LET me tell you how I get to write today’s opinion column. I’m the High Sheriff, the oldest Office in the country, a royal office, which I am honoured to hold for one year.

The Argus very kindly invited me, together with my wife Anne, to join the editorial team for a day to see this great Brighton newspaper go from the drawing board to the news stand.

Now, I’ve been a soldier, but before that I was raised in the magnificent landscape of the High Weald of Sussex, in Stonegate, with its woodlands, valleys and small fields. And as a soldier, that landscape remained in my mind as home in some fairly far off fields in peace and war. I studied farming as a boy, botany as a teenager and forestry as a young man at university.

So now I’m back in that same area as a Governor of Plumpton College. For Forestry, (and Arboriculture) Horticulture (and Floristry) and Foundation Learning.

Plumpton College. It’s only just over the equally stunning landscape bump of the Downs. It is the best place in the South to study land-based subjects. But what does that mean? It implies work in a rural setting. But wait a minute, Arboriculture, the trimming and looking after mainly ornamental trees, that mainly happens in towns. Small animal care, that’s pet shops, in towns. Floristry, that mainly happens in towns. Dog grooming?

Dogs in the countryside are expected to look after themselves. There are plenty of gardens needing attention in the towns. So if you are wondering where life might lead you, take a trip over the Downs and see what’s on offer, with us. Go to www.plumpton.ac.uk.

Major General John Moore-Bick is the High Sheriff of Sussex