English Pictures Drawn with Pen and PencilManning, Samuel
History
English Pictures Drawn with Pen and Pencil
Manning, Samuel
England -- Description and travel
Steyning is the nearest station to Chanctonbury, and we would advise
the tourist to take train there for the North Downs, or better still, to
proceed in the opposite direction to Arundel, famous for its picturesque
castle and park, with its fair historic pastures: but in either case the
Weald will be crossed via Horsham. About half way between Arundel and
Horsham, many a traveller will be disposed to turn off to the little
Sussex town of Midhurst, on the edge of the Weald, where Richard Cobden
was born, and where the old "Schola Grammaticalis," the most prominent
building in the town, has the twin honour of the great Free Trader's
early education, as well as that of Sir Charles Lyell, the geologist.
Between this town and Dorking, whither the traveller is bound, he may
see to his left the wooded slopes and imposing tower-crowned summit of
Leith Hill, the loftiest elevation in southeastern England. If he can
leave the rail, say at the little roadside station of Capel, and climb
the hill from the south-east by Ockley and Tanhurst, he will not only
be richly rewarded, but may perhaps express his astonishment that such
views and such a walk should be found within a short afternoon's journey
of London. From the summit of Leith Hill, it is said that ten counties
are visible; not only Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, but Hampshire,
Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex. Hertfordshire, and
Essex. The eye ranges, in short, from a height of just less than 1000
feet over a circumference of 200 miles of fair and various landscape;
valley and upland; broad meadows and wooded slopes, with many an open
ridge against the sky. Only the charm of river or lake is wanting;
but we are in no mood to be critical. Downwards, the walk is full of
interest, through wooded lanes to Anstiebury, where there is a fine
Roman encampment, and on to romantic Holmwood, with its pine woods and
breezy common; past Deepdene, the wonderfully beautiful seat of the
Hope family, and so to Dorking, where the wearied pedestrian will find a
pleasant rest, with nothing to excite him, save the remembrances of his
little excursion.
[Illustration: 0055]
If he were not well prepared for its exceeding loveliness beforehand, it
must have been to him a surprise as well as a delight. Comparisons are
proverbially distasteful, but we can understand, if we can not wholly
endorse, the rapturous verdict of John Dennis, who gives it as his
opinion that the prospect from Leith Hill "surpasses at once in rural
charm, pomp, and magnificence" the view of the Val d'Arno from the
Apennines, or of the Campagna from Tivoli.
[Illustration: 0056]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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