m most palatial.
The Grand, where we stopped, was one of the handsomest we saw in
England. It has an excellent garage in connection and the large number
of cars showed how important this branch of hotel-keeping had become.
There is no motor trip more generally favored by Londoners than the run
to Brighton, as a level and nearly straight road connects the two
cities. There is nothing here to detain a tourist who is chiefly
interested in historic England. About a hundred years ago the fine sunny
beach was "discovered" and the fishing village of Brightholme was
rapidly transformed into one of the best built and most modern of the
resort towns in England. Its present population of over one hundred
thousand places it at the head of the exclusive watering places, so far
as size is concerned.

A little to the north of Brighton is Lewes, the county town of Sussex,
rich in relics of antiquity. Its early history is rather vague, but it
is known to have been an important place under the Saxon kings. William
the Conqueror generously presented it to one of his followers, who
fortified it and built the castle the ruins of which crown the hill
overlooking the town. The keep affords a vantage point for a magnificent
view, extending in every direction. I had seen a good many English
landscapes from similar points of vantage, notably the castles of
Ludlow, Richmond, Raglan, Chepstow and others, and it seemed strange
that in such a small country there should be so many varying and
distinctly dissimilar prospects, yet all of them pleasing and
picturesque.

The country around Lewes is hilly and rather devoid of trees. It is
broken in many places by chalk bluffs, and the chalky nature of the soil
was noticeable in the whiteness of the network of country roads. Many
old houses are still standing in the town and one of these is pointed
out as the residence of Anne of Cleves, one of the numerous wives of
Henry VIII. Near the town and plainly visible from the tower is the
battlefield where in 1624 the Battle of Lewes was fought between Henry
VII and the barons, led by Simon de Montfort. Lewes appears to be an
old, staid and unprogressive town. No doubt all the spirit of progress
in the vicinity has been absorbed by the city of Brighton, less than a
dozen miles away. If there has been any material improvement in Lewes
for the past hundred years, it is hardly apparent to the casual
observer.

We were now in a section of England rich in histori