have so little, to do with the life of Sussex men; the river crossing the chalk hills; the oaks, the pines, and the heaths of the Weald; the Roman foundations of our state; the great Roman road and the Roman villa; the squires’ houses, its successors; the little towns; the marshes of the gaps through the hills; the roads over the passes,—all these are combined in such a view, and if a man has but very little time in which to comprehend the nature of Sussex he cannot do better than to leave the Chichester road for awhile, either at the top of Duncton hill, or half a mile farther at The Kennels, and walk up to Gumber corner to see the sight which has been here described.
Next after the Saddle, from which is seen this great view, the traveller will go on eastward along the ridge, down the somewhat steep side of Bignor Hill, and he will find on the other side of the cleft, which here separates Bignor from Westburton Hill, the first of those dew pans of which we spoke in our first description of the county. From just beside it there is a straight green track leading just south of the crest of the hills, and just north of the line of Houghton Forest, and falling at last into the highroad from London to Arundel, just before the cross-road of Whiteways, where is the lodge of Arundel Park. Here he has the choice of two routes: he may go through Arundel Park down on to the town of Arundel some two or three miles away, or he may go straight down Houghton Hill and so across the bridge at Amberley. It is this latter course which he had better take if his object is an exploration of the Downs.
Going down Houghton Hill he will note the old road running steeply down the side of the Downs and the new one curving more gently to the south. They reunite at the entrance of Houghton village, just where the old inn, the George and Dragon, stands. A hundred yards farther there comes in that ancient track which links up all the prehistoric village sites under the Downs, and for which there is no name.
It is interesting, as one leaves Houghton village, to notice how the road (which is now identical with the old British track) approaches the marshy land of the river, following the spur of dry land which pushes out into the marshes, and making for the nearest similar spur on the farther side of the stream. All old British ways approach a river in this fashion, as, for instance, the track to which we owe London Bridge, the crossing of the Medway near Lower Halling, of the Mole just north of
Dorking, and of the Darent at Oxford. The last few yards of the road where the marshy land begins are carried on the modern causeway; the Arun itself is crossed by a fine bridge, on the farther side of which is an inn which makes a very good stopping-place, whether a man has ridden or has walked, for, by the time he reaches this inn, he will have gone between fifteen and twenty miles. Moreover, it is always wise, when one is exploring the Downs, to rest in the river valleys which cut them rather than to come down off their main summits on to the plain, for to do this last is to waste much effort in the climb of next morning.
Half a mile after leaving Houghton Bridge inn the traveller will find a lane leading straight up to the top of the Downs, a summit here called Rackham Hill; and thenceforward he has before him a ridgeway of five miles of unbroken turf of the finest sort in England, midway along which he should note upon the steep escarpment beneath him (along the northern side of what is called Kithurst Hill) the great embankment which may perhaps be defensive earthworks, or may perhaps be some religious emblem of the prehistoric ancestors of the county.
At the end of the five miles he comes down upon what is known as Washington Gap, where the Worthing road crosses the hills, and as he does so he leaves upon his right Highden, the original home of the Gorings, and the centre from which has spread the influence of that Sussex family. The gap is low, but a little over 300 feet, and when he has crossed it he must go up nearly 500 more to the height of Chanctonbury Ring, which is the knot or pivot, as it were, upon which the whole system of the range turns. Though it is not exactly central between the Hampshire borders and the sea end of the Downs, being a good deal to the west of such a centre, it is a place of observation from which the range may be discovered stretching to the left and right through the whole of its extent. Ditchling Beacon to the east and Duncton Down to the west are twenty or thirty feet higher, but neither is so conspicuous as the Ring. Here also, immediately to the east and just below the clump of trees, is the largest dew pan on the Downs.
