I am going down town, i.e. to the business part of the town.
Down the country properly means down the slope of the land, or as the rivers run.
⁂ We say “I am going up to town” when we mean out of the country into the chief city.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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