Situated
in the south-eastern corner of England, and within easy reach of London, the
counties of Kent and Sussex provide between them the pleasantest countryside
and the most convenient stretch of coastline for anyone wishing to explore the
surroundings of the capital. In many ways very different from each other,
containing as they do a wealth of varied scenery, villages, towns and
architecture, they're geographically united by the Weald, a great stretch of
what was formerly forest land, that runs westward from the heart of Kent,
through Sussex almost to the borders of Hampshire. This inland plain, once a
ridge of chalk upland, but now eroded, is largely denuded of the trees — mainly
oaks — which covered it so densely during the Middle Ages, and which were a
seemingly inexhaustible source of timber until they succumbed in later
centuries to the charcoal burner and the builder. Known by the Saxons as
"Andred", this forest was penetrated by few tracks until Elizabethan
times, and it did much to isolate the ancient kingdom of the South Saxons, as
well as parts of Kent, from the rest of the country.
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| Countryside |
To the
south, the Weald is bounded by the majestic sweep of the South Downs, the
rolling chalk hills which curve in from the far west to terminate on the Sussex
coast in the magnificent cliffs, five hundred feet high, which plunge into the
sea at Beachy Head, near Eastbourne. And from their many vantage-points on a clear
day may be seen the hills forming the northern boundary of the Weald — the
North Downs, which in their turn conclude as the White Cliffs of Dover.
Not least
of the delights which Kent and Sussex have to offer the visitor are the many
villages and small towns which dot the plain of the Weald and nestle in the
downland valleys. In Kent, these villages are typically scattered through the
hop-fields and orchards which form such a prominent feature of this
"garden of England". Some of the more famous Kentish villages are
Brenchley, with its weatherboarded houses, Cobham with its palace, Ightham with
its mansion surrounded by a moat, and such places as Eynsford, Hollingbourne,
Goudhurst and Tenterden. In Sussex, sheltered by the northern slopes of the
South Downs, may be found a cluster of villages and small market towns which
for secluded old-world charm are scarcely to be rivalled in the length and
breadth of England. Chief among these, and set in a gentle countryside of
meadowland and meandering streams, criss-crossed by hedge-lined lanes which
seem to have little idea of where they are going, is Alfriston, with its
ancient church, its picturesque inns, once the haunt of smugglers, and its
famous market cross. But also worthy of exploration are many more, including
Amberley, Graffham, Midhurst, Poynings and Wilmington.
