Trains run at frequent intervals from Brighton Central to the Dyke and
public conveyances from the Aquarium. The excursion should not be
missed, though the visitor who is a stranger must be prepared for a
regrettable amount of waste paper and broken bottles left about to mar
what would otherwise be one of the finest scenes in the Downs.
Refreshment stalls and tea gardens help to vulgarize the surroundings,
though the added desecration of aerial railway across the Dyke has been
removed.

The local legend is almost too well known to bear repetition. The
Sussex native has a dislike, probably derived from his remote
ancestors, to refer directly to the Devil, so the story has it that the
"Poor Man," becoming enraged at the number of churches built in the
Weald, conceived the idea of drowning them by letting in the sea; he
had half finished the great trench, being forced (like his remote
prototype) to work at night, when an old lady, hearing the noise of
digging, put her candle in a sieve and looked out of the window. The
Devil took it for sunrise and disappeared, a very simple fiend indeed!

[Illustration: POYNINGS.]

The view from the edge of the escarpment with Poynings just below to
the right is very beautiful; away to the south-west is an eminence
called "Thunder's Barrow," probably Thor's Barrow; at the lower end of
the Dyke is the Devil's Punch Bowl, here are two more barrows "The
Devil's Grave" and "The Devil's Wife's Grave."

A visit to Poynings (locally "Punnings") should be combined with this
excursion; this is a really pleasant and, as yet, unspoilt village. One