Downs

Downs, like dunes, a name given to the hills and mounds of sand to be found on many coasts, generally shifting, but in some cases gradually rendered firm and coherent by the plantation of trees and grasses. Such dunes are to be found on the coasts of Holland and Belgium, the northern ooasts of France, the coast at the mouth of the Mersey, and the great Belgian waste called La Campine, or Kempenland, which is now far from the sea. 2. To grassy rounded hills such as the North Downs, which pass through mid-Surrey and into Kent to Dover, and the South Downs, which extend from Hampshire to the sea at Beachy Head. The Downs rise to a greatest height of about 900 feet and are for the most part covered with grass, which affords excellent grazing and rears a noted breed of sheep. 3. A roadstead lying between Ramsgate and Deal, from the North to the South Foreland, sheltered by the natural breakwater of the Goodwin Sands, and affording a safe anchorage except against south winds.