At Hawkley Green, I asked a farmer the way to Thursley. He pointed to one of two roads going from the green; but it appearing to me, that that would lead me up to the London road and over Hindhead, I gave him to understand that I was resolved to get along, somehow or other, through the "low countries." He besought me not to think of it. However, finding me resolved, he got a man to go a little way to put me into the Greatham road. The man came, but the farmer could not let me go off without renewing his entreaties, that I would go away to Liphook, in which entreaties the man joined, though he was to be paid very well for his trouble. Off we went, however, to Greatham. I am thinking, whether I ever did see _worse_ roads. Upon the whole, I think, I have; though I am not sure that the roads of New Jersey, between Trenton and Elizabeth-Town, at the breaking up of winter, be worse. Talk of _shows_, indeed! Take a piece of this road; just a cut across, and a rod long, and carry it up to London. That would be something like a _show_! Upon leaving Greatham we came out upon Woolmer Forest. Just as we were coming out of Greatham, I asked a man the way to Thursley. "You _must_ go to _Liphook_, Sir," said he. "But," I said, "I _will not_ go to Liphook." These people seemed to be posted at all these stages to turn me aside from my purpose, and to make me go over that _Hindhead_, which I had resolved to avoid. I went on a little further, and asked another man the way to Headley, which, as I have already observed, lies on the western foot of Hindhead, whence I knew there must be a road to Thursley (which lies at the North East foot) without going over that miserable hill. The man told me, that I must go across the _forest_. I asked him whether it was a _good_ road: "It is a _sound_ road," said he, laying a weighty emphasis upon the word _sound_. "Do people _go_ it?" said I. "_Ye-es_," said he. "Oh then," said I, to my man, "as it is a _sound_ road, keep you close to my heels, and do not attempt to go aside, not even for a foot." Indeed, it was a _sound_ road. The rain of the night had made the fresh horse tracks visible. And we got to Headley in a short time, over a sand-road, which seemed so delightful after the flints and stone and dirt and sloughs that we had passed over and through since the morning! This road was not, if we had been benighted, without its dangers, the forest being full of quags and quicksands. This is a tract of Crown lands, or, properly speaking, _public lands_, on some parts of which our Land Steward, Mr. Huskisson, is making some plantations of trees, partly fir, and partly other trees. What he can plant the _fir_ for, God only knows, seeing that the country is already over-stocked with that rubbish. But this _public land_ concern is a very great concern.