ge between the marshes, by which alone London could be
reached. Harold fell on the spot now marked by the ruined high altar of
Battle Abbey--a national monument at present in the keeping of an
English duke. Once the native army was routed, William marched on
resistlessly to London, and Sussex and England were at his feet.

The new feudal organisation of the county is doubtless shadowed forth
in the existing rapes. Of these there are six, called respectively
after Chichester, Arundel, Bramber, Lewes, Pevensey, and Hastings. It
will be noticed at once that these were the seats of the new bishopric
and of the five great early castles. In one form or another, more or
less modernised, Arundel Castle, Bramber Castle, Lewes Castle, Pevensey
Castle, and Hastings Castle all survive to our own day. In accordance
with their ordinary policy of removing cathedrals from villages to
chief towns, and so concentrating the civil and ecclesiastical
government, the Normans brought the bishopstool from Selsea to
Chichester. The six rapes are fairly coincident--Chichester with the
marsh district; Arundel with the dale of Arun; Bramber with the dale of
Adur; Lewes with the western dale of Ouse; Pevensey with the eastern
dale of Ouse; and Hastings with the insulated region between the
marshes. In other words, Sussex seems to have been cut up into six
natural divisions along the sea-shore; while to each division was
assigned all the Weald back of its own shore strip as far as the
border. Thus the rapes consist of six long longitudinal belts, each
with a short sea front and a long stretch back into the Weald.

Increased intercourse with the Continent brought the Cinque Ports into
importance; and, as premier Cinque Port, Hastings grew to be one of the
chief towns in Sussex. The constant French wars made them prominent in
mediaeval history. As trade grew up, other commercial harbours gave rise
to considerable mercantile towns. Rye and Winchelsea, at the mouth of
the Rother, were great ports of entry from France as late as the days
of Elizabeth. Seaford, at the mouth of the Ouse, was also an important
harbour till 1570, when a terrible storm changed the course of the
stream to the town called from that fact Newhaven. Lewes was likewise a
port, as the estuary of the Ouse was navigable from the mouth up to the
town. Brighthelmstone was still a village; but old Shoreham on the Adur
was a considerable place. Arundel Haven and Chichester Harbour recalls