oters began to look for
settlements, on their part, farther south. One horde, led, as the
legend veraciously assures us, by Hengest and Horsa, landed in Thanet;
another, composed entirely of Saxons, and under the command of a
certain dubious AElle, came to shore on the spit of Selsea. It was from
this last body that the county took its newer name of Suth-Seaxe, Suth
Sexe, or Sussex. Let us first frankly narrate the legend, and then see
how far it may fairly be rationalised.

In 477, says the English Chronicle--written down, it must be
remembered, from traditional sources, four centuries later, at the
court of Alfred the West Saxon--in 477, AElle and his three sons, Cymen,
Wlencing, and Cissa, came to Britain in three ships, and landed at the
stow that is cleped Cymenes-ora. There that ilk day they slew many
Welshmen, and the rest they drave into the wood hight Andredes-leah. In
485, AElle, fighting the Welsh near Mearcredes Burn, slew many, and the
rest he put to flight. In 491, AElle, with his son Cissa, beset
Andredes-ceaster, and slew all that therein were, nor was there after
one Welshman left. Such is the whole story, as told in the bald and
simple entries of the West Saxon annalist, A more dubious tradition
further states that AElle was also Bretwalda, or overlord, of all the
Teutonic tribes in Britain.

And now let us see what we can make of this wholly unhistorical and
legendary tale. Whether there ever was a South Saxon king named AElle we
cannot say; but that the earliest English pirate fleet on this coast
should have landed near Selsea is likely enough. The marauders would
not land near the Romney marshes or the Pevensey flats, where the great
fortresses of Lymne and Anderida would block their passage; and they
could not beach their keels easily anywhere along the cliff-girt coast
between Beachy Head and Brighton; so they would naturally sail along
past the marshland and the chalk cliffs till they reached the open
champaign shore near Chichester. Cymenes-ora, where they are said to
have landed, is now Keynor on the Bill of Selsea; and Selsea itself, as
its name (correctly Selsey) clearly shows us, was then an island in the
tidal flats. This was just the sort of place which the English pirates
loved, for all tradition represents their first settlements as effected
on isolated spots like Thanet, Hurst Castle, Holderness, and
Bamborough. Thence they would march upon Regnum, the square Roman town
at the harbour