CHARM OF THE DOWNS 21 



appearance and the feelings they evoke in us need 

 only to be prefaced by a few sentences descriptive of 

 the range generally. 



The South Downs and the Sussex Downs, as general 

 use will now have it, mean the same thing ; strictly 

 speaking the name of South Downs is limited to that 

 portion of the range which rises abruptly from the 

 flat marsh of Pevensey, and extends from Beachy Head 

 westward to the river Adur, a distance of twenty-six 

 miles. The range of the South Downs proper is itself 

 cut through by two rivers the Cuckmere, with the 

 famous old village of Alfriston on its bank, and the 

 more important Ouse, which flows by Lewes and enters 

 the sea at Newhaven. Two other rivers cut through 

 the Sussex range before it enters Hampshire the 

 Arun, with the picturesque town of Arundel on its 

 banks, a dozen miles or so west of the Adur, and about 

 nine miles west of the Arun the little Lavant. The 

 whole length of the Sussex range, from Beachy Head 

 to the western extremity of the county, is fifty-three 

 miles. 



For the first sixteen miles of its westward course 

 from Pevensey the range keeps to the sea, forming an 

 almost continuous white cliff to Brighton. At this 

 point it begins to diverge gradually from the coast, 

 until at Chichester near the west border of the county 

 the strip of low flat land between the sea and the 

 downs has a breadth of several miles. 



On the south side of the range the hills are as a 



