the most exhilarating of all earthly surfaces upon
which to walk and the most restful on which to stretch the wearied
body. Most delightful also are the miniature flowers which gem and
embroider the velvet; gold of potentilla, blue of gentian, pink and
white of milkwort, purple of the scabious and clustered bell-flower;
the whole robe scented with the fragrance of sweet thyme.
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