188 AN ENGLISH SHIRE. 



probable that at this early period Sussex was divided 

 into several little tribes or chieftainships, each of which 

 had its own clearing in the lowland cut laboriously 

 out of the forest by the aid of its stone axes ; while in 

 the centre stood the compact village of wooden huts, 

 surrounded by a stockade, and girt without by the small 

 cultivated plots of the villagers. On the Downs above 

 rose the camp or refuge of the tribe an earthwork 

 rudely constructed in accordance with the natural lines 

 of the hills to which the whole body of people, with 

 their women, children, and cattle, retreated in case of 

 hostile invasion from the villagers on either side. It is 

 not likely that any foreigners from beyond the great 

 forest belt of the Weald would ever come on the war- 

 trail across that dangerous and trackless wilderness ; 

 and it is probable, therefore, that the camps or refuges 

 were constructed as places of retreat for the tribes 

 against their immediate neighbours, rather than against 

 alien intruders from without. Hence we may reasonably 

 conclude as indeed is natural at such an early stage of 

 civilisation that the whole district was not yet consoli- 

 dated under a single rule, but that each village still 

 remained independent, and liable to be engaged in 

 hostilities with all others. Even if extended chieftain- 

 ships over several villages had already been set up, as is 

 perhaps implied by the great tumuli of chiefs and the 

 size of the camps in some parts of Britain, we must sup- 

 pose them to have been confined for the most part to a 

 single river valley. If so, there may have been petty 

 Euskarian principalities, rude supremacies or chieftain- 

 ships like those of South Africa, in the Chichester low- 



