E. by N.,
trends E.S.E. The final complete breach is made by the Great Stour,
between Ashford and Canterbury, east of which a height of 600 ft. is
rarely reached. The valley of the Little Stour, however, offers a
well-marked pass followed by the Folkestone-Canterbury railway, and the
North Downs finally fall to the sea in the grand white cliffs between
Dover and Folkestone.

The South Downs present similar characteristics on a minor scale.
Springing from the main mass of the chalk to the south of Petersfield
they have their greatest elevation (889 ft. in Butser Hill) at that
point, and extend E. by S. for 65 m. to the English Channel at the
cliffs of Beachy Head. As in the case of the North Downs a succession of
rivers breach the hills, and a succession of towns mark the gaps. These
are, from east to west, the Arun, with the town of Arundel, the Adur,
with Shoreham, the Ouse, with Lewes and Newhaven, and the Cuckmere, with
no considerable town. The steep slope of the South Downs is northward
towards the Weald. The southern slopes reach the coast east of Brighton,
but west of this town a flat coastal belt intervenes, widening westward.
Apart from the complete breaches mentioned, the South Downs, scored on
the south with many deep vales, are generally more easily penetrable
than the North Downs, and the coast is less continuous.

Smooth convex curves are characteristic of the Downs; their graceful and
striking outline gives them an importance in the landscape in excess of
their actual height; their flanks are well wooded, their summits covered
with close springy turf.

"THE DOWNS" is also the name of a roadstead in the English Channel off
Deal between the North and the South Foreland. It forms a favourite
anchorage during heavy weather, protected on the east by the Goodwin
Sands and on the north and west by the coast. It has depths down to 12
fathoms. Even during southerly gales some shelter is afforded, though
under this condition wrecks are not infrequent.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Avebury, _The Scenery of England_, ch. xi.

DOWNSHIRE, WILLS HILL, 1ST MARQUESS OF (1718-1793), son of Trevor Hill,
1st Viscount Hillsborough, was born at Fairford in Gloucestershire on
the 30th of May 1718. He became an English member of parliament in 1741,
and an Irish viscount on his father's death in the following year, thus
sitting in both the English and Irish parliaments. In 1751 he was
created earl of Hillsborough in the Irish