ssed also the well nourished complexion, the full forehead, and
the slight fringe of whiskers which distinguished Alken's merry
sportsmen. His business taking him deep into the county among the farms,
he was always in walking trim, with an umbrella crooked over one arm,
his other hand grasping the obtuse-angled handle of a ground-ash stick.
These sticks, of which he had scores, he cut himself, his eye never
losing its vigilance as he passed through a copse. Under the handle,
about an inch from the end, he screwed a steel peg, so that the stick,
when it was not required, might hang upon his arm; while a long, stout
pin, with a flat brass head, was also inserted, in case his pipe needed
cleaning out. Thus furnished, with umbrella and stick, pipe and a sample
of his merchandise, John Horne, in his wide collar, his ample coat with
vast pockets over the hips, his tight trousers, and his early-Victorian
headgear, has been, these fifty years, a familiar figure in the Weald as
he passed from farm to farm at a steady gait, his interested glances
falling this way and that, noting every change (and perhaps a little
resenting it, for he was of the old Tory school), and his genial
salutation ready for all acquaintances. But he is now no more, and
Sussex is the poorer, and the historian of Sussex poorer still. I
believe he would have liked this book; but how he would have shaken his
wise head over its omissions!

[Illustration: MAP OF THE COUNTY OF SUSSEX]

FOOTNOTES:

[4] This is the Sussex preterite of the verb "to join."

[5] _In tye_--not I.

[6] _Chucker_; in a cheerful, cordial manner.

INDEX

A

a Becket, Thomas, 156, 238

Ainsworth, W. H., 27

Albourne, 204

Alciston, 271

Aldrington, 184

Aldworth, 11, 418

Alexander, Mr. W. C., 308

Alexander of Russia, 316

Alfriston, 266, 273

Almshouses, 38, 227

Amberley, 26, 84

Amberstone, 316

Angels at Rye, 419

Angmering, 83

Ann of Cleves, 247

Architecture, 401

Ardingly, 220

Arundel, 68

Ashburnham, 356

Ashdown Forest, 301, 402

Ashington, 150

B

Balcombe, 221

Barton, Bernard, 51

Battle Abbey, 7, 348

Battle of Lewes, 245

Bayham Abbey, 395

Beachy Head, 321

Beddingham, 264

Beer, 152, 257, 383, 400

Beldham, William, 74

Belloc, Mr. Hilaire, 72, 152

Bells, 216, 368, 399

Berwick, 271

Bevis of Southampton, 56, 70

Bexhill, 347

Bignor, 108

"Big on Little," 230

Billingshurst, 120

Bir