203 AN ENGLISH SHIRE. 



general run of European civilisation, and the old isolation 

 of Sussex was beginning to be broken down. Lying so 

 near the Continent, Sussex was naturally the landing- 

 place for an army coming from Normandy or Ponthieu. 

 William's fleet came ashore on the low coast at Pevensey. 

 Naturally he turned towards Hastings, whence a road 

 now led through the Weald to London. On the tall cliffs 

 he threw up an earthwork, and then marched towards 

 the great town. Harold's army met him on the heights 

 of Senlac, part of the solitary ridge between the marshes, 

 by which alone London could be reached. Harold fell 

 on the spot now marked by the ruined high altar of 

 Battle Abbey — a national monument at present in the 

 keeping of an English duke. Once the native army 

 was routed, William marched on resistlessly to London, 

 and Sussex and England were at his feet. 



The new feudal organisation of the county is doubtless 

 shadowed forth in the existing rapes. Of these there are 

 six, called respectively after Chichester, Arundel, Bram- 

 ber, Lewes, Pevensey, and Hastings. It will be noticed 

 at once that these were the seats of the new bishopric 

 and of the five great early castles. In one form or 

 another, more or less modernised, Arundel Castle, 

 Bramber Castle, Lewes Castle, Pevensey Castle, and 

 Hastings Castle all survive to our own day. In accor- 

 dance with their ordinary policy of removing cathedrals 

 from villages to chief towns, and so concentrating 

 the civil and ecclesiastical government, the Normans 

 brought the bishopstool from Selsea to Chichester. The 

 six rapes are fairly coincident — Chichester with the 

 marsh district ; Arundel with the dale of Arun ; Bramber 



