THE ROADMENDER [Illustration: Rolling stretches of cloud-shadowed down] THE ROADMENDER BY MICHAEL FAIRLESS ILLUSTRATED WITH TWENTY PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILL F. TAYLOR NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1922 _Printed in Great Britain by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh_ A. M. D. G. TO MY MOTHER AND TO EARTH, MY MOTHER WHOM I LOVE FOREWORD TO THIS EDITION THE country amid which Margaret Fairless Barber ("Michael Fairless") wrote "The Roadmender" is that central part of Sussex drained by the river Adur, perhaps the least known of the three main rivers, Ouse, Adur and Arun, which breach the South Downs. From Chanctonbury Ring to Ditchling Beacon the Downs belong to the Adur, and this is the country of the Roadmender. Here, from under the "stunted hawthorn," the eye looks down on the one side to the "little church" on the Weald, and on the other to the more distant "to and fro of the sea." Over all this Wealden valley the "long grey downs" keep watch, and on the inland side a constant companion of the roads is the spire of "the monastery where the Bedesmen of St Hugh watch and pray." Michael Fairless wrote Parts I and II of "The Roadmender" in a farmhouse at Mock Bridge on the Adur near Henfield, and here in her last days she lay writing "The White Gate," looking out over the "pasture bright with buttercups where the cattle feed." Here she died, and she was carried to the grave "under the firs in the quiet churchyard" at Ashhurst, two miles away across the river. CONTENTS PAGE THE ROADMENDER 1 OUT OF THE SHADOW 47 AT THE WHITE GATE 91 ILLUSTRATIONS ROLLING STRETCHES OF CLOUD-SHADOWED DOWN _Frontispiece_ TO FACE PAGE THE WHITE WINDING ROAD 2 THE SOLITARY COTTAGE 6 THE LITTLE CHURCH AT THE FOOT OF THE GREY-GREEN DOWN 8 MY NICHE UNDER THE STUNTED HAWTHORN 10 ÆOLUS SHEPHERDING HIS WHITE SHEEP 12 A LITTLE LONELY COTTAGE WHOSE WINDOWS PEERED AND BLINKED UNDER OVERHANGING BROWS OF THATCH 26 THE REEDED WATERS OF THE SEQUESTERED POOL 32 THE MONASTERY WHERE THE BEDESMEN OF ST HUGH WATCH AND PRAY 34 THE SUN STRETCHED THE LONG SHADOWS IN SLANTING BARS ACROSS THE WHITE HIGHWAY 38 THE GREAT WHEEL WAS AT REST 40 THE CRISP RIME OF WINTER'S BREATH 48 THE ALONENESS OF A GREAT FOREST 50 THE FIELD-GATE THAT LEADS TO THE LOWER MEADOWS 72