Sussex

As the holiday makers who flock to the Sussex beaches in summer dip their toes in the sea or walk along the waters edge, it is worth remembering that these beaches have been, to many would be invaders, their first foothold on the land they set out to conquer. To marauding bands and to well equipped armie's alike, the south east coast has been the means of forcing an entry. Some were repelled, some stayed and were absorbed into the native population. The Romans succeeded in subjugating the country to their laws for a while, but then abandoned it and went back to their homelands. William and his Normans, as every schoolboy knows, landed at, or near, Hastings then made their way inland to Battle, to face a weary army. Tricked by the Normans into believing they were retreating, the Saxons chased them in disarray and paid dearly for their mistake. Their King was dead and the country had a new ruler. The last successful invasion of England had become history! Whenever defences are breached they tend to be strengthened by the conquerors, to make sure that they cannot be caught out by others intent on following their example. This, largely, accounts for the great wealth of castles around these coasts, such as the particularly fine examples at Arundel and Bodiam. Arundel castle was built not long after the

Norman conquest for just this purpose, to guard the Arun gap against further raiders. It has been extensively restored and is a particularly fine example of what most people feel a 'real' castle should look like. Bodiam. is quite another story and little is left of it now but the outer walls. It does however have beautiful water lilies in its moat and makes up for, in romanticism, any shortcomings it has as a functional castle.

Sussex is by no means only a county of historic castles and battlefields. The south downs are full of natural beauty. Wooded bills and valleys and delightful villages, together with the fine coastal resorts,blend happily with man made splendours like the National Trust garden at Sheffield Park, landscaped by that most famous of landscape gardeners, Capability Brown. From here runs the Bluebell Railway, preserved as a working example of the old days of steam, and regularly used by thousands of visitors every year.

The picturesque old town of Rye, once a lively port, but now left stranded by the receding sea, still retains the character it had when it was a notorious haunt of smugglers, who would gather at the old Mermaid Inn. Like Rye, most ports, towns and cities evolve gradually over the years, but this is not always the case. Occasionally a town is designed with a specific purpose in mind, and is laid out and planned to this end. One such town is Eastbourne, until 1834 a small fishing village, at which time its owner, the Duke of Devonshire, recreated it specifically as an elegant contrast to the popular, and as he thought brasher, delights of Brighton.

The enormous variety to be found 'in Sussex is its great attraction, and tourists and holiday makers alike are almost certain to find init exactly what they are looking for.

Brighton

A long low building, topped by onion shaped domes reminiscent of a Sultan's palace, with an interior decorated in the Chinese style, in a Georgian town in England may seem at first highly unlikely. However unlikely just such a building attracts a large number of visitors to Brighton all the year round. On any day, and in any weather, it makes an imposing sight but at night, illuminated by coloured lights, it achieves a fairy like beauty that makes it difficult to reallse that it was actually built to be used.

The Royal Pavilion, to give it its correct name, was commissioned by the Prince Regent, later to become George IV, in the early part of the nineteenth century. The Prince Regent was a frivolous man and certainly did not behave with the dignity befitting a future monarch. This led to his becoming the subject of many satirical cartoons and to his unpopular with the people. Not surprisingly the close connection between the Royal Pavilion and the Prince Regent was the reason for much of the ridicule that was heaped upon it. This meant that for many years the building was not accepted for what it is; a charming and attractive, albeit extravagant, addition to one of England's most popular seaside resorts.