National Parks Week: My South Downs (Gallery)

“…Oh, have you heard the skylark above the Downland sing,
Ascending from the dewy grass near Chanctonbury Ring?
I’ve heard his song there eight months long, and most of all in May,
But I love the Downland lark the best at purple close o’ day.

I’ve smelt the summer gorse at eve a-top o’ Kithurst Hill,
As I stood to gaze upon the scene from thence to Selsey Bill;
But of all the subtle Downland breaths, the best of all, I say,
Comes from the violet thymy banks at purple close o’day.

You may vaunt to me of visions dreamed in any other shire,
No wolds and fells, or heathy dells, but these my heart inspire;
I know them all, they’re at my call whene’er I go away.

To Downland, to Downland at purple close o’ day.“

‘Spirit of the Downs’ – Arthur Beckett

National Parks Week: My South Downs (Gallery)