Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/601

SUSSEX. 589 SUSSEX. the Duke of Norfolk. In the reign of Henry III. the battle of Lewes was fought at a spot near Flumton Plain, still called Mount Harry. During the middle ages, till the reign of Henry VIII., the whole of the Sussex coast was exposed to the descents of the French and Spaniards, who on several occasions hurnt Seaford, Eye, Winchelsea, and Brighthelmstone or Brighton, then only a small fishing village. In the civil war of Charles I. the inhabitants generally sided with the parliament, and the castles of Amberley, Arundel, and Bodiham, and the city of Chichester being garri- soned for the king, were besieged and taken by the parliamentary forces. The inhabitants of the inland parts are principally engaged in agriculture, and are mostly of Saxon descent, being remarkable for their flaxen hair, blue eyes, and English features. Owing chiefly to the mildness of the climate, several large towns have sprung up on the sea-coast, to which all classes repair for health and relaxation, as Brighton, Bognor, Eastbourne, Hastings, Hove, St. Leonard's, and Worthing. These watering places at present constitute the wealth of the county. The harbours are small, and have little depth of water ; the principal are Chichester, Havent, Fagham, and Shoreham, with the ports of Rye, Winchelsea, and Hastings, belonging to the ancient Cinque Ports, besides Brighton, Bognor, Cuckmere, Littlehampton, or Arundel Harbour, Newhaven, Sea- ford, where is the last martello tower, numbered 74, and Worthing. Other points of interest along the coast are Eomney Harsh, Fairlight Down, where the chalk cliff rises 599 feet, and contains fossil bones of saurians intermixed with plants and fresh- water shells ; Langley Point, where the Wealden clay ends ; Beuchey Head, with its lighthouse, 565 feet above the sea, off which the combined English and Dutch fleets sus- tained a defeat in 1690 ; the Park shoals outside Pagham Harbour; Selsey Bill, with the Hixon, Boulder, and other shoals in front, and the Owers lighthouse outside ; and Thomey Island, near Chichester harbour. The most characteristic feature in the surface of Sussex is the broad ridge of chalk hills called the South Downs, which traverses the county in a direction nearly E. by S. for about 26 miles, and at various points attains a consider- able .elevation, as at Chanctonbury Ring, near Wistow, which is 814 feet above sea-level; the Devil's Dyke, 685 feet, commanding a prospect over the Weald ; Firle Beacon, 820 feet, being the loftiest summit, and Beachey Head, 564 feet, where the ridge ends in a precipitous cliff. To the N. of this range another ridge of hills rises, composed principally of greensand, the loftiest peak being Ditchelling Beacon, 858 feet above the eea. Beyond there is a third range of hills, called the Forest Ridge, the principal summits of which are at Crow- borough, 804 feet, Brightling, 646 feet, and Fairlight Down, near Hastings, 600 feet. The surface of the Downs is undulating, and covered with a short and deli- cate turf, largely intermixed with thyme and occasionally overgrown with patches of furze or whitethorn, but entirely denuded of wood. This district is somewhat Weak, and is chiefly occupied by sheep-walks. The mari- time district lying between the Downs and the sea occu- pies the south-western corner of the county, extending from Brighton westward to Emsworth, about 35 miles. This district, which belongs to the Isle of Wight forma- tion, is fertile, and its temperature mild. On the N. side of the Downs is an elevated, but comparatively level tract, occupying the whole centre of the county, and denomi- nated the Weald of Sussex, from its having originally formed part of the great forest called by the Britons Coit Andrei, and by the Saxons Andredes- fPVrtW, which included the wealds of Surrey and Kent. This district comprises about 420,000 acres, and is now generally under cultiva- tion, the woods having been gradually cleared. Adjoining the Weald are the forests of St. Leonard's and Ashdown, together covering about 28,000 acres, and situated in the north-eastern division of the county, called the -t Kidge. Along the eastern border, towards Kent, are extensive hop-plantations, occupying nearly 10,OttO