The history, archæology, and natural history of the county have been thoroughly treated by various writers; but there are, I have noticed, fewer books than there should be upon Sussex men and women. Carlyle's saying that every clergyman should write the history of his parish (which one might amend to the history of his parishioners) has borne too little fruit in our district; nor have lay observers arisen in any number to atone for the shortcoming. And yet Sussex must be as rich in good character, pure, quaint, shrewd, humorous or noble, as any other division of England. In the matter of honouring illustrious Sussex men and women, the late Mark Antony Lower played his part with _The Worthies of Sussex_, and Mr. Fleet with _Glimpses of Our Sussex Ancestors_; but the Sussex "Characters," where are they? Who has set down their "little unremembered acts," their eccentricities, their sterling southern tenacities? The Rev. A. D. Gordon wrote the history of Harting, and quite recently the Rev. C. N. Sutton has published his interesting _Historical Notes of Withyham, Hartfield, and Ashdown Forest_; and there may be other similar parish histories which I am forgetting. But the only books that I have seen which make a patient and sympathetic attempt to understand the people of Sussex are Mr. Parish's _Dictionary_, Mr. Egerton's _Sussex Folk and Sussex Ways_, and "John Halsham's" _Idlehurst_. How many rare qualities of head and heart must go unrecorded in rural England. I have to thank my friend Mr. C. E. Clayton for his kindness in reading the proofs of this book and in suggesting additions. E. V. L. _December 12, 1903._ P.S.--The sheets of the one-inch ordnance map of Sussex are fourteen in all, their numbers running thus: _________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | 300 | 301 | 302 | 303 | 304 | | Alresford | Haslemere | Horsham | T. Wells | Tenterden | |___________|___________|_________|__________|___________| | | | | | | | 316 | 317 | 318 | 319 | 320 | | Fareham |Chichester |Brighton | Lewes | Hastings | |___________|___________|_________|__________|___________| | | | | | | 331 | 332 | 333 | 334 | |Portsmouth | Bognor | Worthing|Eastbourne| |___________|___________|_________|__________| PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION In the present edition a number of small errors have been corrected and a new chapter amplifying certain points and supplying a deficit here and there has been added. The passage about Stane Street is reprinted from the _Times Literary Supplement_ by kind permission. E. V. L. _April 20, 1904_ CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I