into the horse's flank. I followed closely, and in a yard or two
found myself in a deep lane or cutting, very thickly overgrown, so
that only occasional gleams of sunshine crept in through the
leafage. We rode, as he had promised, in a most pleasant shade. The
floor of this lane or passage was not of the smoothest, and we went
at a foot's pace only, and in Indian file.

"What is the meaning of it all?" I asked him.

[Sidenote: THE HOLLOW WAYS]

"Well," said he, "you have heard, I suppose, of the 'hollow ways,'
as they are called, of Sussex. This is one. They were in their
origin lanes, I take it, and perhaps the only means of getting
about the country. The rains, in this sandy soil, washing down,
gradually deepened and deepened them. Folks grew to use the new
roads as they were made, leaving the lanes unheeded, to be
overgrown. Here and there certain base fellows of the lewder sort,
commonly called smugglers, may have deepened them further, and
improved on what Nature had begun so well, with the result that you
can ride many a mile, mole-like, if you know your way, from the sea
coast north'ard, never showing your face above ground at all. That
is what it means," he ended.

[Sidenote: "THE GENTLEMEN"]

Smuggling was in the blood of the Sussex people. As the Cornishman said
to Mr. Hawker, "Why should the King tax good liquor?" Why, indeed?
Everyone sided with the smugglers, both on the coast and inland. A
Burwash woman told Mr. Egerton that as a child, after saying her
prayers, she was put early to bed with the strict injunction, "Now,
mind, if the gentlemen come along, don't you look out of the window."
The gentlemen were the smugglers, and not to look at them was a form of
negative help, since he that has not seen a gentleman cannot identify
him. Another Burwash character said that his grandfather had fourteen
children, all of whom were "brought up to be smugglers." These would, of
course, be land smugglers--Burwash being on a highway convenient for the
gentlemen between the coast and the capital.

CHAPTER XXX

GLYNDE AND RINGMER

Mount Caburn--The lark's song--William Hay, the poet of
Caburn--Glynde church and Glynde place--John Ellman--The South Down
sheep--Arthur Young--Ringmer and William Penn--The Ringmer mud--The
ballad of "The Ride to Church"--Oxen on the Hills--The old Sussex
road