A LOVELY COUNTY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 61, 15 March 1924, Page 17

A LOVELY COUNTY

"Old Sussex" and Other Poems. By G. D. Martineau, Cambridge :W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd. This little book of verse breathes the intense love of an Englishman for his home country; with us in -New Zealand and Australia, a county and a shire mean convenient divisions, and nothing more; with a Dorset man, a Yorkshire man, a Devonian, and others, it is quite another matter. Possibly the pride in, ! and affection for, one's country goes back i to Feudal times in England, but there : is no doubt about the devotion the men of England have for their counties. The fondness grows deeper with absence. Mr. Martineau has evidently felt acute nostalgia when in Ireland, for he sings :— When this country's peaceful peoole say it's fine, Naught's ever otherwise back at home in mine; Uently slopes the downland till-it meets the tea, .... Peace abides in Sussex, where the wind blows free. • ■ -. . . Again, still thinking of Sussex,, as a Surrey man will think of his county, ••

and as a, man of Kent and a Kentish man will think of their delightful county, Mr. Martineau concludes verses in "Old Sussex" in these lines :— I know of woodland, lane, and sea, ■ Of meadow, marsh, and down, Which only Sussex keeps for me, Untouched to call my own. Mr. Martineau pictures in verse the great beauties of his little corner of beautiful England with the skill of a master colourist, and sure draftsman.