Jottings ... and more

  In the Footsteps of Ravilious … and others Recently I spent some time cycling and walking around the South Downs – here seen on the last stretch of the South Downs Way by The Severn Sisters.  I was often conscious of travelling in the footsteps of Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) who spent his school and early college years in Eastbourne and throughout the thirties often returned to explore and paint different scenes on the South Downs. Ravilious shared his love of the South Downs with many other artistic and literary figures – for instance, an earlier contemporary was Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). Ravilious would surely have agreed with the sentiments of his poem, Sussex (1902) God gives all men all earth to love, But since man’s heart is small, Ordains for each one spot shall prove Beloved over all. Each to his choice, and I rejoice The lot has fallen to me In a fair ground—in a fair ground— Yea, Sussex by the sea! I have long been struck by one of Ravilious’ earliest depicti