Lewes

The next morning we caught a bus with Philli to a neat little town nearby called Lewes. Interestingly enough, it is considered to be the cradle of the American revolution as Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense, (the book that inspired the minds of the American colonists to rebel against England) lived and taught there. Commemorating this fact, and endearing itself to the hearts visiting Americans, the city has a plaque on the inn where he debated over civil disobedience, and signs over the house he once lived in. While they toot their 21st century horn about it, I wonder how that little bit of press went over in the 18th century!

The other neat feature to Lewes is its castle. Marking the center and highpoint of the village, it stands sentinel on its crumbly hilltop fiercely guarding the surrounding hills dotted with contented sheep. The castle was built shortly after the Normans invaded southern England, making it nearly one thousand years old. The view of the castle, draped with vines on its lonely hill, and hedged in by the encroaching village, felt like a classic English postcard.
As we walked around the castle via a small footpath that weaved in and around various houses, it we discovered that we weren’t the only ones who had found inspiration from the picturesque location. A plaque on a quaint house told us that Virginia Woolf, the famous feminist author, lived and wrote for a few years in that location at the base of the castle. The house was octagonal, had a perfect view of the upper stone turrets, and apparently used to be a windmill before it was converted to a home. The literary connection for us went a bit deeper though: Woolf was a member of a group of writers, philosophers, and intellectuals called the Bloomsbury group. In the first half of the 20th century, this group included John Maynard Keynes (founder of the IMF), E. M. Forster and Lytton Strachey. They lived and worked in the Bloomsbury area of London, near where we live.

Despite the castle, and the beautiful views, the best part was riding on the upper floor of the double-decker bus back to Brighton. Often lining the country roads in England you will find tall hedges that block the view of fields beyond. Driving in a regular car, you usually can’t see above the bushes, but on the top floor of the double-decker, you effectively clear the tops of the hedges, and miles of green fields stretch before you. Considering we got to sit in the very front seats, the views were pretty neat; even though we felt like we would fall out every time the bus made a sharp turn!