Downland Treasure, by Barclay Wills (Methuen, Os.), is a collection
of short essays on Downland subjects, mostly more or less connected with the old shepherds, now so rapidly dying out. The descriptive passages often fail to convey that delight in the countryside which the writer so evidently feels, but many of the stories of the shepherds themselves are good, and the description of a north-easter as a lazy wind because "It blows right through ye, 'cos 'tis too lazy to goo roun' ye," will appeal to all who know not only Sussex, but England. The writer also has sometimes his own humour, as when he describes an object of disapproval in a Sussex 'bus. There is much in the book that will interest even a non-Sussex reader, and if it succeeds in inspiring someone to write a history of the shepherds, which Mr. Wills is unable to carry out, it will have done good work indeed.
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