South Harting~by Jeremy J Croucher

8 of 8 in the Jemverse series ‘Circular Sussex’

 

South Harting

Up on Harting Down
I saw the folly to the West
It’s lovely here this morning
in bright sunshine, just the best

Then I walked in woodland
sunlight filtered through the trees
Birdsong all around me
Blue sky between the leaves

Followed little byways
Down the hillside to South Harting
and the White Hart in the village
just as lunchtime it was starting

©Jemverse

Photo – The ruins of the ‘Vandalian Tower’ folly on Tower Hill, just west of Harting Down in West Sussex. The folly was built in 1774 to celebrate the founding of the American settlement of Vandalia, a proposed British colony that never grew beyond its initial founders. As a part of the American War of Independence, the small colony was hung out to dry and while they proposed becoming a state by the name of “Westsylvania,” the fresh American government scoffed at the idea and the territory was subsumed by the states now known as West Virginia and Kentucky.  – Jempics.

[Every year in May, my brother Dave and I go out for a week’s walking. This year we took in a series of circular walks based around our favourite long-distance trail – the South Downs Way through Hampshire and Sussex]