acres. In the S.E. near Pevensey, are extensive salt marshes, forming a continuation of the low grounds of Romney Marsh, in Kent, and along the banks of all the rivers are water-meadows, much esteemed for fattening cattle. The principal minerals are Sussex marble, quarried at Petworth, fuller's-earth at Tillington, red ochre at Graffham and Chidham, besides freestone, lime- stone, chalk, flint, firestone, marl, and brick and tile earth. Iron was formerly smelted from the greensand and Weal- den ironstones. The rivers are only.considerable streams flowing down from the northern border of the shire, or from Surrey. The principal are the Arun, which, receiving the tributary waters of the Western Rother and Western Arun, becomes navigable for vessels at Arundel Bridge ; the Glynd, which becomes navigable for barges at Lind- field, and falls into the sea at Newhaven, where it forms a small harbour; the Rother, anciently called Limene, which, receiving the waters of many tributary streams, becomes navigable above Newenden, and finally expands into the estuary of Rye ; the Adur, which is navigable from Shoreham harbour to Shennanbury ; the Cuckmere, navigable to Longbridge ; the Lavant, which, after nearly encircling Chichester, expands into the estuary of Chichester harbour. There are besides the Medway, which, rising at Turner's Hill, in the N. part of tho county, flows eastward to the borders of Kent; the Ashbourne, which falls into the sea at Pevensey Bay ; the Asten, which runs through the battle-field of Hastings. These streams are much frequented by anglers. " This county," says Izaak Walton, " can boast of several fish a Selsea cockle, a Chichester lobster, an Arundel mullet, and an Amberley trout." The canala are the Grand Military canal, formed at the time of the threatened invasion by Napoleon, extending through the eastern part of the county, nearly parallel with the sea-coast for 23 miles, from Cliffs End, near Kent, in Sussex, to Shornecliffe, in Kent. The other canals are the Arun and Wey Junction, commu- nicating with the Thames ; the Arun and Portsmouth, communicating with Chichester harbour and Havant ; and the West Rother, with Midhurst and Petworth. The lines of railway are the London, Brighton, and South-Coast, which enters the county at Crawley, and runs due S. to Brighton, throwing off branches at the Three Bridges to East Grinstead and Horsham, from which latter place the line forks to Petworth and Shore- ham ; other branches leave the main line at Hayward's Heath, the western one communicating by Worthing and Chichester with Portsmouth, and the eastern branch proceeding to Le,wes, where it forks to Uckfield and Hastings, at which latter place a branch of the South- eastern joins, thus forming a continuous line of commu- nication along the coast, from Kent in the W. to Dorset- shire in the E. The South-Eastern also has a branch to Rye. The roads, which are numerous and well kept, usually follow the line of the coast, or converge in tho direction of the metropolis. The county is co-extensive with the diocese of Chichester, in the province of Can- terbury, and is divided into the archdeaconries of Chi- chester and Lewes. The total number of parishes is 317, of which Horsham is the largest, besides parts of 4 others, and 6 extra-parochial places. For civil and political purposes the county is divided into East and West Sussex, each division returning two members to parliament ; the East division comprises the rapes of Hastings, Lewes, and Pevensey ; and the West, the rapes of Arundel, Bramber, and Chichester, which ars again subdivided into hundreds. It contains the city and port of Chichester, which has separate jurisdiction, but is regarded as the capital of the shire, the cinque ports of Hastings, Rye, Winchelsea, and Seaford, which have also separate jurisdictions, the first two being also parliamentary boroughs ; the other boroughs are Lewes, Brighton, New Shoreham, Horsham, Arundel, and Midhurst, the three first returning two and the three last one member each. The ancient boroughs of Bramber, East Grinstead, Seaford, Steyning, and Win- chelsea, were disfranchised by the Reform Act. There are besides 17 market towns, and about 400 villages and hamlets. Lewes is the assize town, and the place where