14 GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE 



11. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE SOUTH-EASTERN DIVISION 



OF SUSSEX. 



Sussex is a maritime county, bordered on the west by Hampshire, on 

 the north by Surrey, on the east and north-east by Kent, and on the 

 south by the British Channel*. 



The strata of which it is composed, form three principal groups, each 

 possessing characters that materially affect the geographical features of 

 the county, and present a striking instance of the intimate relation that 

 exists between the physical appearance of the surface of the earth, and 

 its geological structure. The popular division of this tract into the 

 Downs, Weald, and Forest-Ridge, may therefore be considered as 

 sufficiently correct and comprehensive for our present purpose, since it is 

 descriptive of the external characters of the district, and is agreeable to 

 the natural arrangement of the strata. 



The Downs f are a chain of hills covered with a fine verdant turf, 

 possessing in a striking degree that smoothness and regularity of outhne, 

 for wliich the mountain masses of the chalk formation, are so remarkable. 

 Commencing with the bold promontory of Beachy-Head, they traverse the 

 county in a direction nearly east and west, and pass into Hampshire near 



* " Northernmost point 5ZacA;-Corwer, N. lat. 51° 9'. — 48' long. W. of Greenwich. 

 Southernmost . . Selsey Bill, N. lat. 50" 43'— 47' W. long. 

 Easternmost . . Kent Wall, N. lat. 50" 56'— 49' E. long. 

 Westernmost . . Stansted Pari:, N. lat. 50" 53'— 58' W. long. 

 Dallaway's History of the Western Division of the County of Sussex, 4to. 1815, vol. i. p. 5. 



f " Though I have now travelled the Sussex Downs upwards of thirty years, yet I still 

 investigate that chain of majestic mountains with fresh admiration, year by year. This range, 

 which runs from Chichester east as far as Eastbourne, is about sixty miles in length, and is 

 called the South Downs, properly speaking, only round Lewes." Natural History of Selbourne, 

 1802, p. 276. 



