xii INTEODUOTION. 



six hundred feet, at Beachy Head, or, as it was formerly 

 spelt, Beauchef Head, and indeed it well deserves this 

 appellation. Here the cliflFs terminate abruptly, and Peven-^ 

 sey Level continues till beyond Hastings, the sandy cliffs 

 there being low and gradually falling to the Levels of 

 Rye and Winchelsea. Westward of Brighton the coast is 

 level and somewhat flat, and so continues to the border 

 of Hants. 



Of the Rivers of Sussex, none of which are of any size, 

 beginning from the east, we have the Rother, which rises 

 in the parish of Rotherfield, and, passing Mayfield, receives 

 a small tributary from Wadhurst, and flowing by Etching- 

 ham and Salehurst, enters Kent, and returning to Sussex, 

 south of the Isle of Oxney, expands into an estuary, and 

 falls into the sea about two miles south-east of the town of 

 Rye. The Cuckmere, rising not far from Heathfield, forms 

 near its mouth a narrow tract of level country, which seems 

 particularly attractive to Wildfowl in the winter, the sea 

 there being somewhat sheltered by cliffs, enabling them to 

 spend their days upon the water in comparative quietude, 

 the grassy marshes affording convenient feeding-places by 

 night. The Ouse rises partly near Slaugham, on the 

 borders of St. Leonard's Forest, and partly near Worth, and 

 uniting its streams, meanders eastward through a well- 

 wooded and cultivated tract of country, and receiving 

 several inconsiderable affluents, passes through the exten- 

 sive Levels of Lewes to the sea at Newhaven. 



The springs of the Adur (profanely called the Weald 

 Ditch) rise under the Downs, near Clayton, and joining two 

 small streams from Bolney and Cuckfield, near the bridge 

 at Wyndham, it proceeds to Mock Bridge, there receiving 

 another tributary from the Leach Pond in St. Leonard's 

 Forest, and all flow together to Eaton's Farm, in the parish 

 of Henfield, where a branch falls in, which, rising near 



