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sumptuous dwellings occur at Bignor, at Eastbourne, &c. Their 
burial grounds occur at Seaford and in other places. He 
emphasised the remarkable way in which certain positions had been 
successively occupied. To begin with, it is a suitable place for the 
rallying of the savage tribe; after that of the semi-civilised and 
settled community with their religious ceremonies, or a parish 
meeting, and possibly a stockade; then, perhaps, the Roman 
villa of the Commander, and after that first the Saxon and then 
the English church, or the medizval castle. In the time of the 
Saxons the Downs must have been much of a waste, except 
that their lonely valleys gradually accumulated a house and a 
barn or two. Before that time they were, probably, more 
covered with wood. The iron axe was more potent in clearing 
than the flint, or even the bronze. Within living memory there 
had been a decrease in trees, but some of the old hawthorns, 
such as those at the base of Cissbury, seemed likely to live for 
ever. When we got down to medizval times the Downs were 
still interesting,—the, perhaps, greatest event in English history 
took place on the Downs, the Battle of Lewes in 1264, and it 
was only about a week ago according to the day of the month! 
The escape of Charles II. took place over the Downs. 
The exceedingly isolated valleys and parishes of the Downs 
led to an almost peculiar language and manner. Many persons 
never left the place where they were born the whole of their 
lives, and most people in the parish were related to each other ; 
and they had many local superstitions. There were other marks 
on the Downs of green rings—called fairy rings. These were 
quite recently attributed to the night dancing of Fairies, but were 
now well-known to be caused by fungi. The Fairy, or Pharisee, 
as he was called, was quite a belief. There was a story that a 
certain farmer found every morning that some of his corn had 
been thrashed out, and going to the barn saw a lot of little fairies 
thrashing it out, one saying to the other, “ Do you twet—I 
twet?” Not approving of this proceeding, he frightened them 
away, after which he withered and died for his ingratitude! The 
belief in witchcraft was almost universal in these lonely villages. 
A story was told him once of a woman who was supposed to be 
a witch, and she was attacked and escaped from her house in the 
form of a hare. One of the men set his dog at her, it seized 
her, but she escaped, but when next seen at home she had a 
wound where the dog bit her. This was told him in all 
seriousness. 
The nomenclature of the Downs was all ancient; the 
coombis, from the British cwm; the Denes, Saxon; the holts 
and copses, ancient forms of language. Near Lewes was Oxsettle 
Bottom, which a friend assured him was derived from early 
British—the ‘‘ upper shooting valley ’’—pointing out the curious 
fact and coincidence that it was a rifle range. But he was afraid 
