Lewes has all the conveniences that are expected in a county town: a court house, a prison, a brewery, Waitrose and some rather fine architecture. Somehow the developers have done only minimal damage.
I went down on the train on Friday for lunch. Usually I’m en route to Glyndebourne so it was a welcome chance to appreciate Lewes itself. The County Hall is one of the finest buildings, built in 1812 to replace the previous Town Hall and Sessions House, demolished in 1810.
The war memorial is particularly attractive as there is a view of the Downs behind it. Towns and cities that have a ring of countryside visible from the centre I find most appealing. Bath and Turin pass this test.
Here is another handsome house, built in the early 17th century and then given a new facade in 1812.
An American art collector lived here 1890 – 1928. Edward “Ned” Warren may have raised a few eyebrows in late Victorian and Edwardian Sussex.
“Warren spent much of his time in Continental Europe collecting art works, many of which he donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, assembling for that institution the “largest collection of erotic Greek vase paintings ” in the U.S. He has been described as having “a taste for pornography” and was a “pioneer” in collecting it. His published works include A Defence of Uranian Love in three volumes, which proposes a type of same-sex relationship similar to that prevalent in Classical Greece, in which an older man would act as guide and lover to a younger man.“ (Wikipedia)
He was also fond of dogs.
Have you altered your software?
Instead of the emails I used to get I now have a phone screen to one side which gets in the way.
I did have a software update a few days ago. Sorry if it’s an improvement for the worse. Growing up in Ireland my grandfather used to say when it was raining that the weather was improving … for the worse.