Sussex, Painted by Wilfrid Ball

by Hilaire Belloc

The watershed which divides the Sussex from the Surrey rivers stands up in the midst of the Weald before you plainly enough, though it is lower than the ridge of the Downs to the north or the south. There is to be distinguished very clearly to the north-east that part of it called St. Leonard’s Forest from which flows the Arun to the south and the Mole to the north: the Sussex river of Arundel, and the Surrey river of Dorking.

All those things, then, which are especial to the county, and which we have remarked elsewhere to be the distinguishing marks of Sussex, stand out in this view from Gumber: the historic sites, the forests, the escarpment of the Downs, their foot-hills; the encroachments of the sea; the ancient and the modern parts which the sea-line plays in Sussex history; the small old ports which have so much, and the great modern pleasure towns which

WESTBURTON HILL

have so little, to do with the life of Sussex men; the river crossing the chalk hills; the oaks, the pines, and the heaths of the Weald; the Roman foundations of our state; the great Roman road and the Roman villa; the squires’ houses, its successors; the little towns; the marshes of the gaps through the hills; the roads over the passes,—all these are combined in such a view, and if a man has but very little time in which to comprehend the nature of Sussex he cannot do better than to leave the Chichester road for awhile, either at the top of Duncton hill, or half a mile farther at The Kennels, and walk up to Gumber corner to see the sight which has been here described.

Next after the Saddle, from which is seen this great view, the traveller will go on eastward along the ridge, down the somewhat steep side of Bignor Hill, and he will find on the other side of the cleft, which here separates Bignor from Westburton Hill, the first of those dew pans of which we spoke in our first description of the county. From just beside it there is a straight green track leading just south of the crest of the hills, and just north of the line of Houghton Forest, and falling at last into the highroad from London to Arundel, just before the cross-road of Whiteways, where is the lodge of Arundel Park. Here he has the choice of two routes: he may go through Arundel Park down on to the town of Arundel some two or three miles away, or he may go straight down Houghton Hill and so across the bridge at Amberley. It is this latter course which he had better take if his object is an exploration of the Downs.

Going down Houghton Hill he will note the old road running steeply down the side of the Downs and the new one curving more gently to the south. They reunite at the entrance of Houghton village, just where the old inn, the George and Dragon, stands. A hundred yards farther there comes in that ancient track which links up all the prehistoric village sites under the Downs, and for which there is no name.

It is interesting, as one leaves Houghton village, to notice how the road (which is now identical with the old British track) approaches the marshy land of the river, following the spur of dry land which pushes out into the marshes, and making for the nearest similar spur on the farther side of the stream. All old British ways approach a river in this fashion, as, for instance, the track to which we owe London Bridge, the crossing of the Medway near Lower Halling, of the Mole just north of

RACKHAM HILL

Dorking, and of the Darent at Oxford. The last few yards of the road where the marshy land begins are carried on the modern causeway; the Arun itself is crossed by a fine bridge, on the farther side of which is an inn which makes a very good stopping-place, whether a man has ridden or has walked, for, by the time he reaches this inn, he will have gone between fifteen and twenty miles. Moreover, it is always wise, when one is exploring the Downs, to rest in the river valleys which cut them rather than to come down off their main summits on to the plain, for to do this last is to waste much effort in the climb of next morning.

Half a mile after leaving Houghton Bridge inn the traveller will find a lane leading straight up to the top of the Downs, a summit here called Rackham Hill; and thenceforward he has before him a ridgeway of five miles of unbroken turf of the finest sort in England, midway along which he should note upon the steep escarpment beneath him (along the northern side of what is called Kithurst Hill) the great embankment which may perhaps be defensive earthworks, or may perhaps be some religious emblem of the prehistoric ancestors of the county.