I AM one of those lucky people who remembers childhood very fondly. One of the main reasons, apart from my family, is that it was spent in the beautiful and exhilarating South Downs in ‘Sussex by the Sea’.

The South Downs rise majestically out of the English Channel near Eastbourne, East Sussex. The towering white cliff of Beachy Head leads into the only slightly less tall, magnificent and world-famous Seven Sisters cliffs along the sea. Then, the gentle, undulating, flinty chalk hills sweep almost 80 miles westwards towards Winchester, where they come back down to earth and spread their chalk into the Salisbury Plain.

The Downs are not mountains, but they are magical, with hidden valleys, deep-set chalk and flinty paths and cool dark woods, especially in the western parts. They have inspired poets and dreamers and farmers and shepherds for centuries.

The Downs are not mountains, but they are