Читать книгу The North Downs Way. National Trail from Farnham to Dover онлайн

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1 Cowslips are common on the downland chalk

2 Bugle (Aguja reptans) appears in open meadows

3 May is when hawthorn blossom fills the hedgerows

The North Downs are more heavily wooded than their counterpart on the south side of the Weald. Some of the loveliest are the mixed woods of beech, oak and ash, carpeted with wood anemones, bluebells or ramsons in spring and early summer. And when the trail emerges from the woods there's often a surprise view to stop you in your tracks, the revelation of patterned field and meadow, or orchard, vineyard or hop garden spread below as if to underline the fact that in parts of Kent the Downs form a backing to the ‘Garden of England’.

That garden is explored in detail on a spur to Canterbury, while the direct route to Dover excites with the famous white cliffs plunging to the surf hundreds of feet below the footpath.

There are many historic sites along the Way: Neolithic burial chambers, Roman roads and Norman churches, charming villages and tiny hamlets, England's premier cathedral city and its busiest ferry port. There are bold stone castles and country cottages trim with thatch. There are literary connections with Jane Austen, Dickens, Joseph Conrad, George Meredith and JM Barrie – among others.