passes next between Newick, on the east, and Chailey on the
west. Fate seems to have decided that these villages shall always be
bracketed in men's minds, like Beaumont and Fletcher, or Winchelsea and
Rye: one certainly more often hears of "Newick and Chailey" than of
either separately. Chailey has a wide breezy common from which the line
of Downs between Ditchling Beacon and Lewes can be seen perhaps to their
best advantage. Immediately to the south, and just to the west of
Blackcap, the hill with a crest of trees, is Plumpton Plain, six hundred
feet high, where the Barons formed their ranks to meet the third Harry
in the Battle of Lewes, the actual fighting being on Mount Harry, the
hill on Blackcap's east. A cross to mark the struggle, cut into the turf
of the Plain, is still occasionally visible. More noticeable is the "V"
in spruce firs planted on the escarpment to commemorate the Jubilee of
1887.

[Sidenote: THE SHEPHERD MATHEMATICIAN]

Plumpton, which is now known chiefly for its steeplechases, has had in
its day at least two interesting inhabitants. One was John Dudeney,
shepherd, mathematician, and schoolmaster, born here in 1782, who, as a
youth, when tending his sheep on Newmarket Hill, dug a study and library
in the chalk, and there kept his books and papers. He taught himself
mathematics and languages, even Hebrew, and ultimately became a
schoolmaster at Lewes. In his thorough adherence to learning Dudeney was
the completest contrast to John Kimber of Chailey, a wealthy farmer with
a consuming but unintelligent love of books, who was once, says
Horsfield, seen bringing home Macklin's Bible, a costly work in six
volumes in a sack laid across the back of a cart horse. According to the
excellent habit of the old Sussex farmers, Mr. Kimber's body was borne
to the grave in one of his wagons, drawn by his best team.

[Sidenote: FANTASTIC FRUITS]

Plumpton Place once had a moat, in which, legend has it, the first carp
swam that came into England. The house then belonged to Leonard Mascall,
whom Fuller in the _Worthies_ erroneously ascribes to Plumsted. In
Fuller's own words, which no one could better: "Leonard Mascall, of
Plumsted in this county, being much delighted in Gardening, man's
Original vocation, was the first who brought over into England, from
beyond the seas, _Carps_ and _Pippins_; the one, well-cook'd, delicious,
the other cordial and restorative. For the proof hereof, we have his own
word and wi