KENT, a south-eastern county of England, bounded north by the Thames estuary, east and south-east by the English Channel, south-west by Sussex, and west by Surrey. In the north west the administrative county of London encroaches upon the ancient county of Kent, the area of which is 1,554.7 sq. miles. The county is divided from west to east by the chalk hills of the North downs, which near Westerham reach a height of over Boo ft but are lower towards the east. Towards the north the chalk is covered by the Eocene Woolwich beds and London clay, which dip towards the north. At three points the chalk downs have been cut right through by rivers. In the west the Darent, flowing to join the Thames at Dartford, pierces the hills north of Sevenoaks. The Medway, after traversing the Vale of Kent, composed mainly of Weald clay, forces its way through the downs near Maidstone to enter the Thames at Chatham. In the east the Stour cuts its way through the downs between Ashford and Canterbury. The isles of Sheppey and Grain are formed of clay beds and alluvium; the former is divided from the mainland by the Swale (bridged at Queensbridge) and the latter by a branch of the Medway. Along the banks of the Thames the coast is allu vial and generally low and marshy, embankments being in several places necessary to prevent inundation. At a few points, however, as at Gravesend, spurs of the North downs descend directly upon the shore.
In the estuary of the Medway there are a number of low marshy islands, but Sheppey, with its clay beds along the north coast, presents to the sea a range of slight cliffs. The marshes extend along the Swale to Whitstable, whence stretches a low line of clay and sandstone cliffs towards the Isle of Thanet, a chalk outlier, when they become lofty and grand, extending round the Foreland southward to Pegwell bay. The coast from Sheppey round to the South Foreland is skirted by numerous flats and sands, the most extensive of which are the Goodwin sands off Deal. The whole valley of the Stour and the depression from Sarre to Reculver is composed of alluvium, and marks the course of the channel (Wantsume) which used to separate Thanet from the mainland. South of Deal the coast rises again into chalk cliffs, the eastward termination of the North downs. These cliffs continue round the South Foreland to Folkestone, where they fall away, and are succeeded west of Sandgate by a flat, shingly shore. To the south of Hythe this shore borders the wide expanse of Romney marsh, which, immediately west of Hythe, is over looked by a line of abrupt hills, but for the rest is divided on the north from the drainage system of the Stour only by a slight uplift. Between Folkestone and Hythe, gault and lower green sand emerge from beneath the chalk, and these formations run across the county to Westerham as a band of varying width. To the south of Sevenoaks the lower greensand forms the Rag stone ridge, over 600 ft. high.
Romney marsh, drained by many channels, seldom rises over a dozen feet above sea-level. At its south-eastern extremity, and at the extreme south of the county, is the shingly promontory of Dungeness. Within historic times much of this marsh was covered by the sea, and the valley of the river Rother, which forms part of the boundary of Kent with Sussex, entering the sea at Rye harbour, was represented by a tidal estuary for a consid erable distance inland.
The south-west of the county is crossed by a line of hills, the continuation of the Forest ridge of Sussex, which have a height varying from 200 ft. to 500 feet. These hills consist of the Has
tings beds, which are the oldest rock formations in the county.
History and Early Settlement.—Ightham was the scene of the work of Benjamin Harrison, who claimed to find implements of pre-Palaeolithic (Eolithic) type in the plateau gravels. It is widely, though not universally agreed, that many of the flints he found are human artefacts of a very rough type, their age is a subject of much discussion. Palaeolithic implements have been found chiefly in the river gravels. The number of Neolithic artefacts found in the county may be taken to suggest that towards the dawn of the age of metal, Kent already had a consid erable population. Beaker pottery is of some importance and the megaliths near the Medway entry may have kinship with those of Holland. The links of the county at that stage were clearly with the Continental shores of the North sea. In the later Bronze age these were as clearly with Gaul, as they were also in the later centuries of the ist millennium B.C. and the immigrants kept up contact with the Continent. From Caesar we know that they worked some of the Wealden iron mines and corn was widely grown. Kent was the Roman gateway into Britain, and along the coast they developed a number of ports. The focus behind the ports was what has become Canterbury (q.v.), and from here Watling street ran in the direction of Rochester and London, while the Pilgrims' Way of the middle ages, along the line of the downs, in all probability had a prehistoric predecessor. The chief ports on and near the straits included Regulbium (Reculver), Rutupiae (Richborough), Dubrae (Dover), and Portus Lemanis (Lympne). (For the history of Kent in Anglo-Saxon times see KENT (kingdom) just preceding this article.) Kent is remarkable as the only English county which comprises two entire bishoprics, Canterbury, the see for East Kent, having been founded in 597, and Rochester, the see for West Kent, in 600. In 1291 the archdeaconries were co-extensive with the dio cesan boundaries, but in 1845 the new archdeaconry of Maid stone was formed out of that of Rochester. The shire organiza tion of Kent dates from the time of Aethelstan, the name as well as the boundary being that of the ancient kingdom. The inland boundary has varied with the course of the Rother. In 1888 the county was diminished by the formation of the county of London. At the time of the Domesday survey Kent comprised 6o hun dreds, and there was a further division into six leets, probably representing the shires of the ancient kingdom. The five modern lathes (Aylesford, St. Augustine, Scray, Sheppey and Sutton-at Hone), all existed in the time of Edward I., with the additional lathe of Hedeling, which was absorbed before the next reign in that of St. Augustine. The Nomina Villarum of the reign of Ed ward II. mentions all the 66 modern hundreds, more than two thirds of which were at that date in the hands of the Church. Sheriffs of Kent are mentioned in the time of Aethelred II and in Saxon times the shiremoot met three times a year on Penenden heath, near Maidstone. Four of the Cinque Ports, viz., Dover, Hythe, New Romney and Sandwich, belonged to this county. The assizes for the county were held in the reign of Henry III. at Canterbury and Rochester, and also at the Lowey of Tonbridge under a mandate from the Crown as a distinct liberty; since the Restoration they have been held at Maidstone.