It is possible to go down from Chanctonbury straight to Steyning, but, if one desires to see all one can of the hills, it is better to keep upon them until one sees below one a spur pointing towards Bramber; there is a lane down this spur, and at
Bramber another excellent inn called the Castle Inn. Here the second river valley of the Downs is crossed: the valley of the Adur. From the Arun to the Adur is a very short day, yet it is good policy to rest here, as there is no other break in the hills between this valley and that of the Ouse at Lewes, which is almost as long a journey as that of the first day.
After Bramber the line of the range becomes somewhat confused, and does not follow that strict and unbending direction which has hitherto marked it. There is a projection northward in Wolstonbury Hill, and fairly deep depressions between the principal heights. The course to be followed is further complicated by the near presence of Brighton, which has thrown out a railway almost up to the top of the range, and has brought the influences of a town to the deep combe known as Devil’s Dyke.
This unfortunate spot cannot be avoided save on foot, for, on horseback, the escarpment to the north is too steep to be followed; it is therefore best to take it boldly, unpleasant as it is, to go well south of the Dyke and make for the hamlet of Saddlescombe, the first passage of the Downs after Bramber. Thence the traveller will go due north-east over the shoulder of New Timber Hill, in the valley beyond he will cross the two Brighton roads (that from Crawley and that from Cuckfield) just before they join, he will leave Wolstonbury Hill wholly on his left and will make for the summits of the Downs before him, going due eastward from the highroad when he has crossed it.
When he has once reached these summits beyond the road he has another straight run of seven miles of splendid turf and of glorious views along a lonely and unwooded ridge, past Ditchling Beacon, and catching beneath him as he goes, at the foot of the hills, the last miles of the old British track which here links up Westmeston, Plumpton, and Offham.
When he comes at last to the fall of the hills down upon the Ouse valley, he will see before him the town of Lewes and its castle, and as he goes down towards it he will note the race-course upon his right, which stands upon the site of the great battle of 1264, wherein the Barons defeated the King and laid the foundations of Parliament. Lewes, when he reaches it, should form his third resting-place, lying as it does upon the third of the rivers which cut the Downs.
Upon the fourth day the way lies along the main Eastbourne road for the first two or three
miles, until Beddingham is reached. There one turns to the right just by the church, and after half a mile of going one finds a lane leading straight up on to the Downs; a ridgeway takes one along the crest (the height of which is here called Firle Beacon), and in about five miles one comes down upon the valley of the Cuckmere and the very old village of Alfriston.
For the last few miles of the journey there is a choice of ways: one may turn to the right after Alfriston bridge and, going past Lullington Court, take a lane which leads one straight to the village of Jevington, thus cutting off the projecting corner and height of Winddower Hill, or one may turn to the left after the bridge and go round over the top of the ridge, and so down on to Jevington from the north. From Jevington a short lane leads straight up on to the height of Willingdon Hill, and thence it is a straight southerly line along the escarpment with a few slight rises and falls until, just four miles on, one stands above the precipice of Beachy Head where the Downs fall into the sea, and one’s journey is ended. These four days, if they are spent in weather of passible clearness, teach one the whole of that lonely and wonderful belt of England, the landscape and character of which have built up the county on either side to the north and south of hills.
It would, of course, be possible to devise many another journey by which those who do not know the county might better appreciate somewhat of its aspects. But these three of which we have spoken are the best in general for an exploration of Sussex, unless one pleases to add a fourth of a somewhat monotonous and truncated character, which would be to cover in one day the coastal plain from Chichester to Brighton, and in another the sea coast and the marshes from Eastbourne to Rye. The second section of this is straightforward enough, taking one through Pevensey, Hastings, and Winchelsea. As to the first, it is advisable not to follow the main road through Arundel, but to go by lanes nearer the sea from Chichester to Eastergate, thence to Yapton, and so on through Littlehampton, West Ferring, Worthing, and along the sea coast to New Shoreham. It is possible also to take either section right along its beach. There is no interruption, but it would be a dreary and a heart-breaking thing to do, and would leave upon a man a general impression of red brick and boarding-houses, and esplanades and tin bungalows, interrupted by intervals of tufted grass growing
rank upon deserted sand-hills. Nay, even these are not all deserted, for in places Londoners can be seen upon them playing golf.
