JUST SO GOOD: The garden at Bateman’s, once the home of Rudyard Kipling
© NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES. ANDREW BUTLER
Driving around the South Downs is a wonderful thing. Villages of brick and Sussex flint dot the landscape of undulating, verdant chalk hills which stretch for almost 100 miles, from Winchester to Eastbourne. They form a dreamy backdrop of hazy greenish blue, on a summer day, to the coastline.
The A27 traces much of the South Downs National Park, and is easily picked up by anyone heading north out of Brighton (or south, from central London or Gatwick Airport, to the coast). Yet even the briefest foray, just a day, using part of this road as a rough guide, will uncover surprises. Take Middle Farm, just east of Lewes. Here you can scoop up picnic treats (freshly pressed apple juice, local cheeses and diet-busting scones) for a day walking the South Downs Way, accessed from the pretty town of Alfriston, but also buy plants and even hens for your smallholding. The farmshop zings with colourful produce, a fitting hors d’oeuvre to Charleston House, two minutes’ drive away.