SUSSEX, a southern county of England, bounded north by Surrey, north-east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire. The area is 1,459.2 sq. miles. The county consists of the central and southern portion of the broad east to west dome of the Wealden anticline, and is very long (78 m.) in proportion to its breadth (28 m. at broadest). The dominant feature is the chalk of the South Downs (average height Soo ft., Ditchling Beacon Boo ft.) which cross the county in a west north-west to east-south-east direction, ending in bold cliffs at Beachy Head. Westward from this point the chalk forms the south coast, except that at Seaford there are outliers of Read ing beds and from South Lancing onwards the same beds extend as a thin belt into Hampshire, there to form the Hampshire basin. This belt lies a few miles from the coast, except south of Chi chester, where it broadens out and forms the low flat headland of Selsey Bill. East from Beachy Head, Wealden clay and Hast ings beds form the coast, but recent deposits round Winchelsea and Rye (members of the Cinque Ports and prominent in mediaeval trade) and Pevensey have cut these towns off from the sea. The South Downs dip gently southward, but form a steep escarpment to the north, where the upper formations of the anticline have been denuded, exposing in succession from south to north, gault and upper greensand, lower greensand, Wealden clay and Hastings beds, with small patches of Purbeck shale, and limestone with beds of gypsum lying west of Battle. The gault and upper greensand form a plain at the foot of the escarp ment, bounded north by the elevated ridge of the lower green sand, beyond which the Wealden clay and Hastings beds give rise to hill country known as the Forest Ridges (800 ft. near Crow borough), where rise many Sussex rivers. Of these, the Rother forms part of the Kent boundary and enters the sea below Rye; the Cuckmere rises near Heathfield (where also natural gas is found in the Lower, Wealden and Purbeck beds) ; the Ouse, the Adur and the Arun rise in the district of St. Leonard's forest, flow south and breach the chalk, having respectively as gap towns, Lewes, Steyning and Arundel, and as ports, Newhaven, Shore ham and Littlehampton.
The country north of the Downs was formerly covered with forest, but much wood was cut for export to the Low Countries as early as the 14th century, and for the Wealden iron industry, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries. The coast line of Sussex is long and exceedingly varied, and encroachment and erosion have taken place as well as accumulation. Old Win chelsea was submerged in the 13th century; the site of the ancient cathedral of Selsey is a mile out at sea; 5,500 ac. were
submerged between 1292 and 1340; early in the 14th century, Pagham harbour was formed by the sudden flooding of 2,700 ac., since reclaimed. The latest movement of the coast is probably one of slight elevation. The following changes have taken place at river mouths :—Prior to a great storm on Oct. 12, 125o, the Rother entered the sea 12 M. to the east; until 157o, the outlet of the Ouse was at Seaford; the Adur has frequently shifted its mouth. Submerged forests occur offshore. The shel tered coast has given rise to many watering-places:—Brighton, Hastings, Eastbourne, Bexhill, Seaford, Shoreham, Worthing, Littlehampton, Bognor.
History.—Sussex, with its long southern shore, supplying fish and salt, and dissected by mouths of clear rivers, with gravel lined valleys leading to sunny chalk slopes, was admirably suited to the needs of primitive man, and we have definite traces of him in Palaeolithic times, on the coast, e.g., near Worthing, East bourne, Brighton and Chichester, and in the valleys, especially of the Arun and western Rother. In Neolithic times these and similar sites were very important, as kitchen middens, tools, bones of animals, etc., abundantly prove. The Downs were also used. The flint mines of Cissbury are now generally ascribed to a late Neolithic date, though some students have dated them back to earlier times. The Bronze age finds (pottery, celts, etc.) show that the coastal regions (Worthing, Wilmington, Eastbourne, where gold bracelets, bronze swords, copper, etc., were found) were again used. The importance of Sussex continued, and the Iron age finds, though less numerous, show a high degree of culture, the gold ornaments from Mountfield being especially important. Objects of Sussex iron (hammer, plough-share, bill hook, etc.) found at Mount Caburn, point to an iron industry in pre-Roman times. The Long Man of Wilmington cut in the chalk is probably also of this period. That agriculture was prac tised by prehistoric man is also proved by the presence of numer ous lynchets and rectangular fields still traceable on the chalk slopes. Mr. Toms, of Brighton, has gathered evidence to show that the great earthwork at Cissbury is probably of British workman ship in the Roman period, and there are numerous other earth works in Sussex of early Iron age or Romano-British date. Ciss bury and Chanctonbury are in a "Worthing" group, while the Devil's Dyke and many others are in a Brighton group. Mount Caburn and several others are also well known.