It is best to wander inland, to pass every night at some one of the small market towns, and, when one has returned from the county, to be able to remember the many unbroken woods, the isolated clearings, the primeval tracks, now metalled and now green, the little patches of swamp, the clay pools and the short oaks of the Weald, the abrupt sandstone ledges crowded with pine, the bare Downs beyond seen between such trees, and the large levels of the four rivers which, between them, make up the county, and explain the history of its soil and of its families, and the peculiar tenacity with which it maintains under all modern vicissitudes its unique and enduring character.
It may not be without utility to close these pages with a few remarks upon the last way in which the county can be explored in the course of a holiday. We will consider the approach from the sea and learn something of the way in which a small boat should regard the harbours of this coast; of how the rivers are to be ascended, and of the particular difficulties at the mouth of each.
Those of our readers who have the opportunity to explore the county in this way from the coast and the Channel may not be numerous, but they can at least boast that their method of travel can give them the best appreciation of its history, for Sussex grew up from the harbours.
We have already remarked that the Sussex harbours come at fairly regular intervals, especially those between Beachy Head and the Isle of Wight, but they are not by any means equally easy of access, even for a small boat drawing, let us say, six feet of water; and the most difficult of all five is Rye, at the mouth of the Rother.
It is an almost universal rule that old harbours from which the sea has retreated, but to which the waterway still exists, are difficult of access, and Rye is no exception to this rule. There extends for more than a mile from the shore a mass of peaty mud through which the sea-bed of the river winds in a most tortuous fashion; at half-tide it is almost impossible to follow it if one has had no local experience. The matter is made worse from the fact that the channel is very poorly marked; its first entrance from the sea is impossible to discover in thick weather and not too easy upon a clear day. All this is a pity, for if Rye were still as accessible
as is say Arundel, or even Bosham, it would form the most charming of all entries into the county, with its pyramid of old red roofs and its deep and visible history.
From Rye all the way across the bay to Beachy Head there is no haven, nor for the matter of that any difficulty for a small craft, save that the shore is very flat between Hastings and Eastbourne, and that, as one’s course takes one well out, it is not easy to fix landmarks. In good weather, of course, Beachy Head is a most prominent object all the way, and the light below it a perfect mark at night, but a very little haze is enough to make a yachtsman who is following alongshore get a mile or two in or out, especially as a strong tideway runs in between Pevensey Bay and the Royal Sovereign shoals. Rounding Beachy Head itself is easy enough work except when a strong northerly wind is blowing. On these occasions the Head, which is very abrupt, and the cliffs to the west of it, have a way of spilling sharp gusts unexpectedly down on to the water beneath. The present writer has seen a five-tonner under three reefs and a storm jib all but swamped within half a mile of the shore by one of these puffs, which are especially dangerous from the fact that there is no telling quite in what direction they will come. A full north-easterly wind on the starboard quarter as one rounds the head can give one a set-back in the shape of an unexpected gust coming round from right ahead out of Birling Gap. The only rule when the wind is blowing strong off-shore is to keep well out—irritating as it is to have to do so when one is making Newhaven, since every tack towards the outside means another mile to be beaten inwards against the weather.
Some years ago it would have been necessary to warn the reader of a small reef which runs out from Beachy Head and is especially dangerous at high water, but a new lighthouse is now fixed upon this reef and the old danger no longer exists.
