32 PAPERS, ETC. 



Caesar refers in tlie following terms : " In maritimis ferrum 

 nascitur, sed ejus exigua est copia," i.e. "Iron is produced 

 in the maritime districts, but only in small quantity." 

 (B.G. Lib. v. c. 12.) 



The following summary of facts is given by Mr. Thomas 

 Wright : 



"In various places in Sussex, as in the parishes of Mares- 

 field, Sedlescombe, and Westfield, immense masses of an- 

 cient iron scorioe, or slag, are found. At Oaklands, in 

 Sedlescombe, there is a mass of very considerable extent, 

 which, on being cut into for materials for road-making, was 

 ascertained to be not less than 20 feet deep. The period 

 to which they belong is proved by the frequent discovery 

 of Roman coins and pottcry, intermixed with the cinders. 

 At Maresfield, especially, the fragments of Roman pottery 

 and other articles are so abundant, that, as we are informed 

 by Mr. M. A. Lower, of Lewes, who first laid these facts 

 before the public, when one of these cinder-beds was re- 

 moved, scarcely a barrow-full of cinders could be exa- 

 mined without exhibiting several fragments. The material 

 for the Roman furnaces was the clay iron-stone from the 

 beds between the chalk and oolite of this district, which is 

 found in nodular concretions consisting often of an outer 

 shell of iron ore with a nucleus of sand. These are found 

 near the surface of the ground, and the Romans dug small 

 pits, from which they extracted these nodules, and carried 

 them to the furnaces, which stood in the immediate vici- 

 nity. These pits are still found in considerable groups, 

 covered almost always with a thick wood, and the dis- 

 covery of pottery, etc., leaves us no room to doubt that 

 they are Roman works." * 



* The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, p. 234. The reader may also 

 consult Conybeare and Phillips's Oeology of England and Wales, p. 136- 

 140; and MantelFs Geolog;/ of Süsses, p. 21-30. 



