Hurstpierpoint may also be easily visited from Hassocks Station (2 miles), from which we may also start on the last stage of our return to Lewes. One mile east of the station is Keymer, a pleasant little place with an uninteresting church which has been practically rebuilt. Ditchling, a mile further, has a very fine Transitional and Early English church which will repay a visit. The nave is severely plain in the older style; the chancel shows some untouched and very beautiful workmanship. The east window is Geometrical, as are several in the nave, others are Decorated and, in the transept, Perpendicular. Note the old font which was evidently at one time coloured; also the aumbry, piscina and sedile. The chalk arches are finely worked. In the village are several old timber houses, including one said to have been inhabited by Anne of Cleves.
A walk of about two miles past Wick Farm or by Westmeston, over half a mile farther, brings the traveller to the summit of this section of the Downs—Ditchling Beacon (813 feet). Until more accurate surveys were made this was supposed to be the highest point of the whole range.
"This most commanding down is crowned with the grassy mound and trenches of an ancient earthwork, from whence there is a noble view of hill and plain. The inner slope of the green fosse is inclined at an angle pleasant to recline on, with the head just below the edge, in the summer sunshine. A faint sound as of a sea heard in a dream—a sibilant 'sish, sish'—passes along outside, dying away and coming again as a fresh wave of the wind rushes through the bennets and the dry grass." (Richard Jefferies.)
The views from Ditchling, though fine, are not nearly the best, for there is a tameness in the immediate country to the north. A glorious walk, however, can be taken by keeping along the edge past "Black Cap," the clump of trees about two miles east, and then either over or round Mount Harry to Lewes. Those who must see all the settlements of men should proceed downwards to Westmeston, a beautiful little place embowered in trees, some of which are magnificent in shape and size, particularly the great ash at the east of the church which is literally overshadowed by the Beacon. The building is uninteresting and the mural paintings dating from the twelfth century, which were discovered about fifty years ago, have not been preserved. It was near here that Baring Gould speaks of seeing the carcasses of two horses and three calves hanging in a elm; on inquiry he was informed that this was considered "lucky for cattle."
About a mile and a half north and two miles east of Ditchling village is the lonely hamlet of Street. The "Place" is a grand old house dating from the reign of the first James; behind the chimney of the hall was once a spacious hiding place and a story is told of a Royalist fugitive who rode into it on his horse and was never again seen. The restored church has a number of iron grave slabs and a monument to Martha Cogger, who was a "Pattern of Piety and Politeness."
Nearly two miles on the Lewes road is Plumpton, chiefly famed for its steeplechases which are held two miles away in the Weald and close to Plumpton station. The church is uninteresting. The "Place" is an old moated house, the property of Lord Chichester. The Leonard Mascall who lived here in the sixteenth century is said to have introduced the first carp from the Danube, the moat being used as their nursery. Notice the great V in firs on the face of the Downs; this is a memorial of the Victorian Jubliee; not particularly beautiful and leading one to speculate upon its permanence. A cutting in the chalk would probably recommend itself to the pious care of coming ages when the personage commemorated had either been entirely forgotten or had developed into a legendary heroine of fictitious character. That even cuttings are not always permanent is proved close by, for only occasionally can the cross cut to commemorate the great battle of Lewes be seen; the turf shows but a different shade of green at certain times and under certain atmospheric conditions.
The road to Lewes continues under the shadow of Mount Harry and eventually drops to the Lewes-London highway near Offham, remarkable as being the first place in the south where a line of rails was used for the passage of goods. A turn to the right and we soon reach Lewes near St. Anne's Church.