Newhaven Harbour, as we have seen upon a previous page, is the most serious commercial harbour upon the coast. It is the only one before which there is not some considerable bar, and it goes without saying that small boats, such as we are supposing, can enter freely at any state of the tide; but it is by no means the easiest of the Sussex rivers for a small boat to lie in. It has a heavy traffic both of trade and passengers, conveyed in large steamers along a rather narrow river, and until a dock for large craft has been constructed it
will always be a rather anxious place to get in and out of, especially as there is a very strong tide in the Ouse. A dozen miles or so farther westward along the coast is the modern entrance of Shoreham Harbour. This harbour has a rather awkward bar, and it is not infrequently necessary to wait for the tide; moreover the tideway runs like a stream right athwart the mouth, and therefore tends to make one run dangerously near the pier-heads if the wind is light, but, once this bar is crossed and the piers past, Shoreham still affords very good moorings for a small boat, and it also is well situated for proceeding in any direction inland; but one must be careful to take the right-hand or eastern branch of the harbour, and not to go up the river on the left-hand side, as the former is deep, secure, and well-wharfed, while the latter has steep, shingly banks, and soon becomes extremely shallow.
At much the same distance from Shoreham that Shoreham is from Newhaven will be found the harbour of Littlehampton, which is in some ways the best of all as a centre or goal for small craft. Its great drawback is its bar, which is the worst in the whole county, worse even than that of the Rother. In spite of continual dredging this bar is perpetually appearing above the surface at low spring tides, and it is hopeless to attempt to enter at any draught of water before half-tide. The bar is, however, quite close to the end of the pier; there is good holding ground for anchor, and signals of showing from the pier-head signal-staff clearly indicate the depth over the bar at any moment. The heavy gales from the south-west, which are the only dangerous ones on those parts of the coast (with the exception of some very rare south-easterly gales), are broken for Littlehampton by the Owers Bank, and to some extent by the group of rocks which run eastward from them, and there are very few days when it is not safe to anchor outside and wait for the tide.
Once inside, the Arun will be found the most practicable and the most delightful of Sussex rivers for the sailor. There is depth for seagoing vessels all the way up to Arundel, the approach to which is perhaps the most striking approach to a port to be found in England. Half-way on this journey is a rolling railway bridge, but there is no other obstruction and plenty of water all the way. At Arundel is the first permanent bridge, but a small boat, or a boat with a lowering mast, can go on much farther up the river. The tide will carry one, when there is
no backwater or flood, as high as Pulborough in the heart of the county.
Formerly all the Sussex rivers gave this opportunity for entering from the sea into the centre of the countryside, to which was doubtless due the only too thorough results of the pirate raids in the early part of our history. Thus a Danish ship has been found right up the Rother on the Kentish border near Northiam, at a place where the river is now no more than a brook. Similarly it was easy to sail up the Ouse far beyond Lewes. As we have previously remarked, the Adur was a navigable river till recent times almost as far as Shipley. At present the Arun alone of these waterways remains. It owes its preservation to the fact that the care of man has never been allowed to lapse upon its banks. Its high dykes (still called by the Norman-French name of “rives”) have always been carefully maintained, and where the old river was silting up (as for instance in the great bend by Burpham) new cuts have preserved the scouring of the channel. We must, however, regret that in this direction the canal system by which the Arun was linked up with the rest of England has been deliberately allowed to go to pieces. There used to be a waterway from Ford to Chichester, which made the most delightful of inland excursions, and of which Turner has painted a famous picture. It is now nothing but a dry ditch. Higher up near Hardham another waterway led across the great bend of the river to Stopham and continued, as a canal parallel to the stream, across the Weald until the upper waters of the Wey were reached, and through them the Thames valley. It was therefore quite easy until the destruction of the canal to go by water from the Sussex coast to Weybridge. It is typical of our modern politics that a national advantage of this sort should have been thrown away by Parliament in its subservience to the railway interest, and it is to be hoped that that advantage will soon be regained. The trench is still there and the emplacement of the old locks, and the sum required to put the canal into use again would certainly be recovered in a few years of pleasure traffic alone.
The last of the harbours we have to consider is that ramification of creeks on the extreme west of the county known collectively as “Chichester Harbour.” Here also there is a very bad bar and a complicated entrance. From Littlehampton a small boat should make for the point of Selsea Bill and so creep through Looe stream. But she
must take care to do this on an ebb-tide, for it is impossible to get through against the flood.
