Produced by Al Haines [Illustration: Cover art] ====================================================================== [Frontispiece: THE OLD TOWN, HASTINGS] A few old timbered houses, the two churches, one on each side of the slope, form, with the castle, the sum total of the tangible reminders of ancient days. (_See page 10_) ====================================================================== HASTINGS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD Described by Walter Higgins Painted by E. W. Haslehust [Illustration: Title page] BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY 1920 BEAUTIFUL ENGLAND BATH AND WELLS--BOURNEMOUTH AND CHRISTCHURCH--CAMBRIDGE--CANTERBURY--CHESTER AND THE DEE--THE CORNISH RIVIERA--DARTMOOR--DICKENS-LAND--THE DUKERIES--THE ENGLISH LAKES--EXETER--FOLKESTONE AND DOVER--HAMPTON COURT--HASTINGS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD--HEREFORD AND THE WYE--THE ISLE OF WIGHT--THE NEW FOREST--NORWICH AND THE BROADS--OXFORD--THE PEAK DISTRICT--RIPON AND HARROGATE--SCARBOROUGH--SHAKESPEARE-LAND--SWANAGE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD--THE THAMES--WARWICK AND LEAMINGTON--THE HEART OF WESSEX--WINCHESTER--WINDSOR CASTLE--YORK. BEAUTIFUL SCOTLAND EDINBURGH--THE SHORES OF FIFE. BEAUTIFUL IRELAND LEINSTER--ULSTER--MUNSTER--CONNAUGHT. BEAUTIFUL SWITZERLAND LUCERNE--VILLARS AND CHAMPERY--CHAMONIX--LAUSANNE AND ITS ENVIRONS. CONTENTS HASTINGS PEVENSEY AND HURSTMONCEUX BATTLE ABBEY ECCLESBOURNE AND FAIRLIGHT WINCHELSEA RYE BODIAM LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Old Town, Hastings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ Hastings Castle Hastings and St. Leonards from the Castle St. Leonards Gardens Pevensey Castle The Gateway, Battle Abbey Fairlight Glen The Strand Gate, Winchelsea Winchelsea Church Rye Rye Church Bodiam Castle [Illustration: Hastings headpiece] HASTINGS Hastings is the gateway into an enchanted garden. Between the hills and the sea it lies--the most romantic province in this England of ours. Scarcely a place in it seems to belong to this present: from end to end it is built up almost entirely of memories. The very repetition of the names--Rye, Winchelsea, Pevensey, Battle, Bodiam, Hurstmonceux--conjures up the past in all its magnificence and all its sadness. Nowhere in so small a space shall you find so many monuments to the greatness of England's former days, to the imperishable glory of her people; nowhere in our coasts shall you find a stretch of land so crowded with the ghosts of dead men and dead empires.