Trevalogue

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.

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.