Even for quite small vessels the entry of Chichester Harbour is navigable only at high tide, but the exploration of it is delightful, whether one runs up Fishbourne Creek (which lands one near to Chichester) or, leaving this on the right, one goes straight on to the wharf of Bosham. There is, unfortunately, no river running from these creeks up into the county, but they form an excellent and sheltered mooring from which to start upon sails into the Solent just to hand.
This method of learning the county, the entry from the sea, is the most natural, the most historic, and the most germane to the nature of Sussex. Every port one enters is the port of Rape, every river up which one’s dinghy takes one is the river along which the penetration of the county has proceeded in past times, and one upon which its principal market-towns will be found. So Chichester, Arundel, Steyning, Lewes, can be reached, and with more difficulty towns farther up the country. The whole manner in which Sussex has grown up is impressed upon the man who enters it from the Channel.
Unfortunately it is the least familiar and perhaps least easy of all the ways in which the county may be approached, but those who care to try the experiment will find themselves well repaid for the exertion the method involves, especially as they explore one of those valleys which lead through the Downs and reveal section by section, as one goes up stream, every distinctive portion and contrast of the countryside, until the heart of the Weald is reached, and the traveller can see from his boat, as the pirate of the fifth century saw from a wider and more marshy stream, the long, straight escarpment of the hills closing the horizon and defining the land to which he was to give his language and his tribal name.
INDEX
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y
Adur, River, 39, 40
Aella, legend of, 60
Alfordean Bridge, on Stane Street, 58
Amberley, antiquity of, 111
goes back to eighth century, 105
on old British trackway under the Downs, 15
position on Arun, 36, 37
Amberley Castle, 110
Anderida, legend of fall of, 60-61
upon site of Pevensey, 53
Angerming, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Arun, maritime portion of, 38
Arun River, 35, 36
its advantages for sailing and boating, 186-188
Arundel, absence of Roman relics in, 53
early fortification of, 66
original site of bridge of, 109
Rape of. See Rape of Arundel river valley of, 37
town of, probable great antiquity of, 107-109
Arundel Castle, new cut-flint work in, 32
view from river, 37, 38
Ashburnham, family of, 126
Ashington, family of, 14
Bar, absence of, at mouth of Ouse, 41
Bar, at mouth of Adur, 39
Barlavington, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Barnham, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Bartelotts of Stopham, 127
Battle, Monastery of, 119
position of, 44
Battle of Hastings, 71-74
Beach, value of to early navigators, 4
Beachy Head, 179
difficulties of sailing under, 183, 184
Beeding, mentioned in Alfred’s will, 101
“Belts” for principal longitudinal divisions of Sussex, 10, 11
Bexhill, mentioned in Doomsday, 92
Bignor, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
example of sand formation in the Weald, 14
on old British trackway under the Downs, 15
Roman pavement of, on Stane Street, 55
Billingshurst, 113
on Stane Street, 58
Binsted, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Bishopric, first Sussex, founded, 64
Blunt, family of, 127, 133, 134 191
Bosham, mentioned in Doomsday, 116
Boundaries of Sussex, east and west, 5
Boundary, northern, of Sussex, nature of, 8
Boxgrove, Monastery of, arises on the Roman Road, 118
on Stane Street, 55
Bramber, a parliamentary borough, 101
Bramber Castle, 99-100
continuity of possession of, 100
example of flint building, 31
