The fine carriage-road which leaves Beachy Head leads directly into Eastbourne and is called the Duke’s Drive.  It was owing to the initiative of the grandfather of the present Duke of Devonshire, whose local seat is at Compton Place on the west of the town that the little hamlet of Sea Houses became the present beautiful and fashionable resort, with a sea-front of nearly three miles of gardens backed by hotels, boarding-houses and schools.  As at Folkestone, education is here a strong feature, and a few years ago demure files of young ladies with attendant dragon taking the air between breakfast and study might have been seen.  The epoch-ending events of the last few years, however, appear to have killed the “caterpillar.”

Eastbourne seems to have carefully pushed its workers, together with the gasworks, market gardens, and other utilitarian features round the screen of Splash Point.  The boulevards going west and north are full of fine houses and brilliant shops and are lined with well grown trees.  The continuation of Terminus Road will take us in a little over a mile to the old town; here is the parish church, mostly Transitional, and with many interesting features which should on no account be missed.  Note the oak screen in the chancel; sedilia and piscina; also an Easter sepulchre.  There is some old Flemish glass in the east window of the nave aisle; that of the chancel is modern but good.  Near the church is a farmhouse, once a priory of Black Friars.  The ancient “Lamb Inn” has an Early English crypt which may be seen on application.

[Illustration:  BEACHY HEAD.]

The most popular excursion from Eastbourne after “The Head” is to Willingdon, near which is Hampden Park and Wannock Glen, and, farther afield, Jevington.  Willingdon has an interesting old church and is pleasantly situated, but the village is too obviously the “place to spend a happy day” to call for further comment.  On the other hand, Jevington with its ancient but over-restored church, is quite unspoilt and, lying in one of the most beautiful of the Down combes, should certainly be visited.

We are now at the end of the Downs and the scenery eastwards takes on an entirely different character:—­

“The great and fertile plain stretching along the Sussex coast from the eastward of Beachy Head in the direction of Hastings, and inland towards Wartling, Hurstmonceux and Hailsham, now studded with fat beeves, was at some remote era, covered by the sea, and what are known as ‘eyes,’ or elevations above the surrounding level—­such as Chilleye, Northeye, Horseye, Richeye, &c.—­must have been islands, forming a miniature archipelago.  As all these are of Saxon meaning, it may be presumed that, at the time of the Saxon colonization, they were frequently or constantly insulated.”

[Illustration:  OLD PARSONAGE, EASTBOURNE.]

(Lower.)