Ode to Mouse Lane

I can't forget the lane that goes from Steyning to the Ring

In summer time and on the Downs how larks and linnets sing

High in the sun. The wind comes off the sea, and oh the air!

I never knew till now that life in old days was so fair.

But now I know it in this filthy rat infested ditch

Where every shell must kill or spare, and God alone knows when.

And I am made a beast of prey and this is my lair.

My God I never knew till now that those days were so fair.

And we shall assault in half an hour and it's a silly thing

I can't forget the lane that goes from Steyning to the Ring.

Written by John Stanley Purvis - (using the name Philip Johnson) 5th Battalion

Yorkshire Regiment on 2nd Dec 1915 in a trench behind the Somme

This stone was placed in the lane by the people of Steyning

In the year 2000 AD in celebration of their inheritance, and replaced

after damage to the original, in 2006 AD.