early fortification of, 66
on old British trackway under the Downs, 15
Braose, first overlord of Rape of Bramber, 99
Brighton, importance of in Rape of Lewes, 83
modern development of, 137, 138
British Road under Downs, 15
Buckman’s Farm, on Stane Street, 58
Burford Bridge, on Stane Street, 54
Burpham, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
on Arun, 37
Burrell, first Member for Rape of Bramber, 103, 104
Burton, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
example of sand formation in the Weald, 14
Bury, on old British trackway under the Downs, 15
example of sand formation in the Weald, 14
mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Buttolphs, mentioned in Doomsday, 101
position on Adur, 39
Buxted, late development of, 91
Canals from Arun, disused, 187, 188
Castle Arundel, new cut-flint work in, 32
at Arundel, 37, 38
Bramber, example of flint building, 31
Castles, secondary, of Sussex, 98, 99
Chanctonbury Ring, 24, 176
Chichester Harbour, difficulty of entry for small craft, 188, 189
marsh bounding Sussex to west, 5
Chichester, principal town of coastal plain, 11
site of capital of the Regni, 48
Christian religion destroyed by invasions, 62, 63
Climping, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Coastal Plain, 11, 12
character of landscape of, 154, 155
track of journey along, 180
Coast, Sussex, cruising along, 181-190
Cobden’s Farm, upon belt of loam under the Downs, 14
Cocking, mentioned in Doomsday, 116
Cold Harbour on Stane Street, 55
Combe, parish of, position on Adur, 39
Coombes, mentioned in Doomsday, 101
Counties, English, their characteristics, 1, 2
Crowborough, disfigurement of, 147
Crowhurst, mentioned in Doomsday, 92
Cuckfield, date of origin of, 84
Manor of, history of, 128
Cuckmere River, 41
Dawtreys of Petworth, 126
De Albinis, successors to Montgomerys, 106
Devil’s Dyke, 177
Dew pans on Downs, 25
Doomsday, survey of Lewes Rape, 81-84
Dorking Churchyard, on Stane Street, 54
Downs, difficulty of building on, 21
earthworks on, 26, 27
roads across, fewness of, 34
system of dew pans, 25
uninhabited, 19
villages to south of, 29
villages under escarpment of, 28
woods of, 22, 23
South, backbone of Sussex, 2
contour of, 9
direction of axis of, 10
nature of, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
see also South Downs
Duncton, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Eartham, Manor of, history of, 129
Earthworks on Downs, 26, 27
Eastbourne, 141
Eastergate, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Ecclesiastical power in Rape of Chichester, 115, 116
Edward the Confessor, importance of reign of, 68
Egdean, example of sand formation in the Weald, 14
English counties, their characteristics, 1, 2
Felpham, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Feudalism, strength of, in Sussex, 78
Firle Beacon, 179
Fittleworth, its position on Western Rother, 36
Fitz Alans, successors to the de Albinis, 106
Five Oaks Green, on Stane Street, 58
Flint, method of building with, 30, 31, 32
Forest Ridge, 8, 11, 12
Fortification, primitive, example of at Kithurst Hill, 175
Frant, 90
Fulcking, on old British trackway under the Downs, 15
Gainsford, family of, 126
Godwin, a Sussex man, 68
his estates in Sussex, 69
Goring, family of, 126
Goring, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Graffham, mentioned in Doomsday, 116
example of sand formation in the Weald, 14
Manor and history of, 129
Gumber Corner, view from, 163-173
Hailsham, mentioned in Doomsday, 91
Halnecker Hill, on Stane Street, 55
Harbours, nature of Sussex, 3
Hardham, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Monastery of, arises on the Roman Road, 118
Roman camp at, on Stane St., 56
Hasting, the pirate, his raid, 66, 93
Hastings, Battle of, 71-74
Castle of, 93-97
example of value of a beach, 4
