South and East England's Best Views

By Simon Jenkins

England's views are remarkable for their beauty and variety. In this illustrated, first-of-its-kind guide, bestselling author Simon Jenkins picks the very best views from South and East England, including Arundel, the Chilterns (Coombe Hill and Turville Down), the white cliffs of Dover, North Downs' Devil's Kneading Trough, Oxford (The High and Radcliffe Square), Stowe, Windsor Great Park, Cambridge's The Backs, Holkham, Lavenham and Sheringham, and more - and explains the fascinating stories behind them. Jenkins' entertaining and erudite entries provide the rich historical, geographical, botanical and architectural background to South and East England's breathtaking sights both iconic and undiscovered.

Filled with roman roads, cliff-tops, follies, mountains, ancient castles, rolling forests and heart-stopping moments, you'll soon wonder how you chose walks, mini-breaks or spontaneous diversions without it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Profile Books
• Release date: Oct 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9781782830610

Simon Jenkins

Sir Simon Jenkins is an award-winning journalist and author of several books on the politics, history and architecture of England. He writes for the Guardian and the Sunday Times, as well as broadcasting for the BBC. He is the co-author of The Battle for the Falklands with Max Hastings. Jenkins was knighted for services to journalism in 2004.

Book preview

THE SOUTH

Arundel: From Crossbush

Ashford Hangers: Towards Steep

Coombe Hill: Towards the Vale of Aylesbury

The Chilterns: Stonor Valley from the Turville hills

Dover: From the white cliffs

The North Downs: From the Devil’s Kneading Trough

Oxford: The High

Oxford: Radcliffe Square

Seven Sisters: From Cuckmere Haven

The Solent: From Hurst Spit towards the Needles

Stowe: The Gardens

White Horse Hill: Towards the Vale of the White Horse

Windsor Great Park: The Castle from Snow Hill

ARUNDEL

From Crossbush

Grey, sombre Arundel lies on the flank of the downs like a cat waiting to prey on the valley below. In the Sussex volume of Pevsner’s Buildings of England Ian Nairn declared it one of the finest town views in England, though he reflected mid-twentieth-century taste in complaining that this was chiefly due to the Victorians. Arundel is indeed a marriage of Middle Ages and nineteenth century, a monumental expression of the aristocratic pomp and Catholic faith of the Howards, dukes of Norfolk.

The tightly packed town at the foot of its castle appears at first more French than English, a lofty citadel on a defensible cliff on a bend in a river. But from across the fertile flood plain of the Arun from Crossbush, the scene acquires the softer outlines of Sussex and the South Downs. From here, Arundel could only be in England.

A motte and bailey castle was begun in 1067 by Roger of Montgomery immediately after the Norman conquest. It was to command the south coast and guard a crucial gap in the downs. The castle then passed down the female line of Fitzalans and Howards to become the principal seat of the dukes of Norfolk. Nothing better illustrates the flexibility of the English constitution than that the Howards should remain hereditary heads of the peerage and earls marshal of England despite being Roman Catholic. The family lives at Arundel to this day.

Arundel’s outer defences were demolished after the Civil War but extensive rebuilding took place under the Georgians, including the creation of one of England’s finest private libraries. The castle was drastically enlarged, in 1846 for a visit by Queen Victoria and again by the fifteenth duke in the late nineteenth century. Arundel became the Windsor of the south coast, a sequence of halls, state rooms and private apartments surmounted by battlements and fortifications. They start out from the side of the hill, dominating the town below. The castle has stood in for Windsor in films such as The Young Victoria and The Madness of King George.

Arundel: Victorian variations on a medieval theme

The adjacent cathedral is almost more prominent than the castle, built at Norfolk expense in 1868 to celebrate the Catholic emancipation of forty years earlier. The architect was the eminent gothicist Joseph Hansom, who also designed the Hansom cab. Though lacking the florid detail of most gothic structures, it is a superb stage set, rising on buttresses, transepts and pinnacles to profess its faith across the valley.

These two great buildings are attended by an immaculate small Sussex town, a packed cluster of tiled roofs and red-brick walls surrounding a high street that winds round the castle mound. The downs above extend west towards Goodwood, where the prominent racing stadium of another Sussex grandee, the Earl of March, intrudes on the horizon. To the east is the Arun gap, punched through the downs towards Pulborough.

The foreground of the view comprises water meadows so smooth they might have been rolled for cricket, interspersed with dikes and punctuated by an occasional tree, barn and church tower. The prospect is specially blessed when a mist lies

Reviews for South and East England's Best Views

[Nate3444 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Book is Eloquently Written and the Photographs are Stunningly Beautiful. I Only Wish That There Were More!