AN ENGLISH SHIRE. 



198 



In the polished stone age, the county had been self- 

 supporting, because of its possession of flint. In the 

 bronze age it was dependent upon other places, through 

 its non-possession of copper or tin. During the former 

 period it may have exported weapons from Cissbury ; 

 during the latter, it must have imported the material of 

 weapons from Cornwall and Gaul. 



Before the Eomans came, the Celts of Britain had 

 learned the use of iron. "Whether they ever worked the 

 iron of the Weald, however, is uncertain. But as the 

 ores lie near the surface, as wood (to be made into char- 

 coal) for the smelting was abundant, and as these two 

 facts caused the Weald iron to be extensively employed 

 in later times, it is probable that small clearings would 

 be made in the most accessible spots, and that rude iron- 

 ^Yorks would be established. 



The same geographical causes which made Britain 

 part of the Eoman world naturally affected Sussex, as 

 one of its component portions. Even under the Empire, 

 however, the county remained singularly separate. The 

 Eomaus built two strong fortresses at Anderida and 

 Regnum, Pevensey and Chichester, to guard the two 

 Gwents or lowland plains, where the shore shelves 

 slowly to seaward ; and they ran one of their great roads 

 across the coastwise tract, from Dover to the Portus 

 Magnus (now Porchester), near Portsmouth; but they 

 left Sussex otherwise very much to its own devices. We 

 linow that the Kegni were still permitted to keep their 

 native chief, who probably exercised over his tribesmen 

 somewhat the same subordinate authority which a 

 liiijput raja now exercises under the British government. 



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