importance of beach to early shipping, 93-95
name of, 93
origins of, 93-97
Rape of. See Rape of Hastings
Hastings Bay, method of crossing, 183
“Hastings Plain,” site of Battle of Hastings, 71
Hayward’s Heath, 13
Henfield, mentioned in Doomsday, 101
Heyshott, example of sand formation in the Weald, 14
mentioned as Percy Land, 117
Highden, original home of the Gorings, 176
Horsham, pronunciation of name of, 150
rises in thirteenth century, 101, 102
Houghton, crossing of Arun at, 111, 112
Houghton Forest, 113
Howards, successors to Albinis, 106
successors to Mowbrays, 100, 101
Hurstpierpoint, survey of Rape of Lewes, 83
Invasion, Saxon, of Sussex, 60-64
Iron industry, importance of to Rape of Pevensey, 90
Iron industry of Weald, antiquity of, 59
Juniper Hall, on Stane Street, 54
Keymer, survey of Rape of Lewes, 83
Kithurst Hill, 175
Knepp Castle, 104
Lancing, mentioned in Doomsday, 101
Landscapes of Sussex, 150-155
Lavington, example of sand formation in the Weald, 14
on old British trackway under the Downs, 15
Lewes, early fortification of, 66
importance of in Saxon times, 67
Norman Castle in, 81
position of on Ouse, 41
Rape of (see also Rape of Lewes), 79-85
site of Battle of, 178
town, characteristics of, 80
Linch Down, 162
Littlehampton, at mouth of Arun, 38
difficulty of entry, and outside anchorage described, 185, 186
Loam, belt of, villages upon, 14
Looe Stream, 65
Madehurst, Manor of, history of, 129
Marshes bounding Sussex to east and west, 5
destruction of Roman roads in, 6
Mayfield, first of Sussex line of ecclesiastical palaces, 90
Midhurst, its position on Western Rother, 36
late development of, 117
Monasteries of Sussex, 117-119
Montgomerys, first overlords of Rape of Arundel, 106
Morton, first overlord of Rape of Pevensey, 87
Mount Caburn, example of prehistoric fortification, 91
Mowbrays, successors to Braose, 100
Nature of Sussex Harbours, 3
Newhaven Harbour, advantages and disadvantages of, for small craft, 184
Newhaven, position at mouth of Ouse, 41
Newtimber, Manor of, history of, 131
Norman Conquest in Sussex, 69-74
Northchapel, 113
Northern boundary of Sussex, nature of, 8
Northstoke on Arun, 37
Ockley (in Surrey), on Stane Street, 54
Ouse, river, 40, 41
Owers Lightship, 65
Oxenbridge, family of, 126
Palmers of Angerming, 126
Parham, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Peasantry of Sussex, character of, 144, 148
Petworth, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Pevensey, ancient geographical position of, 89
Celtic derivation of the name, 87
decline of, 89, 90
Level, termination of the Wealdon flats on the sea, 11
Rape of, see Rape of Pevensey
Roman remains in, 88
site of Anderida, 53
William the Conqueror lands there, 71
Pine trees, comparatively recent in Sussex, 153-154
Place names, Sussex, 61
of Sussex, pronunciation of, 149, 150
Plain, Coastal, see Coastal
Poynings, on old British trackway under the Downs, 15
Prehistory of Sussex unknown, 47
Pulborough, its position on Arun, 36
mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Pulborough Bridge, point where Stane Street crossed the Arun, 57
Rackham Hill, 175
Rape of Arundel, 104-113
Arundel, Montgomerys first overlords of, 106
Bramber, 99-104
Rape of Bramber, Braose first overlord of, 99
Chichester, 113-117
Hastings, 91-99
Lewes, growth of, 79-85
its central character, 85
original harbour of, 82
Lewes, William of Warren first overlord of, 82
Pevensey, 87-91
Pevensey, importance of iron industry, 90
Pevensey, Morton first overlord of, 87
Pevensey, shape of, 86
Rapes, divisions of Sussex, 77
number and origin of, 78
Regni, Sussex tribe, 48
Ridge, forest, 8
Rings of woods on Downs, 24
Rivers of Sussex, 3, 35-44
give rise to earliest settlements, 4
River valley, nature of Sussex, 42
River valleys of Sussex, not used by main roads, 21, 22
Robertsbridge, 91
