But the Downs are not scarred to any great extent by cultivation. The
sheep and the birds are mostly in sole possession and are almost the
only living moving things on the hills. The fox, though at one time
common, is now very rarely seen, for game, with the disappearance of
gorse and bramble, has almost vanished, and other beasts of prey,
weasel and stoat, shun the open uplands where the only enemy of field
mouse and vole is the eagle of the south country, the peregrine falcon.

[Illustration: THE BARBICAN, LEWES CASTLE.]




SEAWARD SUSSEX


CHAPTER I

LEWES


"Lewes is the most romantic situation I ever saw"; thus Defoe, and the
capital of Sussex shares with Rye and Arundel the distinction of having
a continental picturesqueness more in keeping with old France than with
one of the home counties of England. This, however, is only the
impression made by the town when viewed as a whole; its individual
houses, its churches and castle, and above all, its encircling hills
are England, and England at her best and dearest to those who call
Sussex home. The beauty of the surroundings when viewed from almost any
of its old world streets and the charm of the streets themselves make