is pretty much what we now get, the
Tertiary strata being preserved in the district near Chichester; though
farther east, around Newhaven and Beachy Head, the sea has encroached
upon the chalk so as to cut out the great white cliffs which bound the
view everywhere along the shore from Brighton to Eastbourne. In the
central portion of the boss, however, almost all the highest elevated
part has been denuded by ice or water action. Between the North and
South Downs, where we ought to find the mountain ridge, we find instead
the valley of the Weald. Here the chalk has been quite worn away,
giving rise to the steep escarpment on the northern side of the South
Downs, seen from the Devil's Dyke, so that at the foot of the sudden
descent we get the Weald clay exposed; while in the very centre of the
upheaved tract the clay itself has been cut through, and the Hastings
sand appears upon the surface. Moreover, the sand, being upraised by
the central force, stands higher than the clay on either side, which
forms the trough of the Weald; and thus the forest ridge, which abuts
upon the sea in the cliffs of Hastings Castle, seems to lie above the
clay, under which, however, it really glides on either side. I need
hardly add that this rough diagrammatic description is only meant as a
general indication of the facts, and that it considerably simplifies
the real geological changes probably involved in the sculpture of
Sussex. Nevertheless, I believe it pretty accurately represents the
main formative points in the ante-human history of the county.

So much by way of preface or introduction. These facts of structure
form the data for the reconstruction of the Sussex annals during the
human period. Upon them as framework all the subsequent development of
the county hangs. And first let us observe how, before the advent of
man upon the scene, the shire was already strictly demarcated by its
natural boundaries. Along the coast, between Chichester Harbour and
Brighton, stretched a long, narrow, level strip of clay and alluvium,
suitable for the dwelling-place of an agricultural people. Back of this
coastwise belt lay the bare rounded range of the South Downs--good
grazing land for sheep, but naturally incapable of cultivation. Two
rivers, however, flowed in deep valleys through the Downs, and their
basins, with the outlying combes and glens, were also the predestined
seats of agricultural communities. The one was the Ouse, passing
through the