Two runners set out from the low floodplain of the river Ouse up four chalk brows — a single lane road to Telscombe Tye reservoir, tracks skirting the fields of Saltdean dip and up to Pickers Hill, windswept grassland to the smock mill at Beacon Hill, and finally past a decidedly orderly Ovingdean Hall Farm through East Brighton Golf course, dropping into (currently sheep-free) Sheepcote valley and to The George where foaming pints awaited.

History was found in the middle — a bomb crater, the knapped flint- faced obelisks of Kipling’s walled gardens, a local croquet lawn, and two dear ancient volunteers opened the doors of the Grange museum for us - just across from where Kipling quilled his imaginative tales of Lamarckian adaptation in the Just So Stories.

Stimulated good chats of travels, spreading the English language and noble endeavours on a bright if chilly Sunday.