BEACHY HEAD
BEACHY HEAD
miles, until Beddingham is reached. There one turns to the right just by the church, and after half a mile of going one finds a lane leading straight up on to the Downs; a ridgeway takes one along the crest (the height of which is here called Firle Beacon), and in about five miles one comes down upon the valley of the Cuckmere and the very old village of Alfriston.
For the last few miles of the journey there is a choice of ways: one may turn to the right after Alfriston bridge and, going past Lullington Court, take a lane which leads one straight to the village of Jevington, thus cutting off the projecting corner and height of Winddower Hill, or one may turn to the left after the bridge and go round over the top of the ridge, and so down on to Jevington from the north. From Jevington a short lane leads straight up on to the height of Willingdon Hill, and thence it is a straight southerly line along the escarpment with a few slight rises and falls until, just four miles on, one stands above the precipice of Beachy Head where the Downs fall into the sea, and one’s journey is ended. These four days, if they are spent in weather of passible clearness, teach one the whole of that lonely and wonderful belt of England, the landscape and character of which have built up the county on either side to the north and south of hills.
It would, of course, be possible to devise many another journey by which those who do not know the county might better appreciate somewhat of its aspects. But these three of which we have spoken are the best in general for an exploration of Sussex, unless one pleases to add a fourth of a somewhat monotonous and truncated character, which would be to cover in one day the coastal plain from Chichester to Brighton, and in another the sea coast and the marshes from Eastbourne to Rye. The second section of this is straightforward enough, taking one through Pevensey, Hastings, and Winchelsea. As to the first, it is advisable not to follow the main road through Arundel, but to go by lanes nearer the sea from Chichester to Eastergate, thence to Yapton, and so on through Littlehampton, West Ferring, Worthing, and along the sea coast to New Shoreham. It is possible also to take either section right along its beach. There is no interruption, but it would be a dreary and a heart-breaking thing to do, and would leave upon a man a general impression of red brick and boarding-houses, and esplanades and tin bungalows, interrupted by intervals of tufted grass growing
WILLINGDON
THE SUSSEX SEA