downland

English

Typical downland in Wiltshire, UK

Etymology

From down +‎ land.

Noun

downland (plural downlands)

1. (UK) An area of rolling hills (downs), often grassy pasture over chalk or limestone.
   • 1789, Ann Ward Radcliffe, chapter 4, in The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne‎^[1], London: T. Hookham, page 93:

     Hail! every distant hill, and downland plain!
     Your dew-hid beauties Fancy oft unveils;

   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:

     […] I walked on to Canterbury early in the morning. It was now winter again; and the fresh, cold windy day, and the sweeping downland, brightened up my hopes a little.

   • 1898, Thomas Hardy, “My Cicely”, in Wessex Poems and Other Verses‎^[2], New York: Harper, page 126:

     I traversed the downland
     Whereon the bleak hill-graves of Chieftains
     Bulge barren of tree;

   • 1946 July and August, K. Westcott Jones, “Isle of Wight Central Railway—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 244:

     Shortly after leaving Godshill, a lengthy climb begins through rolling downland country at 1 in 75, easing to 1 in 103.

   • 1953 February, H. A. Vallance, “To Brighton through the Shoreham Gap”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:

     The large cement works nearby are served by sidings, and strike a sudden jarring industrial note in the midst of the rural downland scene.

   • 1958, Muriel Spark, chapter 6, in Robinson‎^[3], New York: New Directions, published 2003, page 66:

     I was surprised to see that the plane had been wrecked, not on one of the hefty cliff faces of our mountain, but on a gentle green hillside, merging into downland.

   • 2010, Howard Jacobson, chapter 12, in The Finkler Question‎^[4], New York: Bloomsbury, page 278:

     He drank another whisky then left the pub and climbed slowly up the downlands, bent as the trees and shrubs were bent.

Hypernyms

• land

References

• downland on Wikipedia.Wikipedia