Tourist's Guide to the County of Sussex. By George F.
Chambers, F.R.A.S. Second edition. (E. Stanford.)—We are glad to welcome a new edition of Mr. Chambers's serviceable guide. It contains much matter within a small compass, and the tourist who wishes to explore Sussex will find in this small volume nearly all the information he is likely to require. At the same time, the writer has avoided many topics with which handbooks are frequently burdened. There is nothing superfluous in the book, nor do we think that there is any prominent omission, although something more might, perhaps, have been said about the delightful scenery of the South Downs, of which most visitors to Sussex know little. The county is famous in the eyes of Londoners for its sea-side resorts, but with the exception of Hastings, and perhaps of Eastbourne, Sussex watering-places have few advantages of site. Even the most famous of them all can boast of little beyond its bracing air, which led Thackeray to praise "dear Dr. Brighton." Nature has done little for Brighton, and art has done less. Pre-eminently a church-going place, its churches are, for the most part, hideous; and its hotel architecture, if some- times modestly unobjectionable, is more often ostentatiously ugly. But Brighton is a cheerful, breezy place, with good society, good shops, and ample entertainment for pleasure-takers. Worthing, on the other hand, lacks the vigorous air of Brighton, and has not a walk of interest within three miles. Yet Worthing grows and grows, and gives signs of life that are less evident at Littlehampton, of which " the utmost that can be said is that it wishes to be a fashion- able watering-place,"--a wish in which, no doubt, Bognor sym- pathises. The tourist who wants to know something of Sussex scenery must turn his back upon the watering-places. Inland there is infinite beauty of wood and park, of nestling village and rural homestead, of pleasant meadow-land and heathery moor ; while for distant prospects and exhilarating air, few districts south of the Thames can compete with the South Downs. There is ample scope here for a tourist who knows how to enjoy the country. We wonder how many of our readers are aware that these Downs extend for more than fifty miles, that their average elevation is 600 feet, their average breadth four and a half miles, and that the traveller is free to walk or ride for miles along their summits ? If a tourist wishes to .know something of Sussex scenery, he should tra- verse the fine districts of Nutley and Crowborongh ; he should explore the woods and hills round Slindon and Arundel ; he should spend a day or two at East Grinstead and at Lewes; while Midhurst, which is far, we think, from being a " very dull town," is a convenient halting-place, from which the excursionist can explore the western end of the county. The pedestrian who loves Nature will find the charms of Sussex scenery inexhaustible. The directions on Mr. Chambers's sign-posts will tell him how to discover them most readily, and Mr. Stanford's capital map is not the least useful feature of a compact and handy guide.
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