Re-worked from the edition first published in 1877.
68 page book, supplied as a PDF document on CD-ROM.
CONTENTS:
CHAPTER I
Winchelsea and Rye
CHAPTER II
Hastings, Fairlight, Bexhill and Catsfield
CHAPTER III
Crowhurst, Etchingham & Burwash to Robertsbridge
CHAPTER IV
Pevensey, Gardner Street, Hailsham, Hurstmonceux and Bodiam
CHAPTER V
Mayfield
CHAPTER VI
Alfriston and Wilmington
EXTRACT: (Chap. 1, page 11)
The fisherman showed that he knew a great deal about the church, and took an honest pride in it, and in his famous old town of Rye.
“It has been much neglected,” said he, “but it's improving a little now. We have thirty fishing boats go out from here now, and catch a sight of fish.”
“That is the reason they told me at the George Hotel that I could not have any for dinner last night.”
“Yes, sir, we take it to Hastings, and it goes to London.”
Even this old town, in a deserted region, cannot be allowed to consume the few fish that are caught off it. The great monster of London swallows all.
To Pleyden Church, half a mile beyond Rye, is a pleasant walk, and far and wide the views extend. But soon it became time to jog along on the main journey of the day, which was to walk from Rye to Hastings, about twelve miles. For the turnpike road between Rye and Winchelsea little can be said except that it is useful—pretty it is not. I got over it, and past the Friars at Winchelsea, and far on towards an old gate at a distance from the town towards the sea, in less than an hour. My object was to walk across the marsh till I came to the cliffs, and then mount the cliffs and so to Hastings.
It was a fine breezy day; not yet ten o'clock; the sea and sky blue as a sapphire; the air full of the songs of birds; the whole earth and ocean covered with divinest beauty. They sing of “Jerusalem the Golden” —will it, then, be fairer than this earth which we know already, and which seems to grow more beautiful as the time draws nearer for taking leave of it?
Through that old gate standing far away from the city in the midst of green fields, the road winds round, but we must leave it, and climb over a gate into the marsh-lands. An embankment is ...