PEVENSEY BAY. 11 



bourliood of tliis precipitous coast is hilly and 

 treeless, and although partially cultivated, ge- 

 nerally used as sheep-walks; but its character 

 changes at the mouths of the rivers, and for 

 many miles of their previous course, the rich pas- 

 tures dotted with horned cattle, and flat arable 

 tract adjoining, varied with occasional willow and 

 alder trees, mark the course of the streams, as 

 they wind through the naked Downs on their 

 way to the Channel. 



After passing the bold promontory of Beachy 

 Head, the loftiest precipice of which is said to be 

 upwards of six hundred feet in height — a fa- 

 vomite breeding-station of guillemots and razor- 

 bills — the clifis rapidly diminish until we reach 

 Eastbourne, where the South Downs appear to 

 terminate, and a wide-spreading bed of shingle 

 forms the flat, monotonous coast for many miles 

 to the eastward, in the direction of Bexhill. 

 Here extend the shores of Pevensey Bay, which 

 were defended, during the war, by a long line of 

 stunted round towers, that look like wind-mills 

 deprived of all their upper works. On this wild 

 beach the ring-dotterel, or stone-runner, as it is 

 frequently termed, deposits three eggs, which can 

 scarcely be distinguished from the surrounding 

 pebbles, and many species of terns haunt it in 

 great numbers during the summer months. But 



