Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/40

 A HISTORY OF SUSSEX comes the lower region of the Weald, divisible into two belts : the one generally fertile and formed by the alternating marl flats and ridges of ferruginous sand, which He between the foot of the chalk downs and the wide plain of the Weald Clay ; the other consisting of less fertile alter- nate wastes of sand and wide flats of clay. Both of these latter belts till well into historic times were covered with dense forest. We have thus in the first two regions an area, open, settled and well peopled even in times long before written history, and this part of the county has definite and well marked physical boundaries — on the south the sea, on the east the marshes about Dunge Ness, on the west a tidal harbour. Behind this settled region extended the wide ' hinterland ' of the Weald, which was gradually annexed by the settlers on the north and south till they met at what is now the northern boundary of the county ; this line however is very irregular and has no regard to physical features. On the north-west the county has a similarly artificial boundary ; but here also were extensive woodlands, for the Tertiary strata are here bare of gravel and still support considerable oak woods, while even the chalk of this particular area is covered by so deep a clay soil that it still supports much beech. For a long period therefore the earlier settlements of Sussex were almost isolated from the rest of the country by water or by wide tracts of dense forest. Thus the county of Sussex has probably existed as a natural division of Britain from very early prehistoric times, though the fixing of its exact limits is of comparatively late date. It is not unlikely that with better information we may be able to trace local peculiarities in the manufactures as far back as the PaljEolithic period, for even then it was essentially an open country cut off and surrounded by water and forest. Subsequent articles relating to the history and archaeology of the county will describe how this isolation was afterwards broken down ; in this sketch we deal with its origin, and with the leading changes which made Sussex as we now see it. We naturally inquire, What is the meaning of the striking diff'er- ences already alluded to, and why should the geological structure of a county like this, which contains no mountains and no hill reaching to I, coo feet in altitude, have dominated so completely the position of its settlements and also the occupation of its inhabitants ? We need not go back to very early geological times ; the history of Sussex for our purpose begins with the oldest strata seen at the surface in the Weald, though other deposits somewhat older have been penetrated by a deep boring near Battle. The geological formations known to exist in Sussex may be grouped as in the following table ; but their thicknesses, it may be observed, vary greatly even within this limited area. Though it is not to be expected that a boring or shaft sunk at any one point would pene- trate the whole of these strata, yet there is little doubt that at Selsey we should have to descend fully 6,000 feet to reach the lowest deposit shown in this table. Near Eastbourne and Newhaven on the other hand far older strata may possibly be reached in less than 2,000 feet below the surface ; though this remains to be proved. 2