SUSSEX — SKETCH OF THE COUNTY. o 



easterly direction towards the county of Kent. 

 Its appearance is that of a generally flat, but 

 occasionally undulating, district, overgrown with 

 brush-wood and masses of trees, among which 

 the oak predominates in a remarkable degree, 

 varied with patches of cultivated land, which, 

 during the course of years, have been reclaimed 

 from the surrounding forest. 



To the south of this tract the country rises 

 into considerable eminences, of great picturesque 

 beauty, and even romantic character, where their 

 northern escarpment, which is abrupt, sudden, 

 and densely wooded, dips into the valley of the 

 weald. 



Still further to the south, a wide belt of sand 

 intervenes between this and the Downs, and, like 

 all the oreolocjical formations contained within the 

 county, appears to cross it diagonally from north- 

 west to south-east. Indeed, the great variety in 

 the character and scenery of these districts is very 

 remarkable, and cannot fail, especially in the 

 western division, to have struck the most unob- 

 servant traveller from the metropolis to the 

 coast, by way of Petworth, Midhurst, or Arundel. 



As he journeys southward from the Surrey 

 hills, he sees stretched beneath him the wide and 

 densely- wooded valley of the weald, a region of 

 stiff clay and forests of oak, extending through 