Monastery of, 118
position of, on Rother, 44
Roman basis of Sussex civilisation, 48-59
camp at Hardham, on Stane Street, 56
fortifications at Alfordean Bridge, 58
Road, Stane Street, crossing Arun, 36
Road, Stane Street, fully described, 54-58
Roads destroyed in marshes, 6
Roman’s Wood, on Stane Street, 58
Rother, river of, 43, 44
Valley of, marshes in, bound Sussex eastward, 5
Western, 35
Rotherfield, antiquity of, 90
Rottingdean, in Doomsday survey of Rape of Lewes, 83
modern disfigurement of, 139
Rusper, late mention of, 102
Rye, antiquity and original conditions of, 92
harbour of, difficulty of entry, 182
Saddlescombe, 177
Saint Wilfrid, story of, 64
Sand formations in the Weald, 13
Saxon invasions of Sussex, 60-64
See of Selsea, founded, 64
Senlac, discussion of the name, 72
Shelleys, family of, 127, 132, 133
Shipley, developed in twelfth century, 101
Shoreham Harbour, entry of for small craft, described, 185
Shoreham, Old, position on Adur, 39
rise and decline of, 102-103
Singleton, in Doomsday, 116
Manor of, history of, 130
Slinfold, 113
South Downs, backbone of Sussex, 3
contour of, 9
journey along crest of described, 161-180
Southstoke on Arun, 37
Squires, rise of the power of, and disintegration of feudal system, 119-125
St. Denis, monastery of, original lords of Rotherfield, 90
“St. George and the Dragon” Inn at Houghton, 112
St. Leonard’s Forest, originallv Braose Land, 102
Stane Street, appearance of Gumber Corner, 171, 172
Roman road, crossing Arun, 36
fully described, 54-58
Stenes, southern valleys of Downs, 23
Steyning, on old British trackway under the Downs, 15
Stopham, junction of Western Rother and Arun, 35
mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Storrington, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
on old British trackway under the Downs, 15
Strickland, family of, 126
Sussex, bounded by the Weald, 2
character of peasant in, 144
created from the sea, 2
east, gradual disfigurement of, 146
epithet “Scilly” applied to, 117
exploration of east and west, 159-161
feudalism, strength of, 78
general plan of, 45, 46
grouped round the South Downs, 2
isolation in prehistoric times, 47
landscapes of, 150-155
natural boundaries of, east and west, 5
northern boundary of, nature of, 8
peasant, character of, 148
peculiar dialect of, somewhat exaggerated, 143
place names, 51
place names, pronunciation of, 149, 150
rivers, 3, 35-44
rivers of, determined the first settlements, 4
sharp division in east and west, 144
towns developed later according to distance from sea, 7
Sutton, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Thatch, excellence of in Sussex, 135
Theakham, 14
Tortington, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Monastery of, 119
Towns, Sussex, developed later according to distance from sea, 7
Tumuli above Duncton Hill, 27
on Downs, 27
Uckfield, late development of, 91
Upper Waltham, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Valleys, to south of Downs, called stenes, 23
Villages to south of Downs, 29
under escarpment of Downs, 29
Walberton, mentioned in Doomsday, 105
Warren, the family of overlords of Rape of Lewes, 79
Warren, William of, first overlord of Rape of Lewes, 82
Washington, on old British trackway under the Downs, 15
pass over Downs at, 176
Watering-places, growth of, 136-142
Weald and parishes, shape of, 8
bounding Sussex to the north, 2
forest track through, present itinerary of described, 156-159
general character of, 12, 13
its military function at Norman Conquest, 73-76
West Dean House, example of flint building, 32
West Hampnet, on Stane Street, 54
Wilfrid, Saint, story of, 64
Willingdon Hill, 179
Winchelsea, antiquity of and original conditions of, 92
Wolstonbury Hill, 177
Woods of the Downs, 22, 23
Worth, last stage of development of Rape of Lewes, 84
Yapton, 11