To this day even, the greater part of the Weald
is down in park, copse, heath, forest, common, or marshland. Throughout
the whole expanse of the woodland region in Sussex, with the outlying
portions in Kent, Surrey, and Hants, Mr. Isaac Taylor has collected no
fewer than 299 local names with the significant forest terminations in
_hurst_, _den_, _ley_, _holt_, and _field_. These facts show that,
during the later 'Anglo-Saxon' period, the Weald was being slowly
colonised in a few favourable spots. Its use as a mark was now gone,
and it might be safely employed for the peaceful purposes of the archer
and the swineherd. Names referring to pasture and the wild beasts are
therefore common.
To the same time must doubtless be assigned the exact delimitation of
the Sussex frontiers. During the early periods, the Kentings, the
Suthrige, and the West Saxons would all extend on their side as far as
the Weald, which would be treated as a sort of neutral zone. But when
the Woodland itself began to be occupied, a demarcation would naturally
be made between the neighbouring provinces. The boundary follows the
most obvious course. It starts on the east from the old mouth of the
Rother (now diverted to Rye New Harbour), known as the Kent Ditch, in
what was then the central and most impassable part of the marshland. It
runs along the Rother to its bifurcation, and then makes for the
heaven-water-parting or dividing back of the Forest Ridge, beside two
or three lesser streams. Then it passes along the crest of the ridge
from Tunbridge Wells, past East Grinstead and Crawley, till it strikes
the Hampshire border. There it follows the line between the two
watersheds to the sea, which it reaches at Emsworth. There is, however,
one long insulated spur of Hampshire running down from Haslemere to
Graffham (in apparent defiance of geographical features), whose origin
and meaning I do not understand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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