Sussex, Painted by Wilfrid Ball

by Hilaire Belloc

as is say Arundel, or even Bosham, it would form the most charming of all entries into the county, with its pyramid of old red roofs and its deep and visible history.

From Rye all the way across the bay to Beachy Head there is no haven, nor for the matter of that any difficulty for a small craft, save that the shore is very flat between Hastings and Eastbourne, and that, as one’s course takes one well out, it is not easy to fix landmarks. In good weather, of course, Beachy Head is a most prominent object all the way, and the light below it a perfect mark at night, but a very little haze is enough to make a yachtsman who is following alongshore get a mile or two in or out, especially as a strong tideway runs in between Pevensey Bay and the Royal Sovereign shoals. Rounding Beachy Head itself is easy enough work except when a strong northerly wind is blowing. On these occasions the Head, which is very abrupt, and the cliffs to the west of it, have a way of spilling sharp gusts unexpectedly down on to the water beneath. The present writer has seen a five-tonner under three reefs and a storm jib all but swamped within half a mile of the shore by one of these puffs, which are especially dangerous from the fact that there is no telling quite in what direction they will come. A full north-easterly wind on the starboard quarter as one rounds the head can give one a set-back in the shape of an unexpected gust coming round from right ahead out of Birling Gap. The only rule when the wind is blowing strong off-shore is to keep well out—irritating as it is to have to do so when one is making Newhaven, since every tack towards the outside means another mile to be beaten inwards against the weather.

Some years ago it would have been necessary to warn the reader of a small reef which runs out from Beachy Head and is especially dangerous at high water, but a new lighthouse is now fixed upon this reef and the old danger no longer exists.

Newhaven Harbour, as we have seen upon a previous page, is the most serious commercial harbour upon the coast. It is the only one before which there is not some considerable bar, and it goes without saying that small boats, such as we are supposing, can enter freely at any state of the tide; but it is by no means the easiest of the Sussex rivers for a small boat to lie in. It has a heavy traffic both of trade and passengers, conveyed in large steamers along a rather narrow river, and until a dock for large craft has been constructed it

OLD SHOREHAM BRIDGE

SHOREHAM HARBOUR

will always be a rather anxious place to get in and out of, especially as there is a very strong tide in the Ouse. A dozen miles or so farther westward along the coast is the modern entrance of Shoreham Harbour. This harbour has a rather awkward bar, and it is not infrequently necessary to wait for the tide; moreover the tideway runs like a stream right athwart the mouth, and therefore tends to make one run dangerously near the pier-heads if the wind is light, but, once this bar is crossed and the piers past, Shoreham still affords very good moorings for a small boat, and it also is well situated for proceeding in any direction inland; but one must be careful to take the right-hand or eastern branch of the harbour, and not to go up the river on the left-hand side, as the former is deep, secure, and well-wharfed, while the latter has steep, shingly banks, and soon becomes extremely shallow.

At much the same distance from Shoreham that Shoreham is from Newhaven will be found the harbour of Littlehampton, which is in some ways the best of all as a centre or goal for small craft. Its great drawback is its bar, which is the worst in the whole county, worse even than that of the Rother. In spite of continual dredging this bar is perpetually appearing above the surface at low spring tides, and it is hopeless to attempt to enter at any draught of water before half-tide. The bar is, however, quite close to the end of the pier; there is good holding ground for anchor, and signals of showing from the pier-head signal-staff clearly indicate the depth over the bar at any moment. The heavy gales from the south-west, which are the only dangerous ones on those parts of the coast (with the exception of some very rare south-easterly gales), are broken for Littlehampton by the Owers Bank, and to some extent by the group of rocks which run eastward from them, and there are very few days when it is not safe to anchor outside and wait for the tide.