On the Agricultural Geology of the Weald. 257 
bearing bed is as high as the well the water will rise near the 
surface, unless interfered with bj faults, or bj streams cutting 
down into the strata, and so lowering the water-level. This 
general principle is applicable to all districts in which alterna- 
tions of porous and retentive beds occur with a regular dip. 
Besides the sand beds, there are layers of limestone full of shells, 
known indifferently as Sussex, Petworth, or Bethersden marble. 
This stone was formerly often dug for ornamental purposes, and 
has been much used in church architecture. The fine tower of 
Tenterden Church ("Tenterden steeple" of the legend) is built of it. 
It is also used as pavement in the choir of Canterbury Cathedral. 
At present it is occasionally got for road-stones. I am not aware 
that it is ever now burnt for lime ; chalk-lime being universally 
in use throughout the Weald. To one other purpose it is applied 
— in forming paved paths by the sides of the roads in clay dis- 
tricts. Formerly these were the only channels of communication 
between places in winter ; the roads were often impassable, and 
goods were carried on pack-horses along the paths. In the clay 
districts of the Hastings Beds slabs of calcareous sandstone are 
often used for this purpose; and a somewha* similar bed, known 
as "Horsham Stone," is thus used around Horsham. 
Strange tales are told by old writers of the state of the Wealden 
roads. We read, not without slight incredulity, of heavy oak- 
timber being years performing the journey from the interior of 
the country to the river at Tunbridge. Macaulay adduces this 
district as an example of the bad state of inland communication, 
and relates that Prince George of Denmark, when journeying to 
Petworth in wet weather, " was six hours in going nine miles ; 
and it was necessary that a body of sturdy hinds should be on 
each side of his coach, in order to prop it. Of the carriages 
which conveyed his retinue several were upset and injured. A 
letter from one of his gentlemen-in-waiting has been preserved, 
in which the unfortunate courtier complains that, during fourteen 
hours, he never once alighted, except when his coach was over- 
turned or stuck fast in the mud."* More amusing, if less 
authentic, is the tradition which tells of Henry VIII. getting 
mired on the road to Hever, when visiting Anne Boleyn. 
The bad state of the Wealden roads in olden times was partly 
due to the heavy traffic to and from the ironworks, of which there 
were many in Kent and Surrey, but far more in Sussex. So great 
a nuisance had this traffic laecome, that Acts were passed in 
Elizabeth's reign, providing that all who used the roads for this 
purpose should carry materials for repairing the highways. 
Suitable stuff for road-mending was then hard to get, there 
* ' History of England,' vol. i., p. 373 (of 12th edition\ 
VOr,. VIIT. — S. S. S 
